Customer Reviews

The Year of the Tiger

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A couple of days before his retirement, Paul Chavasse was approached by a Tibetan monk requesting information on an extremely classified operation he had carried out in 1962, smuggling a brilliant mathematician out of communist Chinese occupied Tibet.

As he recalled his adventure, readers would see Paul Chavasse, who had 3 years before successfully smuggled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet, return in order to extract a 70-year old sickly mathematician. His mission almost ended the moment it began, running into a group of Chinese soldiers and Russian journalist who happened to be passing by as he landed in the remote wilderness of Tibet. His mission was made even harder with the presence of a beautiful Russian house helper Katya in the home of the mathematician, and the relentless diabolically shrewd Colonel Li, commander of the regional Chinese garrison.

Betrayal, torture, deception met Chavasse at every turn. How was he going to return with a sickly geriatric over such long distances of inhospitable terrain at Himalayan altitudes ?

Readers may not get a treat of how harshly beautiful Tibet is, but there is no shortage of excitement as Chavasse fought to remain true to his mission. Unlike other books where the adversaries are depicted rather one-dimensionally, Colonel Li posed as a most worthy foe, Jack Higgins being able to portray him as having realistic mind of his own.

Paul Chavasse has had a long and distinguished career in British intelligence. He is literally on the eve of his retirement when two rather remarkable events occur in rapid succession. He is approached, in person, by none other than Prime Minister John Major who begs him to stay on. Then he receives an unexpected visit from a robed Buddhist monk who engages him in conversation about a harrowing adventure he had in Tibet over 30 years before.

The story of that remote adventure provides the bulk of the narrative to Year of the Tiger by Jack Higgins. Told in the third person though from Chavasse's point of view, this is a fast paced tale with plenty of action and a number of unexpected twists.

The year is 1962 and Chavasse is called upon to rescue an Albert Schweitzer like doctor who is under house arrest in Chinese occupied Tibet. Chavasse defies all the odds as he struggles to get the elderly humanitarian and his beautiful housekeeper across the border to the safety of Kashmir. Not only must he overcome the brutally harsh and thin aired Tibetan terrain, he must also outsmart the thoroughly malevolent Colonel Li and the soldiers in his command.

Though the plotting is rather far fetched, I found Year of the Tiger to be a pretty good action-adventure novel. A 4 star effort, recommended to readers who enjoy fast paced action with a few surprises along the way.

This book is basically a rewrite of an earlier book by Higgins. it features one of his early heroes Paul Chavasse, a British agent. Paul has smuggled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet and must go back to get a Russian space scientist. I found the book very similar in tone to the Quiller series by Adam Hall. Excellent 60s style espionage tale.

Surprises in every chapter in this book! un-down-putable!

You can read this if you are a fan of Higgins, a speed reader, or you just have nothing else to do, but I'd recommend you do something else with your time. I did lend it to a friend, however, who loved it. The plot and setting are adequate, but nothing too exciting.