Firewall

I've recently gotten hooked on the brilliant Nick Stone series, so I'm going back and re-reading the early books that I first read 15 or 20 years ago. The third installment, Firewall, was published in 2000, back when the internet was still a wild frontier where new empires were being built and Russian organized crime was the global menace of the day. As a successful but slightly shady internet entrepreneur who travelled through Finland, Eastern Europe, Russia and London during the wild ride of those years, the locations, characters and technologies in this novel stirred up memories of some of the best times of my life.

Anyway, as Firewall opens, Nick Stone is on a job in Helsinki, about to kidnap a Russian mafia boss and escort him across the border to St. Petersburg where he'll receive a cool 300k dollars for his trouble. Unfortunately, his crew consists of some rather effed-up characters, and the op soon goes sideways in a most violent and frenetic manner. Things don't turn out as planned, but Stone does get a new job offer, which involves penetrating a high security home in rural Finland surrounded by a 40 foot high fence where some hacker-types have some data on their computers that Stone's new employers desperately want. This will be a fully criminal job for the Russian mob, but Nick is desperate for money because the bills at the high-priced clinic where his catatonic adopted daughter Kelly is being treated are piling up, so lacking any other options, he quickly accepts.

As the mission is hastily prepared, Nick brings in an associate from Remote Control named Tom to handle the hacker side of things, while Nick will take care of the tough-guy commando stuff. Their handler in Finland is a beautiful and mysterious blonde mafia moll named Liv, who acquires all the equipment Nick requests for the penetration and hacking job. As Nick prepares various special tools and makes his infiltration plan, Tom is busy trying to penetrate the firewall that the Finnish hackers have put around their network at the target home. Unfortunately the mission again goes badly sideways, as Tom is not cut out for the physical side of the op, violent new American players appear on the scene, and Nick has to make a daring escape.

This leads into the novel's second and potentially even more lucrative set-piece mission, which involves the sabotage of another hacker compound way out in the Estonian countryside. Apparently the technology the mafia is after can access the notorious ECHELON global surveillance network run by the NSA, which would give them vast power to expand their criminal empire. Now they want to destroy the whole installation to prevent a rival mafia group from using it against them. But first, Nick has to survive muggings and deal with some nasty Estonian thugs, who are his only contacts for the weapons he needs for the job.This mission was the highlight of the novel for me. McNab, calling on his expertise as a former SAS commando, provides a very detailed and believable account of Stone's preparation of the explosives, his stealth approach to the compound, and his laying of the charges in a precise way so as to maximize damage to the target. Not only was this dramatic reading, but it was like a free course in sabotage by an expert!

As usual with Stone's missions though, this one doesn't go smoothly, and Stone and an associate soon find themselves having to flee cross-country through a snowstorm in brutal winter cold. Here McNab's survival expertise is showcased, as Stone not only has to improvise a compass to hold a direction in the white-out conditions, but keep himself and his partner alive as hypothermia starts to set in. The novel ends with a twist or two that are, as usual, not very happy ones for Nick.

Firewall was another brilliant and exciting adventure in the Nick Stone saga. This installment was particularly action-packed, and the focus on the missions rather than Nick's personal drama with Kelly was a welcome change from other books. I also liked the setting: the decaying, corrupt world of post-Soviet eastern Europe and the bleak northern European winters were familiar from my own travels decades ago, and perfect operational environments for the bleak and cynical Stone.

Now that I've read six or seven of these books, I can confidently say that Nick Stone belongs up there with Quiller and Parker as one of my absolute favorite shadow-fiction series of all time. Nick isn't a particularly likeable character—he's a bit whiny and lacks the stoic appeal of other shadow warriors—but his adventures have such an edge of realism and intensity, so many authentic details from McNab's background as an SAS man, such gripping story-telling and timely plotting, that I find myself wanting to read them one after the other and get lost in Nick Stone's shadowy, action-packed world.

Get a copy of Firewall here.

The Shadow in the Sea

Like the the previous book I reviewed, The Shadow in the Sea is an obscure Cold War spy thriller from the early 1970s about a Soviet super-weapon and a daring mission to infiltrate Soviet territory to investigate and sabotage it. Written by the forgotten Welsh author Owen John and published in 1972, this is the fifth novel in John's series about Scottish super-spy Haggai Godin. No suave James Bond knock-off or grim Quiller-like killer, Godin is a giant oddball of a man who eats to excess, loves brandy, laughs often and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of everything related to his profession. The son of a Russian émigré, he speaks Russian like a native and is a master of disguise and social manipulation.

The first thing that grabbed me about this book is the cover. The beautiful illustration, of a man dangling from a rope just below the edge of a cliff, a grappling hook barely holding him, rifle strapped across his back, with a huge, menacing submarine lurking in the sea far below, is the kind of classic men's adventure cover art that Fawcett Gold Medal paperbacks were famous for. If you like this kind of artwork, browse all the Gold Medal covers by clicking the book numbers on the left side of this page.

As Shadow opens, a lighthouse operator reports seeing a huge black submarine briefly surface off the coast of Wales. Based on the unusual description and the fact that British Intelligence thought they had accounted for the whereabouts of the entire Soviet fleet, this leads to concern that the Soviets have a new sub prowling around U.K. waters of an unknown design. To solve the mystery, the agency's top operative, the ultra-confident and -competent Haggai Godin, volunteers to undertake an infiltration mission into northwest Russia to investigate a submarine base and find out what's going on. Accompanying Godin as usual will be super-spook Colonel Mason of the CIA.

The dynamic duo infiltrates Soviet waters by fishing trawler from Norway, Mason hiding the boat in fjords to avoid Soviet patrols while Godin goes ashore alone to reconnoiter the base. Godin's first challenge is to climb the four hundred foot cliff (!) up from the sea pictured on the cover, which he does by firing a grappling hook attached to very long rope over the cliff edge, then climbing without any special gear—just sheer strength and willpower. It's an exciting scene, but one which let me know early on that this wouldn't be a highly realistic espionage adventure.

Godin dons the winter uniform of a Soviet soldier and proceeds east toward Murmansk by bus, using his genius for disguise and socializing to gain information and blend in with the locals. So bold and confident is Godin that he prefers to draw attention to himself, using his mastery of "yo-nin" overt infiltration to walk right into the base, rather than "in-nin" covert creeping around in the shadows. Without providing any spoilers, let's just say that the way Godin infiltrates the base and gets information about the top secret sub is rather far-fetched, but entertaining. He does manage to discover the nature of the sub and the insidious mission it is embarked on.

The most tense and exciting part of the novel was Godin's escape from the naval base and exfiltration from Soviet territory. Walking many miles cross-country in the bitter cold of a Siberian winter, evading security forces, attacking them only when necessary, using deception to get assistance from local villagers—I like how Godin applies the "make war by way of deception" motto of real spooks and ninjas, rather than taking on large armed forces single-handedly and defeating them without taking a scratch in the manner of Mack Bolan and other over-the-top shadow warriors. While Godin's methods weren't always totally believable, and he was a bit too confident and competent for real life, they didn't quite turn the book into a cartoon for adults like some men's adventure/espionage series.

Meanwhile back in the UK/USA, spooks are working overtime to decode intercepted signals to and from the sub, and a desperate strategem is devised to attempt to avert the dastardly intentions of the vessel. I won't say any more, except that, like The Tashkent Crisis, the climax was a bit of a letdown compared to the infiltration and exfiltration scenes, and the super-weapon seemed a bit science-fictional and far-fetched for 1972.

All in all, this was an entertaining but not stellar read. I may try more Haggai Godin novels if I run across them, but I probably won't go out of my way to acquire them. Recommended for fans of old-school spy/adventure fiction.

Get a copy of The Shadow in the Sea here.

The Tashkent Crisis

The Tashkent Crisis, published in 1971 and written by William Craig, is an obscure Cold War thriller that brings to mind classic Alistair MacLean adventures of the 1960s and Tom Clancy "techno-thrillers" of the 1980s. Based on a few positive online reviews and a cover blurb by Donald Hamilton, I picked up the hardback for six bucks and gave it a quick read.

As the novel opens, an American scholar on his way to the Moscow airport is approached by a Russian journalist, given a package and implored to deliver it to an old friend in the State Department. The American doesn't know it, but the package contains technical documents describing a devastating new Soviet weapon system, the existence of which Washington only dimly suspects. Apparently the Soviets have successfully tested an energy weapon that will enable them to incinerate any city on the planet at will. To make matters worse, a hardline general has covertly seized power in Moscow and is preparing to force America's surrender by demonstrating the awesome power of the new death ray. He soon issues an ultimatum to the President: surrender to Soviet forces in 72 hours, or Washington D. C. will be annihilated.

Desperate for an alternative to surrender or mutual nuclear destruction, the President authorizes a seemingly suicidal sabotage mission into the heart of Soviet Asia to destroy the secret weapon before it destroys them. A four-person team is quickly assembled, consisting of a bad-ass Russian-speaking Green Beret of Czech heritage, a KGB defector who had plastic surgery and is now working for the CIA, an ex-Soviet tank commander with experience running cells behind the iron curtain, and a five foot tall Jewish female assassin who grew up near Tashkent.

The sabotage mission was the heart of the story, and the most exciting part by far. The quick assembling of the team; the stealth, low-altitude insertion by helicopter from Pakistan over the Hindu Kush mountains into Uzbekistan; the tense jeep ride across the steppe, dressed as Soviet soldiers, to the vicinity of the secret base; the hideout at the ruined mosque; the intrigue as a traitor in their midst is revealed; the scouting of the secret base; the desperate attempt to complete the sabotage mission despite heavy security—while it's highly implausible that such a mission would be attempted on such short notice with such a team, it made for a gripping tale.

Meanwhile in D.C., the president masterminds a grand deception that involves setting off natural gas explosions throughout D.C. to provide cover for his emergency evacuation of the city, while Soviet provocateurs manage to convince anti-war protestors that the president is on the verge of launching an all-out nuclear attack on Russia. The ultra-hawk Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is pushing for a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Tashkent base, there is still no word from the sabotage team, and the President, under intense pressure from all sides, holds the fate of America and the world in his hands.

It was fascinating to read how many of the American political divisions described in this book are still going strong after more than 50 years, as well as the international tensions. While this is definitely a snapshot of America in the early 1970s, with an unpopular war winding down, war-hawks rattling sabers and anxious to prove that the military can still win, paranoia about mutually-assured mass destruction, governments deceiving their populations and protestors being manipulated by shadowy powers, in many ways it is still very relevant to our time.

This was a good read, but I think it would've been even better as a more streamlined men's adventure novel focused on the sabotage mission, with less of the political intrigues, drama with the protestors, government cover-ups, etc. Also, the Soviet death ray and the weapon the saboteurs brought to destroy it both seemed rather unrealistic and science-fictional, and took me out of the story a bit.

Apparently Craig only wrote one more novel, which is surprising because this was an entertaining debut effort that, despite some far-fetched elements, had all the ingredients of a successful espionage thriller. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Get a copy of The Tashkent Crisis here.

The Peking Target

After the over-the-top novel Chant, I was in the mood for something more realistic and better written, but with many of the same elements: 1980s action, a sinister Eastern mystic, martial arts assassins, and an ultra-skilled Western shadow warrior who takes them on. The Peking Target, published in 1982, fit the bill nicely; it's the tenth installment in the brilliant Quiller series by Elleston Trevor (writing as Adam Hall).

As the story opens, "shadow executive" Quiller is watching a body being fished out of the Thames river, which we learn is that of a fellow Bureau operative who had just arrived from Peking with a most urgent and sensitive message for his superiors. Unfortunately, the agent was murdered on his way from the airport and his secret message died with him. Quiller himself is nearly killed when a car rams him as he's leaving the murder scene. It's apparent that something very sinister is going on in Peking, which someone is willing to kill British agents on their home soil to protect. So the Bureau sends Quiller, still banged up from the hit attempt, to China to investigate.

The assassinations escalate dramatically after Quiller arrives in Peking under cover as a security man for the British delegation. The British Secretary of State is blown sky high right next to Quiller during the funeral of the Chinese premiere, his body absorbing the blast and saving the agent from serious injury. Then the American ambassador is taken out, and Quiller evades another murder attempt on the street—only his superior martial arts skill saving him from death at the hands of his skilled assailant. Two more agents are killed just before Quiller can get the information they had about the assassins, one found dead in the coils of his own pet boa constrictor. While all this is going on, Quiller learns that a mysterious figure named Tung Kuo-feng is involved—a Triad leader who commands a team of elite assassins but whose whereabouts is unknown. After the beautiful Li-fei is sent to kill Quiller, thinking that he killed her brother, a Triad assassin, Quiller learns that Tung is holed up in a former monastery on a mountain in a remote part of South Korea.

The novel shifts into overdrive for the final third as Quiller begins his set piece mission: to air-drop near the mountain before dawn, make his way stealthily to the monastery, infiltrate the grounds, take out Kuo-feng and get out without getting killed by his retinue of assassins. It's a tall order, but Quiller is the late 20th century British equivalent of a ninja, so if anyone can do it he can! The mission is further complicated by the assignment of a female guide who is a skydiving expert, mountaineer and fluent Korean speaker, as Quiller normally works alone. As usual with Quiller missions, things go sideways almost immediately and the executive is forced to improvise. Without providing too many spoilers, Quiller faces some brutal adversity but manages to get to the monastery, where he discovers that other world powers are involved who are using the assassinations to spread chaos for a nefarious geopolitical purpose.

This was probably the most fast-paced, action-packed Quiller installment I've read. Quiller is a real ninja in this one, who showcases his impressive range of skills: he kills men with his bare hands (he never carries a gun), evades pursuers by floating under debris on a river, air-drops into enemy territory by night, evades and ambushes a sniper, sends cleverly coded messages to deceive his captors, escapes a cell, sneaks around a well-guarded enemy compound, creates a diversionary explosion, flies a helicopter, and gets into an incredible mental battle with Kuo-fong in which the Triad leader showcases his impressive "ki" powers to try to control Quiller. Though never cartoonish, this one is slightly over the top by Trevor's standards. I suspect he was influenced by the success of Eric van Lustbader's blockbuster 1980 novel The Ninja and similar works of that era, and decided to turn up the ninja elements in this one. There was something in the zeitgeist of the early 1980s that produced a lot of great spy/assassin/ninja thrillers, and this is another one to add to the list. Great read.

Get a copy of The Peking Target here.

Circus

Alistair  MacLean is one of the greats of old-school adventure fiction and one of the best-selling authors of all time. Though most of his novels involve shadow operations of some kind, I've found them a bit less compelling than those of his fellow great, Jack Higgins, and haven't read too many. I recently picked up MacLean's 1975 novel, Circus, which combines a "mission impossible"-style op with Cold War espionage, and gave it a quick read.

The story's protagonist is Bruno Wildermann, a superstar trapeze performer, tightrope walker and mentalist. Bruno is an immigrant to America from an undisclosed eastern European communist country where members of his family were killed by the regime. Not only can he perform seemingly superhuman feats of balance and agility on the high-wire, but he has a photographic memory. This makes him the perfect candidate for a daring CIA operation: to penetrate a top-secret laboratory in Bruno's homeland where a scientist is developing a devastating anti-matter weapon, take "mental photographs" of the technical documents contained therein and then destroy them.

The first part of the novel sets up the operation, as we're introduced to Bruno, some of his talented circus mates--including the strongman Kan Dahn, the knife-thrower Manuelo and the lasso-master Roebuck--and his CIA handlers, which includes the beautiful Maria, whose role is apparently to look pretty, admire Bruno and occasionally get hysterical. A couple of murders early on let us know that treacherous parties have infiltrated the circus and are on the scent of the CIA plot.

Things start to get interesting around 100 pages in, as Bruno is finally let in on the details of the mission he is being asked to undertake. He's to infiltrate the Lubylan laboratory and prison facility where the scientist works and lives. There's a power line stretching from a power station 300 yards away to the top of the Lubylan building, which Bruno is to walk across without getting fried by the 2000 volts of electricity. If he manages that, he then needs to get into the building without getting shot by guards or eaten by killer Doberman Pinscher guard dogs. His challenge is nicely illustrated in a two-page schematic at the beginning of the book:

As the circus sails across the Atlantic and rolls toward the target country the intrigue ramps up: spies are killed, sleeping compartments are bugged, shady characters are seen tailing Bruno and his mates, and a nasty secret police chief named Colonel Sergius learns of Bruno's scheme and schemes to take him down. Meanwhile, Maria's cover as Bruno's love interest begins to get all too real--a corny romantic sub-plot that I could have done without.

Finally they get to the destination, where Bruno, who has more skills than you would expect of a trapeze artist, pulls off an absurd deception to fool Sergius and throw him off his trail. Then Bruno and his three circus mates undertake the audacious heist, each using his particular skills to climb, walk, rope, knife and muscle their way into the building. This was definitely the novel's highlight, though the realism was a bit lacking; Bruno and his crew subdue the guards and get inside too easily to make it a really tense scene.

But all of this is just a setup for what MacLean really excels at: not Shadow Op believability, but plot twists, treachery and shock endings. Without spoiling it for you, let's just say that there are traitors close to Bruno, surprise guests in the Lubylan building, and Bruno's operation and he himself are not as they appear to be. It's all a bit too much, like a murder mystery where you're not entirely clued in and everything ends too tidily to be believable. My other criticism is that MacLean doesn't bother giving his characters different voices and personalities; they all speak like cynical Oxford-educated Englishmen, including the Eastern European immigrant Bruno and the American CIA men.

It's too bad, because MacLean had a clever "Mission Impossible" story idea here, the execution was just a bit lacking. This is probably why I haven't read many of his novels and prefer Jack Higgins, though I understand that MacLean's best work came years earlier. It wasn't a bad novel, just very old-school and not as good as it could have been. Get a copy of Circus here.

100 Megaton Kill

After the rather subdued, cerebral novel of my previous review, I was in the mood for some good old pulpy spy-adventure fiction, and I found just the ticket on my bookshelf: 100 Megaton Kill, by Ralph Hayes. Published in 1975, it's the first in a series of six novels about "Check Force": an unlikely pair of spies who team up to take down a sinister global cabal.

That this was not going to be a highly realistic novel of shadow warfare was made clear at the outset, when a bad guy, having nearly killed a secretary who surprised him while he was burgling some documents after-hours, decides that the expedient thing to do is to feed her body into a paper shredder. It's apparently a very heavy-duty paper shredder, though he acts surprised when there's a lot of blood and he has a little trouble with the job. And when he's confronted a few minutes later by a co-worker, instead of killing him so there's no witnesses, he plays it cool and claims he just saw two strangers leave the office, then proceeds to throw paper shreds over the human hamburger, wipe off his fingerprints and pretend like nothing happened. This is the kind of zany stuff that makes men's adventure fiction from that era so much fun!

The spared witness turns out to be Alexander Chane, an ace agent and crack shooter who was already thinking about leaving the Agency due to its corrupt and war-mongering ways. When Chane's boss tries to frame Chane for the gruesome office killing, and Chane learns that the boss is connected to a mysterious conspiracy called "Force III" that involves Russian missile bases, Chane goes on the run from the Agency until he can sort everything out. Meanwhile, a top Russian agent named Vladimir Karlov has defected from the KGB for similar reasons as Chane and is hiding out in the British embassy in Paris.

The globe-trotting action is fast and furious from here on out. Karlov is attacked in Paris, Chane in New York, and both flee to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to hide out. Realizing that they have no allies and a common enemy in Force III, the two join forces to defeat the cabal. More assassins show up, more information about the conspiracy is uncovered, and Chane even finds time for meaningless sex with two horny hotties, because it's 1975 and it's a men's adventure novel, so why the hell not? The action then shifts to Russia, where the dynamic duo have to infiltrate a missile base to stop a Force III agent from launching a devastating thermonuclear ICBM attack on New York City. This was easily the highlight of the book; the way Karlov infiltrates the base and the dramatic scene at the missile silo was tense, exciting and almost believable.

We also go inside a few meetings of Force III, who, like any self-respecting evil cabal, have a massive secret complex from which they're plotting world domination. Their base is underground in the Argentinian outback, where they're working to unleash nuclear terror on the USA and trigger World War III. Their leader is a nasty Nazi-like character named General Streicher, whose junta has recently taken over Argentina. The Brazilian President, the Chilean Defense minister, a Greek shipping magnate and a very rich Arab are also involved. While this all sounds very cartoonish, it may have been inspired by a real conspiracy called Operation Condor that was going on in South America at the time. The novel's climax takes place at this complex, and the ending strongly suggests that Force III is not defeated, but like SPECTRE will return to haunt the world and our protagonists again soon.

100 Megaton Kill reminds me of a Robert Ludlum story stripped down to its essentials and told in 200 pages instead of 600. In particular, it brings to mind Ludlum's 1979 novel The Matarese Circle, with its idea of an American and a Russian intelligence officer teaming up against a third global force that is sabotaging both sides and trying to provoke world war; it also has (pre-)echoes of The Bourne Identity and The Aquitaine Progression. While I rather doubt that Ludlum read this novel, for me it shows that he was really just a puffed-up pulp/men's adventure novelist who somehow became a mega best-seller.

Anyway, this was a fun, quick read. It's not going to win any literary awards, but if you like Nick Carter/Mack Bolan style men's adventures and aren't overly concerned with realism, there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy this one. It's also apparently a collectible, judging by the price in excess of $50 on the used market (I lucked out and got it as part of a large lot at a buck a book). And note the cover, a masterpiece of 1970s men's adventure pulp--I'll be damned if the villain isn't a dead ringer for Laurence Olivier/Szell from Marathon Man.

Get a copy of 100 Megaton Kill here.

The Mandarin Cypher

The Mandarin Cypher is the sixth book in the brilliant "Quiller" series by Elleston Trevor (writing as Adam Hall). Quiller is a "shadow executive" who takes on dangerous missions for a deep black agency within the British government known only as "the Bureau". Quiller is basically a Cold War British ninja: expert martial artist, driver, pilot, scuba diver; adept at secret communications, stealth and spycraft.

In many ways Quiller is the anti-Bond and anti-Helm. Almost monk-like in his pursuit of shadow op perfection, he doesn't gratuitously womanize, drink, or lose his temper; he's always highly technical, introspective and controlled on his assignments. Where James Bond is a stylish playboy, Quiller is an introverted geek; where Matt Helm can be a cowboy and a thug, Quiller is a model of forbearance and professionalism. He's like a spy version of Donald Westlake's "Parker" character: a "grey man" with little personality or personal baggage; all business, totally focused, disciplined and stoic during ops, and absolutely formidable at his chosen profession. The major difference being that Parker is a criminal out entirely for himself, whereas Quiller is a Queen and Bureau man who has to play by other people's rules.

In this installment, Quiller is sent to Hong Kong to investigate the death of a fellow agent in a supposed fishing accident. Quiller quickly finds himself targeted for assassination by a cell of Red Chinese agents and romantically entangled with the beautiful but needy widow of the murdered agent. Quiller learns that things are not as they seem, and something fishy is afoot out in the South China Sea. It's all related to an operation code-named "Mandarin" about which Quiller is being kept in the dark by his controllers in London. After about 125 pages of Hong Kong intrigue that some readers might find a bit tedious, the climactic action sequence begins: Quiller must infiltrate an oil rig in international waters owned by the People's Republic of China and find out what it's up to. This leads to some intense scenes, as Quiller must survive long scuba dives, naval mines, hand-to-hand combat, hostile Chinese forces and bombshell directives from his London controllers. The surprise ending is highly dramatic, if a bit improbable.

As always with this series, the action is tense and realistic, and the stream-of-consciousness calculations of the computer-like Quiller put you right inside the head of the savant-spy. Here's a passage that nicely sums up both the writer's style and Quiller's philosophy of "the edge":

So all you can do is settle for the situation and check every shadow, every sudden movement, and try to make sure there'll be time to duck. And of course ignore the snivelling little organism that's so busy anticipating what it's going to feel like with the top of the spine shot away, why don't you run for cover, trying to make you wonder why the hell you do it, why you have to live like this, you'll never see Moira again if you let them get you , trying to make you give it up when you know bloody well it's all there is in life: to run it so close to the edge that you can see what it's all about.

Having read six or seven Quiller books now, I have to concur with the widely held opinion that it is one of the very best spy fiction series ever written. The Mandarin Cypher is another fine installment in a series that no fan of the genre should miss. Highly recommended for fans of thinking man's spy fiction.

Get a copy of this book here.

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Department 17 Entry (warning – slight spoilers):

Title: The Mandarin Cypher
Author: Elleston Trevor
Writing As: Adam Hall
Publication Year: 1975
Category: fiction
Genres: espionage
Op Types: assassination, infiltration, scuba diving, evasion
Plot Elements: oil rig, missiles, submarine
Governments: Great Britain, China
Locales: London, Hong Kong
Series: Quiller
Series #: 6
Plot Synopsis: Quiller is sent to Hong Kong to investigate the death of a fellow agent and finds himself targeted for assassination by a Red Chinese agents and romantically entangled with the agent's widow. Something fishy is afoot in the South China Sea; Quiller must infiltrate a Chinese oil rig, carry out a seemingly impossible mission and get back alive.
Reviews: https://shadowwarjournal.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-mandarin-cypher.html