Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A Thriller for Today


Adrenaline Genre:
Thriller with a Healthy Dash of Suspense


Title: Hong Kong
Author: Stephen Coonts
Genre: Political Thriller
Publication Date: 2000
Number of Pages: 350 pgs.
Geographical Setting: Hong Kong, China after repatriation to Mainland China.
Time Period: present day/near future
Series: Jake Grafton

Annotation:
Two intertwined murders, an investigation into the actions of the U.S. Consul General and his wife's invitation to speak at a professional conference bring Rear Admiral Jake Grafton to Hong Kong. In a city torn between it's colonial past communist present, and a revolutionary desire to return fully to capitalism, Grafton discovers all is not what it seems and many motives intertwine. Coonts explores family dedication, the trust between husbands and wives, and technology bordering on science fiction in weaving a complex, political thriller with it's share of hardware and heroism.

Plot Summary:
The story opens with CIA’s thief-on-call, Tommy Carmellini, carefully searching of the just-murdered China Bob Chan’s office for a tape recorder planted by another agent. Unraveling the reason for Chan’s murderer and the murderer of a CIA agent are only one small thread of the plot. The main focus and major point of view comes through Rear Admiral Jake Grafton. He is sent to Hong Kong to investigate some suspicious actions of his former flight team member, the U.S. Consul-General, Virgil “Tiger” Cole. Jake’s wife Callie was invited to speak at a conference in Hong Kong and accompanies him there, as convenient cover story. In Hong Kong, society is not all what China wants the western world to see. Bank failures in Japan and Chinese government-created insolvency factor into the failure of the local office of a major transnational bank. This triggers large public demonstrations in classic “run on the bank” style panic. An Aussie media mogul’s heir, ex-pat, newspaper publisher, Rip Buckingham lends a reporters voice to the narrative by keeping the outside world aware of the situations in Hong Kong. The ill-equipped local governor (Sun Siu Ki) cracks down on the demonstration with military and police force. Jake’s wife serves as the damsel in distress needing rescue after local black market businessman Sony Wong kidnaps her and the rebel leader for ransom. A well-funded, cyber-warfare savvy rebel group with a charismatic leader (Wu Tai Kwong, the Tiananmen tank man in this fictional account and Lin Pe’s son) escalates things to the next level in a series of high tech attacks that includes infrastructure attacks and futuristic battle bots worthy of Stark Industries. Most characters are well-drawn, including Buckingham’s wife (Sue Lin), a Hong Kong native, and her elderly mother Lin Pe (owner of a fortune cookie company). Some un-telegraphed interrelationships make for intricate final twists as the rebels, the robots and the Chinese army, confront each other in Kowloon.

Subject Headings: Hong Kong, China, Conspiracy, Jake Grafton (fiction)
Appeal: Rapid Pace, Foreign setting, Suspenseful (last one from NoveList)

3 terms that best describe this book:
•    Multiple Points of View
•    Action-oriented
•    Plot Driven (from NoveList)

Similar Fiction Books:
•    Clancy, Tom, Patriot Games. Similarity includes the foreigner plunged into action on foreign soil trying to “do the right thing,” pacing, government operatives as heroes, and the complexities of relationships with foreign cultures and politics.
•    Brown, Dan, The Lost Symbol. Similar in the suspense, detail, pacing, intrigue and character interrelationships.
•    Deaver. Jeffery, The Twelfth Card. Similar in suspense, pacing, need to rescue a kidnapped person, and complex puzzle of characters’ interrelationships.

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors
•    Shipp, S. (1995) Hong Kong, China : a political history of the British Crown Colony's transfer to Chinese rule. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
•    Tripp, H. & M. (2000) Culture Shock!: Success Secrets to Maximize Business in Hong Kong. Portland, Or.: Graphic Arts Center Pub. Co.
•    Fodor’s, (2011) Fodor’s Hong Kong, Including Macau (travel guide)

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