Recently randomly won this as a Goodreads Giveaway. What I found compelling enough about the book description to enter the Giveaway was that the main character was Chinese and that I would get a vivid description of the labor camp he escapes from and the China that he escapes into. Unfortunately, there is barely a glimpse of the camp and the escape/flight across China underwhelmed me (largely he hid in a hole then he slept while hidden on a train—then suddenly we’re in the big city). And almost as suddenly the perspective shifts to that of the actual main character—Philip Mangan, a western journalist freelancing in China.

Mangan is not without his charms. As with most of the characters in the book, he is well sketched out. I didn’t doubt the presentation of his working life for a second. Credit the author’s extensive experience with international reporting for delivering these parts of the story so well. The author’s very success with these parts of the book sewed my discontent with the rest. I never quite recovered from Peanut, the labor camp escapee, being put in the backseat. He remains relevant and interesting, but the author’s heart is clearly with Mangan—and who can blame the author for wanting to insert himself into the story (plus the caucasian journalist is the centerpiece of a planned trilogy). But as good as Mangan appears to be at his job, he doesn’t bring much of that skill set to the espionage he takes part in—and he becomes the donut hole at the center of his own story. Peanut and the various intelligence agencies swirling around the central conflict in the book are all quite interesting—their various agendas distilled quite nicely with regards to each agency and even many members within each agency. Yet Mangan seems to be left running in place. I get that the journalist is caught between Peanut and the Eastern/Western intelligence communities determined to capture/exploit the Chinese asset but when Mangan is challenged to be his most interesting he fails to deliver as a character.

The conclusion is exciting though I was not thoroughly satisfied with the mechanics that brought it about. Without providing spoilers, I’ll just say that a Western Intelligence group does one of those stupid things that the TV show LOST IN SPACE always counted on Dr. Smith to do in to create the conflict for that episode. (If no one has ever used the term “Dr. Smithing it” for a nonsensical plot complication then they should be.) Likely I sabotaged my own reading experience by hoping the book would be something it wasn’t—but the author failed to compel me to do anything else.