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Our Review
From Cuba to Hong Kong
Fresh from a mission in Cuba, U.S. Rear Admiral Jake Grafton finds himself on what he expects to be a relatively uneventful mission in Chinese-controlled Hong Kong. His assignment there, to investigate possible ties between former comrade, software billionaire, and U.S. Consul General "Tiger" Cole and a group of political insurgents, seems so straightforward that he even brings his outspoken wife, Callie, with him to see the sights.

Jake's expectations are dashed when his associate, burglar extraordinaire Tommy Carmellini, retrieves a tape planted by the CIA from a Hong Kong businessman's office, even as said businessman's fresh corpse, discovered upon entry, enters the initial stages of rigor mortis. It turns out that the corpse, China Bob Chan, had ties to both a Hong Kong crime cartel and the anticommunist movement, as Callie discovers when Jake, unable to have the work done elsewhere, asks her to translate the tape. Although Callie is unable to understand the nuances of the recorded conversations, someone is afraid she might and thus kidnaps her, holding her for a ten-million-dollar ransom.

Jake's mission has now taken on a more personal flavor, and he tears through Hong Kong, waging a relentless, one-man war against her captors. In his search, he also uncovers information that explains the intrigue relating to the planned uprising in Hong Kong against the Chinese occupation forces. Jake comes to realize that the wide-reaching conspiracy, far more complex than anyone had imagined, has claimed the lives of numerous victims, the ranks of which may soon come to include his wife and Wu Tai Kwong, the leader of the rebels, also held for ransom by the same party.

Having never before read Coonts, I was pleasantly surprised by his surefooted storytelling, his larger-than-life characters, and his ability to juggle myriad elements in a complex plot. If this book's predecessors are anywhere near as good, it's a wonder to me that a Jake Grafton adventure has not yet made it to the big screen, as Coonts's writing style seems well suited to such an adaptation. Hong Kong is the kind of book that keeps you up way past your bedtime, furiously flipping pages to see how it all turns out. The action never stops; neither will your enjoyment.

--Hank Wagner

Hank Wagner is a book reviewer for Cemetery Dance magazine and The Overlook Connection.

ANNOTATION

Hong Kong is a powder keg ready to explode. A political murder and the communist government's closure of a foreign bank are the sparks that light the fuse...and Tiger Cole is right in the middle of the action.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Jake Grafton is sent to Hong Kong to find out how deeply involved the American consul-general is in a political money-raising scandal, his wife, Callie, accompanies him. The situation they find in Hong Kong is far from relaxing. After the communist government shuts down a faltering foreign bank, the city is on the verge of civil war, and Jake finds that his old friend, the consul-general, is right in the middle of it.

When Grafton's wife is kidnapped by a rebel faction, the battle-tested admiral finds himself at the vortex of a high-tech civil war with the future of China on the line. Drawing on the skills of CIA burglar Tommy Carmellini and aided by a team of Chinese patriots willing to die for their nation's freedom, Jake Grafton proves, once again, why he is today's most popular action-adventure hero.

SYNOPSIS

The U.S. Government sends Jake Grafton to Hong Kong to find out how deeply the U.S. consul-general, Tiger Cole, is embedded in a dangerous plan to overthrow the Chinese regime. He takes his wife Callie with him. They haven't returned to the island since their first meeting there, and Tiger Cole is an old friend from those days. Their trip soon turns into their worst nightmare...

Hong Kong is a powder keg ready to explode. A political murder and the communist government's closure of a foreign bank are the sparks that light the fuse...and Tiger Cole is right in the middle of the action. After a violent rebel faction kidnaps Callie, Jake suddenly finds himself pulled into the vortex of a high-tech civil war...

Joining forces with CIA operative Tommy Carmellini, Jake races to save Callie from the imminent bloodbath. But first he must figure out whom he can trust among the Western factions vying for control in the volatile situation and among the Chinese patriots fighting for their nation's future. Now, more than ever, he must make sure that the right side wins. One false move is all it will take to doom his wife-and the entire world...

FROM THE CRITICS

Newsday

...superior suspense with a great cast of made-up characters in this real-life hot spot.

Publishers Weekly

Last year, Coonts had Cuba teetering on the political edge in his megaseller of the same name. Now it's Hong Kong, in another steadfast speculative thriller. The great city/state is falling out of Communist hands, just a few short years after the Chinese takeover. The revolution is being fomented by the cyberintelligentsia, who have managed to rig computer systems throughout Hong Kong and China so that all vital functions--the power grid, airports, oil refineries, telephone systems, etc.--will collapse at the same time. At the helm of the insurrection is Virgil Cole, the American consul general who used his enormous wealth as a former Silicon Valley exec to finagle the overseas appointment; he views the revolution as a kind of extreme sport. He doesn't, however, anticipate the arrival of Jack Grafton, navy admiral and Washington's go-to guy, who starts prowling around a few days before the revolution begins. Just as Grafton is beginning to figure things out, a criminal gang leader working with the rebels kidnaps his wife. Anyone who's seen Grafton in action before knows that he isn't one to take such personal slights lightly. The final third of the book shows Hong Kong under spectacular siege as the rebels rely on sabotage, cunning and half a dozen fighting robots, called Sergeant Yorks, to subdue the Chinese soldiers. Coonts does a remarkable job of capturing the mood of clashing cultures in Hong Kong, creating some noteworthy secondary characters. These include Lin Pe, the aging owner of a fortune cookie factory who finds solace in writing simple fortunes while the world around her crumbles, and Sun Siu Ki, the Beijing-installed governor of Hong Kong, whose peasant mind simply cannot grasp rebellion. For all its stylish accents, however, the story goes from point A to point B with few detours or surprises. Most readers will likewise rush headlong through this seventh Grafton adventure. Major ad/promo. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Hong Kong in the immediate future is the scene for Coonts s (Cuba) latest thriller. China is ripe for an anti-Communist revolution, and it explodes while Admiral Jake Grafton is in Hong Kong on a fact-finding assignment. While most previous Grafton novels have revolved around military actions, Hong Kong deals with spies, murder, kidnapping, and treachery. When the revolution erupts, the rebels use cyberwarfare to paralyze the Chinese government s computers and gain access to traditional weapons. A real distraction is the use of Terminator-type combat robots to turn the tide for the rebels. Since these automata don t exist (yet), they should not play a role in a novel that purports to be based on fact, and they spoil what could have been a compelling novel about a people s struggle for freedom. Despite its flaws, this book will be enjoyed by Coonts s many fans. For general collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/00.] Robert Conroy, Warren, WI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

Admiral Jake Grafton arrives in Hong Kong on the eve of a revolution against the Chinese Communists in this novel, which uses a provocative political "what if" as its starting point. When Grafton's wife is kidnapped by a criminal searching for a hot tape, Grafton joins the fray in search of her, leaving a bloody trail of bodies in his wake. This abridgment mostly steers away from the political background, concentrating on the fists and bullets. Michael Cumpsty reads briskly in a tough, matter-of-fact voice that's a good match for the constant action. Though predictable, this audio holds attention throughout. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

It's the near future, and China's grip on Hong Kong goes slack—not unlike Coonts's latest. Virgil "Tiger" Cole, ex-navy pilot, is currently US consul general in the Orient's most glamorous city. He's also extremely rich, having built a small software company into a multinational giant. But the feds think he's been doing some unsettling things with his money. Actually, a whole lot of his behavior has been unsettling, which is why Coonts's go-anywhere hero Jake Grafton (Cuba, 1999, etc.), now a rear admiral, has his Pentagon paper-pushing interrupted for a special CIA-sponsored mission. He's posted to Hong Kong because he flew with Cole in Vietnam: in fact, it was Jake who hung that colorful nickname on the then bombardier-navigator. More to the point, of course, he once saved Cole's life. Though the two haven't been in recent contact, the hope is that Cole will remember Jake fondly, be more forthcoming with him than he would be with others. And, under ordinary circumstances, it might well have worked out that way. The problem is that Cole's financial and ideological connection to certain Hong Kong insurgents is complex indeed. Secrets and lies are thus inevitable. Before Jake can get a real sense of how hot a political pot he's been dropped into, his wife Callie is kidnapped, along with a pivotal anti-Communist leader. Mean-spirited wiseguy Sonny Wong has bagged them, big-eyed at the prospect of their ransom potential. Bad mistake. They don't come more mean-spirited than Jake Grafton when his blood is up, and nothing stops him—not man, nor beast, nor an assault team of the smartest, deadliest robots ever tobeprogrammed for genre fiction. High-tech gimmickry, kitchen-sink plotting, stick-figure characters. For devoted fans only.