Opium Flower

Opium Flower by Dan Cushman. Terrance J. Ryan loses his job in San Francisco, and the F.B.I. offers him another one. Go to Bangkok and trace down the opium smugglers. Typical of Cushman’s characters, Ryan is very similar to Dougherty and other characters in these tales. He’s big, tough, and knows the Orient (or jungle, or island). There is always Chinese involved, and whether we are in Bangkok or Hong Kong we recognize the same words, as if we never leave one place for another. And usually there is another white man after the same thing our hero is after. Even though he’s tough, he gets captured and beaten a lot, but this adds to the adventure. The author got his start in pulp magazines, writing jungle and South Sea stories for JUNGLE STORIES and ADVENTURE. Although he turned his hand to westerns, it is still these adventure novels that are his best. Another good story.