Earl Norman

The Earl Norman books are becoming extremely rare, and publishers don’t seem to be interested in reprinting the series. The only way some of us may ever have all the stories is for collectors to scan and type the stories into PDF to swap with other collectors. I have already completed PDFs of HANG ME IN HONG KONG and KILL ME IN ROPPONGI. I am working on KILL ME IN YOKOSUKA. If other collectors would do the same for some of the other books, we could eventually have PDFs of all ten books. Why not help? I can be contacted at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Chinese Assassin


The Chinese Assassin by Anthony Grey. In this well-written intrigue, and twisting plot involving American CIA, Russian KGB, and Chinese agents, a British Sinologist named Richard Scholfield is approached by a Chinese in 1976 claiming to be the lone survivor of a plane crash in Mongolia in 1971. Calling himself Yang, he leaves 8 Folios detailing a deep plot against Mao Tse Tong’s chief rival in 1971. Lin Pao was purported to be on the plane when an explosive brought it down. But the plot is much thicker than what is on the surface, and Scholfield is being manipulated by the CIA, KGB, and Chinese agents. At the core of the plot is the planned assassination of China’s leader, Mao Tse Tong.
         Although on first sight this has the appearance of a men’s action novel of the period, but it is more closely related to the Bourne series. Schofield studied in China’s universities in the 1950s, and speaks Chinese fluently, as well as Japanese. He is a 4th degree black belt in Kyoku-Shinkai karate, founded by the Korean, Mas Oyama. Even the cover features the beautiful Chinese agent, Tan Sui-ling. It would help draw readers’ attention. We do see Scholfield in a bit of action, but this novel is far more than what it appears.
         The author was a British reporter in China, and held prisoner for over two years as a hostage in exchange for Chinese prisoners in Hong Kong. He was familiar with China and its people, and the novel has a touch of reality as we follow the plot from Britain to America, and finally to China, where the plot unfolds deep underground where Mao Tse-Tong lies weakened, waiting for death. Top notch.

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