The Kingfisher's Call - Softcover

Reed, John

3.62

8 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1402200587 ISBN 13: 9781402200588

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark, 2003

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A fast-paced nonstop ride full of thrills and intrigue.

Sourcebooks Landmark is proud to add John Reed and The Kingfisher's Call to its list. Written in the tradition of a Tom Clancy novel, Reed's rapid-fire thriller will consume the reader with its machine gun action, intrigue in the highest reaches of government and exotic settings. The story begins when a beautiful Chinese woman named Bao Qing meets a young man named Jon Cross in Burma's moonlit strawberry market in the 1950s. The liaison turns into a never-forgotten love affair. Cross becomes a legendary CIA agent whose mission is to rescue Bao Qing, the one love of his life, by bringing her out of Communist China where she has lived for over five decades serving as a mole with access to the most sensitive secrets of the Chinese state.

Other memorable characters include two brilliant young CIA agents who fall in love as they carry out their dangerous assignment; a Chinese operative who funneled millions into the political coffers of the president of the United States; and a master spy for China in the highest ranks of American power.

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About the Author:

John Reed's previous novel, Thirteen Mountain, was published in 1995. He is also a poet and won the New England Review/Breadloaf Quarterly National Narrative Competition. He was a television producer for the University of California and served in military intelligence in the army in Vietnam. For the past six years he has taught writing at Lane Community College.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this scrappy, hard-working tale of espionage, a former navy SEAL leads a daring rescue mission into China to save a woman who has worked as a U.S. spy for decades. Tuck Nyland's assignment has a romantic angle, too. The woman he is to "extract," Bao Qing, is the lover-in-exile of CIA division chief Jon Cross, the agency's China expert. Cross wants Qing out of the country as soon as possible because he knows a dissident Chinese military general is about to stage a coup attempt and the country could erupt into civil war. Cross believes that the rough-and-ready Nyland, kicked out of the SEALS for his violent temper during the Gulf War, is the sole person tough enough to sneak his way into China and find Qing. Nyland, however, is not the only one who wants to find her. So does the U.S. secretary of defense, Charles Blanchard, whose treasonous behavior during the Vietnam War will come to light if Qing makes it out of China. Also on the hunt is ruthless Chinese Gen. Xing Wanpo, whose plan to take over the country would be jeopardized if Qing defects. Given what he's up against, Nyland finds this mission through the jungles of Burma and the mountains and rivers of south China to be the most challenging of his life. Reed, in his first outing since his 1995 debut (Thirteen Mountain), spices his fast-paced, violent plot with plenty of heroics and colorful scenery. Assigned to military intelligence during the Vietnam War, he puts his background to good use. An unnecessary romantic sideline involving Nyland and a female CIA agent, complete with wincingly bad dialogue, drags down the action occasionally, but not fatally. Though often straining credibility, this rescue mission ends with a well-deserved victory yell. Agent, Nancy Love, of the Nancy Love Literary Agency.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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