The Shanghai Factor
A Novel
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4.3 • 12 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“[A] smart and utterly diverting spy trade masterwork” from the acclaimed author of The Tears of Autumn (NPR).
When two people collide on their bikes on an empty road, the meeting can hardly be by chance—especially when one of the people in question is working for the shadowy American espionage organization known as HQ, and the other seems to be involved in a similarly secretive Chinese operation. But when sparks fly, the two fall into a dangerous romance with international implications.
The young American spy was sent to China simply to absorb what he could about the language and culture. But as his dalliance with the mysterious Mei blossoms into a full-blown affair, his bosses at HQ demand he use his connections to uncover the truth about a powerful CEO suspected to be a Chinese intelligence operative. Now he’s caught in a game of cat-and-mouse with lethal consequences—not only for him, but also for the global balance of power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Meticulous, intelligent prose is the real star of this excellent espionage thriller from former CIA operations officer McCarry (Christopher's Ghosts), who focuses more on the psychological challenges faced by street-level agents and those running the operations than on physical action. One day on a Shanghai road, the unnamed 29-year-old narrator is riding his bicycle when a beautiful young Chinese woman, Mei, runs into him on her bike. Is it an accident? Our hero, "a rookie spook" working as a sleeper for the agency he calls Headquarters, immediately pegs Mei as an agent for the Chinese Ministry of State Security, but that doesn't stop him from becoming her lover for the next two years. Eventually, his boss, the head of his agency's counterintelligence division, calls him back to Washington, D.C., and gives him the assignment of building a network of Chinese spies drawn from the privileged class of party leaders' children. Back in China, the narrator takes a job with a mysterious, imperious industrialist, Chen Qi, until he's fired and assigned to Headquarters in Washington. While not much happens by the standard of your average spy novel and events get wrapped up quickly at the end, this book is a must-read for genre aficionados and McCarry's many fans.
Customer Reviews
Good thriller
Good story, but a bit simple regarding the plot.