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Overview
Operating from his headquarters in Hong Kong, Deng seems a pillar of society and one of the Crown Colony's most influential Chinese businessmen, yet beneath the facade he is a man whose shadowy past conceals a life of revenge and murder. Because of the imminent takeover of Hong Kong by Red China, Deng has begun a search for an American law firm to handle his U.S. interests prior to his own relocation there. Eager to net Deng as a client, and learning that recruiting young Tom MacLean will give them the inside track, the New York law firm of Needham & Lewis persuades the brilliant prosecutor to leave the U.S. attorney's office and join them. When MacLean becomes Deng's lawyer, he has no idea of the truth about his wealthy client - or of the unwitting role played by his own father, a former CIA officer, in Deng's rise to power. As Deng masterminds a daring plan to transfer the assets of the Hong Kong crime syndicates to the United States with a huge shipment of the finest pure heroin, "China white," MacLean finds himself caught up in a tangled web of conspiracy and deceit, torn between his duty as Deng's lawyer to protect his client's interests, and his deepening love for Shannon O'Shea, an FBI agent specializing in Chinese organized crime and heroin trafficking. O'Shea becomes Deng's nemesis, dogging his every step, risking not only her relationship with MacLean but both their very lives in a spell-binding conclusion that takes the reader from the innermost secrets of the CIA to the hidden Chinatown world of the new Mafia.The rich and ruthless don of the new order of Asian Mafia hires Tom MacLean, a young, ambitious Manhattan lawyer and former prosecutor, to protect his interests. Slowly, MacLean begins to realize Deng's real interests--ultimate control of the drug trade throughout the world and the distribution of "China White", the most potent heroin ever to hit the streets.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Known primarily for his nonfiction, Maas (Serpico) delivers in his third novel (after Father and Son) a fact-based and fast-moving thriller about Chinese drug smuggling. Hong Kong businessman Y.K. Deng approaches the New York law firm of Needham & Lewis to help him relocate to the U.S. in anticipation of China's takeover of Hong Kong in 1997. Assigned to Deng's case is young former prosecutor Tom MacLean, who, along with his current romantic interest, FBI agent Shannon O'Shea, slowly learns that Deng is actually the head of a powerful and criminal Hong Kong triad and intends to flood America with a particularly potent type of heroin called China white, using the Mafia to distribute it. Maas writes briskly, filling his story with sharply drawn characters, neat and believable twists (though the climax just skirts hokiness) and a wealth of factual information that's never obtrusive. Darkening the narrative is the author's bleak view of the almost uninterrupted flow of drugs into the U.S. That Deng's plan is undone by a careless mistake might seem like bad writing, but, in Maas's hands, it's a veiled comment on just how difficult it is for government agencies to discover and stop drug runners-making this an effective cautionary tale as well as a swift and engaging read. Movie rights to Disney; author tour. (Oct.)Library Journal
An influential Chinese business tycoon plots to transfer the assets of the Hong Kong crime syndicate to the United States in a single huge shipment of high-grade heroin. With the guidance of a law firm populated by former CIA operatives, he sets about relocating his businesses in New York's Chinatown. His counsel, Tom MacLean, is a new recruit from the U.S. attorney's office, hired by the firm specifically for his father's CIA connections. From the outset, young MacLean is caught in the crossfire between Chinese Mafia warlords, the New York crime syndicate, and the Chinatown gangs, all of whom have keen interests in the profitability of heroin. Maas (Manhunt, LJ 7/86) has woven a taut, compelling thriller of the Chinese underworld. Recommended for fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/94.]-Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los AngelesBook Details
Published
December 31, 1998
Publisher
Kensington Publishing
Pages
320
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780786002047