China White - Softcover

Chinese crime lords bring a bumper crop of trouble to a reluctant young lawyer and his FBI squeeze in this intricate, compulsively readable thriller by nonfiction veteran Maas (Serpico, 1973, etc.). Tony Manhattan law firm Needham & Lewis needs a few lucrative clients to boost its sagging revenues. One possibility is billionaire Y.K. Deng, who wants a hedge against his native Hong Kong's uncertain economic future. To land this big fish, the firm hires as bait young Tom MacLean--whose father, a former CIA agent, worked beside Deng during the 1960s. Unbeknownst to Tom, Deng, besides sitting on many corporate boards, is also a Dragon's Head, leader of one of the secret criminal orders that control vice throughout Asia. His hand helps turn the spigot controlling the flow of heroin, or China White, from the jungle factories of Laos to the West. Having landed what he thinks is a legitimate client, young Tom rolls up his sleeves and goes to work on Deng's aboveboard concerns, unaware that he and his firm are pawns in the bigger game of bringing in a few hundred million dollars worth of China White to help Deng make ends meet after relocation. Not quite so unaware is Shannon O'Shea, Tom's girlfriend and the FBI's point woman for gang activity in New York's Chinatown. Alerted to the possibility that something is fishy by uncharacteristically sloppy money-management techniques and infighting among Chinese criminal societies, Shannon battles to thwart Deng's plan, which has grown to include an unprecedented US distribution network, courtesy of La Cosa Nostra. Worth the price of admission alone is the explosive drug warehouse climax pitting Tom and Shannon against a ruthless gang of toughs. Reminiscent of both The Firm and Rising Sun, but Maas's great command of subject and reportorial storytelling style make this far more plausible than either. A terrific read. (Film rights to Disney; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.