Guest Post: “Influences & Inspirations” by Duncan Jepson

During the last 150 years, China and the West have collided many times, virtually always on Chinese soil, and their relationship is heavily coloured by this history. Many in Asia are choosing and building their futures motivated by their own and their family’s experiences, ambitions and histories, much of it unclear and unknown to most in the West. The relationship between China and West is set to become more intense and complicated and we have to hope these two sides will work together rather than tear the world apart.

The story of Emperors Once More is about the collision of these different motivations and forces in China and among Chinese people, set against their position on the world stage. On a national level, the government is tasked with maintaining a union of a billion plus people so it does not crumble into chaos again, fighting the very human feeling of humiliation from centuries of defeat, both personal and national, the need to re-establish respect on the world stage, the clashes that will arise from the very practical need to obtain vital resources for the future and China’s new role in the global order. The story is also about those very personal experiences such as migration, subservience, colonialism, aspiration, ideology, revolution and tradition.

Want to Read: “Jack of Spies” by David Downing (Old Street)

A twist on the “Upcoming” posts that I frequently write, I’m going to start posting a few more of these – looking at novels that are already out that I really want to read. Some of these will be recently-released books that I just happened to miss, but I’ll also be featuring older titles that I’ve only just stumbled across, or have been meaning to read for years.

I’ve never read anything by David Downing, and I’m not really sure why. It is probably just down to the fact that I get so many books these days that, if it doesn’t arrive in the post, or isn’t from an established series that I’ve been following for some time, I often just can’t get around to it. David Downing, however, I have been aware of (he is the author of the Station series of spy novels), just never had the money to buy the books when I was reminded of them. Jack Of Spies may just change this. It is the first in a new World War I espionage series, and it sounds really good:

Jack McColl is a globe-trotting salesman for a luxury car firm. He is also a part-time spy for the fledgling Secret Service on the eve of the First World War, doing London’s bidding wherever internal or external enemies threaten the security of the British Empire. As 1913 ends he is in China, checking out the German naval base at Tsingtao between automobile demonstrations in Peking and Shanghai. Caitlin Hanley is a young Irish-American journalist with the sort of views that most British men would find dangerously advanced. McColl is no exception, but once captivated he finds himself unwilling to give her up – even when Caitlin's radical politics and family connections threaten to compromise his undeclared career as a spy. Then the pair become involved in a plot that threatens the Empire in its hour of greatest need...

I’m very intrigued by this. Anyone read it? Also, how great is that cover?

“Typhoon”, by Charles Cumming (Penguin)

The latest spy-thriller from the new master of the genre

It is 1997, only a few months before the British rule in Hong Kong comes to an end, and China retakes the reins. It is a city populated by every intelligence agency; each jostling for influence and the latest scoop or discovery – not unlike the journalist who narrates the tale.

When an elderly man, supposedly a university professor, emerges from the sea off Hong Kong, claiming he knows of secrets he will only divulge to the British Government, a series of events is set in motion that will have repercussions almost a decade after the story begins. A sinister and ambitious plot aimed at destabilizing the People’s Republic of China for monetary and political gain is hatched in the backrooms of power. Joe Lennox, a young British SIS operative, the first to talk with the Chinese professor, finds his career on the line, only his concerns for his job are dwarfed by the wider geopolitical ramifications. Yet he must still contend with a girlfriend – Isabella – his superiors don’t approve of, an American opposite he doesn’t fully trust but who wants Isabella for himself. His characters are flawed yet alluring, his eye for the faults of gweilos in Asia sharp and occasionally amusing.

Charles Cumming is easily one of the most gifted thriller writers on the scene today. He writes with an assured style, creating a compelling, addictive tale of espionage and deceit. Twisting real-world politics with fictional characters and events (some loosely based on real events), he weaves an exciting story. His pacing is swift, with trim prose and a good sense for writing realistic dialogue, Typhoon is a pleasure to read, and it will keep you up until the wee hours of the morning, as Cumming slowly reveals the wider implications of his story, as he jumps forward in time from 1997 to 2005.

A novel with a focus both on its individual characters and also the wider global situation, Typhoon has an original premise that is flawlessly executed and tightly written, with a panache and skill reminiscent of James Clavell’s Tai-Pan (one of the best novels of all time) and Nobel House. The novel is brilliantly researched, and Cumming’s attention to and understanding of the politics surrounding China’s place in the world is right on the button, giving the novel a contemporary relevance and sense of urgency.

For fans of: John le Carre, Daniel Silva, James Clavell (particularly Tai-Pan and Noble House), David Baldacci

“The Whole Truth”, by David Baldacci (Pan Macmillan)

The master of the genre delivers a terrifying global thriller that could have been ripped straight out of today’s paranoid headlines.

Once again David Baldacci has delivered a novel that will keep you up all night reading, as the action pulls you on. The novel focuses on Nicholas Creel (billionaire CEO of Ares Corporation, the largest arms manufacturer in the world) and the one-named Shaw (an international intelligence operative). Creel is on a mission to boost the flagging arms trade by inciting paranoia on the international stage, bringing the world to the brink of a potential Great Power war. With the help of Dick Pender (a leading purveyor of “Perception Management”), Creel starts rumours and innuendo suggesting Russia is regressing ever-so-quickly back to the bad old Soviet Union days, then plants the blame for these rumours on China's doorstep.

Shaw, in the employ of a global security organisation, spends his time around the globe disrupting terrorists and other anarchic, nefarious plots. Joined by Katie James, the young, disgraced, Pulitzer Prize-winning, recovering-alcoholic journalist, the two of them find themselves drawn into Creel and Pender’s web of lies and deception, with the mission taking on a particularly personal nature for Shaw about half-way through the novel.

Baldacci’s writing continues to both inspire and amaze me. Not only has he been doing this for a considerable length of time, but he is able to create and write characters that are never boring, always believable, and also complex. Creel, for example, is a corporate titan who makes his living in the industry of mass-death, but equally gives plenty to charity and the underprivileged (making it hard to hate him). The cast of The Whole Truth are different from Baldacci’s established characters – Oliver Stone and the Camel Club, and also former Secret Service agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. His plotting is as tight as ever, each chapter giving the reader just enough to force them on to the next, and then the next, and so on. That his subject matter is also international relations was particularly interesting to me. His grasp of the current global climate is impeccable, and this comes across through this most-believable (though gloomy) premise.

Baldacci’s The Whole Truth is a tour-de-force of international intrigue, espionage, corporate greed and manipulation. It will grip you from the very first page. Fifteen novels into his career, Baldacci shows no signs of slowing down or losing his edge. Simply superb.

For Fans of: Brad Thor, Daniel Silva, Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills, Christopher Reich, David Isaak, Tom Clancy