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#Review : Chinese Take-out #spy #book

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Title:  Chinese Take-out

Series: NA

Author: Ian Mathie

Genre: Historical fiction, Spy Thriller

Pages: 287

Reading Level: Adult

Content: PG-13 (war and mature themes, some sexual content/references)

I’m kicking myself for taking so long to read this book. I mean I have it in both ebook and paperback form, but hey, sometimes life gets in the way. The first thing that drew me to this book was the fact that it’s a work of fiction from an author who’s known for writing memoirs. The second thing that caught my eye was the amazing cover.

Chinese Take-out starts out seeming to be two stories running in parallel until it’s revealed later that there is more than one thing linking these two “cases” together. Yes, cases is important. Green, aka the Nose, is a “company man” who has been pulled away from his preferred assignment in China to deal with a domestic matter involving arms dealing. This is essentially an espionage thriller and if you still don’t know what “The Company” is, this may not be the book for you.

I could go into more detail about the plot to give you a big build up and still leave out the details, but I don’t want to. I want anyone who decides to pick this up to be just as surprised as I was. I will throw you a few bones just so you can see if you are truly interested. The story has: a cover-up, a rebel, a huge misunderstanding, a mentor/buddy theme, and of course spying. Also, the story takes place during the formation of The Peoples Republic of China, so seeing the characters use and try to understand technology that we’d find archaic was actually, kind of, amusing.

I loved the characters in this book. The story itself was told in such a matter-of-fact way, that the characters were the one thing you could form an emotional bond with. When these guys bounced from one mini-mission to the other, you were with them and rooting for them, not wanting to leave anyone behind. I won’t pretend this was an action packed story, but the weaving of clues and messages and secrets was riveting.

I’d say this book was written for an adult audience, but a teen with a thirst for espionage could totally get into this. This is probably a read mainly for the fellas, but hey- I loved it.

I give this book a 5.

LoveIt

This review has been posted to GoodReads.

If you’d like a Kindle copy of this book, try this link: Amazon.

Get a print copy with free international shipping at this link: Book Depository.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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By Toi Thomas

Author and illustrator of children's books, as well as clean adult fiction and nonfiction. Toi is a geek-girl blogger, vlogger, reviewer, and advocate for a healthy reading lifestyle. She finds comfort in faith, family, and creative expression. Toi believes in the dream of world harmony and hopes all your dreams come true.

4 replies on “#Review : Chinese Take-out #spy #book”

I am always delighted when someone likes one of my books, but this particularly pleased me as you seem to have got really into the story as well.
Chinese Take-out was inspired by, and originally written during, the turmoil of 1989 when Fan Lizhi took refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing and the Chinese students occupied Tiananmen Square, publishing their complains in posters on Democracy Wall. It was an exciting time when the world was changing dramatically.
After languishing in a file for years, encouraged by other authors to dip my pen into the fiction genre, I dragged the manuscript out re-edited it. Having a bit of inside knowledge of the ‘trade’ helped, but it was a fun book to write.
Thanks for a great review.

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