Typhoon: A Novel

Sophisticated, Well-written SpyFi for Old China Hands.Charles Cumming. 'Typhoon'. Spies lie, cheat, steal, and occasionally kill. Yet we ascribe considerable moral stature to them, particularly (but not exclusively) in wartime. Joe Lennox is recruited by SIS, which used to be MI6 when I was in short pants and reading Buchan. He covers a lot of ground between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing uncovering and then trying to disable a CIA 'loose cannon' team's plot to exploit western China's Muslim unrest. His friend and nemesis is Miles Coolidge, amoral but realistic as his CIA counterpart. There's lots of midnight meetings, coded messages, and quite believable fieldcraft. Not to mention bangs, blood and guts along the way. And cynicism and stiff upper lips. Widely tipped as 'The New LeCarre', Cumming's undeniable appeal is perhaps a little different. His main focus seems to be what it means to be living a lie, what kind of person do you have to be to be 'an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country', to mildly distort Henry Wotton's phrase. It's perhaps a sign of Cunningham's success in doing this that he ultimately fails to convince. It's hard for us to understand just how spies do live with themselves? Joe worries about this (well, a little bit); Miles doesn't. But Coolidge is ultimately the more interesting character: and just possibly the more noble. Cumming has written six books; I've already read four. He's good; don't miss him!

Playful, nostalgia for my youth. Mournful, restless, moral and reprehensible. So very, very real. Amid a compelling tale of high grade espionage, in the venue of the Far East so infrequently crafted into the hills and valleys of prose in a modern novel, the affairs of the heart in this book really moved me. I chalk it up to great writing. And while there could have so many endings, Cumming delivered the only real choice.

Starts off as a spy novel but quickly becomes a very tedious and trite love story filled with cliches about uninteresting and very unrealistic people. I held out as long as i could stand it. Then i started skipping paragraphs. When I skipped two chapters, I decided to return the book to amazon Kindle.

America has a boom industry--Intelligence. It has become more and more likely that some of the new thousands of operatives will begin carrying out their own foreign policies. With the help of large international corporations providing covers, some "rogue" operations that seemed unlikely before 911 may become realities. What if US intelligence initiated "terrorist" cells in countries that are our competitors for markets and resources ? China? Well worth a read, and consideration.

I have read lots of books about espionage and this is one of the best. A few reasons - superb character development, excellent suspense, and prescient ethical relevance.

The author Charles Cumming, obviously has spent time in China.His knowledge of landmarks in Shanghai and Beijing demonstrate this fact.I felt that the characters were superficial and one-dimensional types commonly found in the spy novel genre.

Despite its intriguing elements, for me this was a bit of a mixed bag I'm afraid. It is a character driven spy story divided into two parts, the first of which takes place in Hong Kong at the 1997 hand over, the second of which takes place in contemporary mainland China, mostly Shanghai.On the good side, I thought Cummings did a good job developing credibility with fine details about the characters, their lives and the places where they operate. So he puts you in the world and gives you characters whom you recognize to be real people, which is great.Looking at it as an exciting spy story, though, I don't think Typhoon stands out. Nothing terrifically original or dramatic happens with respect to espionage. No high stakes action scenes, ticking clock, interesting technology.... This is in the decidedly unflashy "spy procedural" mode and would appeal much more to fans of Graham Greene than Robert Ludlum. There is a lot of surveillance and other methodical tradecraft. And perhaps even within this subgenre, Typhoon may be a little dry in my view.Unfortunately, protagonist Joe Lennox is not quite memorable. He is not particularly brilliant at anything as far as I can tell and his personality seems fairly ordinary. He's a straight up guy and all, but I'm not sure much more can be said. That really doesn't help.Most importantly, there were some writing choices that did not work at all. The whole thing is supposed to be recounted by this fellow who is not in 90% of the scenes and whose whole purpose in the book is to retell the story later. Weak. Amateurish. I take it Cummings wasn't comfortable with a first person narrative told from Joe Lennox's point of view or with an omniscient narrator. But this conceit didn't work at all. The narrator does such a good impression of being an omniscient narrator, recounting lengthy conversations word for word, that I was periodically surprised to be reminded that this was actually being recounted by an (otherwise irrelevant) character in the story. As an author, you don't want to show your hand too much. A lesson for next time, I suppose. My second issue is that the characters talk for pages. It's not realistic dialogue. There is a ton of exposition about China particularly in the first half that is thrown into the character's speeches. That was clumsy. It improved somewhat over the course of the book.Lastly, the Americans are certainly tarred with the brush of blame here for everything bad that happens in the book. This may appeal considerably to a certain segment of the European audience, but being done in such a ham handed way, I think it will turn off a lot of readers on this side of the pond. I don't think anyone begrudges a legitimate criticism but to set up the Americans as essentially being responsible for everything bad in the world...well, it was, somewhat like the dialogue and the choice of narrator, simplistic and unimpressive.

Another thoroughly absorbing read by Charles Cumming. This time the action is centred on Hong Kong and China. The hero's love interest proves too good to be true and takes off with his rival in the espionage world. His rival loses the plot and our hero mostly saves the day. I liked the fact that the book gave some great background to living in China and the rivalry but supposed togetherness of the intelligence agencies.

What I really like about all the Charles Cumming novels I have read is the ability to truly feel that I am in the country or countries that the story is set. I have, thus far, selected each one based on the fact that I know something of the location(s) - as I did with Typhoon - having visited Hong Kong on 3 occasions, including in 1997 when part of this novel is based. His brilliant writing took me right back there – as well as to new places I've yet to explore such as Beijing and Shanghai. I also find his novels so incredibly insightful as well as an education as to what is going on in a country at the time; Although this is fiction, so much is based on facts and actual events such as the handover to the Chinese of Hong Kong in 1997 and the lead up to the summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008.Typhoon is written with the focus, certainly for the most part, on the individual characters rather than the plot. Perhaps my only criticism being that, certainly initially, for that reason I found the storyline a little hard to keep track of. But, the plot does thicken and I found myself sitting up very late at night to reach the climax of the book and, sadly then, the end.Now which of Cumming’s novels shall I read next…

Cumming clearly knows his MI6 - and his Chinese political history and Hong Kong itself. The trouble is that he doesn't then use them as background for an absorbing story. Rather, he downloads huge lectures to the reader and then fails (for me, at any rate) to create convincing characters and conflict, or indeed any stakes that I or any of the characters cared much about. Basically, I found myself skipping too many dull pages of lecture notes, yawning with characters who I didn't care whether they lived or died, and to top it all off, I became confused when I (as reader) was asked to make sense of a chaotic narrative style. In any given scene I like to know whose head I'm supposed to be in, rather than feeling with one character, thinking with another and hurting with a third.And finally, the book starts off (-ish: in the loosest possible sense) being narrated by a journalist, William Lasker, from his personal perspective, slowly morphing into a distant, 3rd-party narration of events of which Lasker cannot possibly have any personal knowledge. And then - wham! - suddenly the 'I' comes back for a few moments ... and then disappears. Klunk!Chaotic, unskilled, unsubtle writing, not a patch on le Carre.

The best of modern day thriller writers. Outlining the Uighur struggle in north west China and set largely in Hong Kong and other major Chinese cities this book provides a revealing insight into modern China. It works as a gripping thriller but it informs too. I suspect this will be come to be seen as prescient. The Uighur struggle will not be going away; it will gain much more vocal support from the Muslim world as their mistreatment becomes more apparent; and even an ever more powerful China won't find that so easy to deal with. China's other Tibet. Another Charles Cumming classic.But at its heart is the story of a young MI6 agent in deep cover who becomes entwined with a CIA maverick with both of them wanting the same girl. Throw in a dissident Chinese professor, radicalised Uighurs and Pentagon hawks and it's an incredible mix. Shows how intelligence services can work for both good and bed and retains plausibility. What I like about Cumming's work is that the characters take understandable actions, spycraft is explained marvellously and there's no rising body count just for the sake of it.Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai are all marvellously depicted and the nuances of expat life effortlessly depicted. Can't think of any other writer in this genre who is as talented. This is Le Carre plus.

An absolutely excellent read, skilfully paced, brilliantly plotted - a thoroughly good story which managed to bring out both the personal and well as the (geo-) political ramifications of the secret service.Narrated by a journalist on the sidelines of much of the action , a clever device that enabled the author to take stock, explain the background and the intricate relationships and interweaving action. That really helped - only once or twice did I have to flick back to remind myself who a particular character was or what they'd done - which is good going for me. The story is not simple, but a complex and sophisticated unfolding of events, but all the more satisfying for that.The hero is a delight - his quandaries through moral maze of the work are nicely put, and I felt for him, right the way through. I even wish I could meet him!An intelligent and subtly written novel, enjoyable and satisfying. The writing is good, the characters are real, the tension ebbs and flows masterfully. I cannot wait to read the next one.

As reports of hideous treatment of Uighur women emerge from China via the BBC, this work of fiction feels almost documentary-like. Having read most of Cumming’s novels, I think this is my favourite. The balance between personalities and politics is near-perfect, making for a tale which teaches the reader as much as it entertains. And, as usual, it feels like two novels for the price of one. Halfway through, one feels as though the story is told, only to realise that Cumming has merely been laying the groundwork for a more intricate tale. I highly recommend this novel.