Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
Veteran journalist Jon Swift doesn't believe in coincidences, particularly when they involve his old friend Lin Lifang. When he accidentally bumps into him in Oxford Swift suspects an ulterior motive, so do a couple of heavies from the Chinese secret service who later give him a working over.
Out on a limb with his career in freefall Swift needs one bid story to turn things round. Against his better judgement he heads to China to research his old friend, who since his days a as a student revolutionary has become a senior party official with the wealth, status and ruthless ambition to match.
Veteran foreign correspondent John Simpson has delivered a thriller rooted in the tensions shaping the modern world. The seemingly unstoppable rise of China to superpower status, the country's conflicted relationship with its past, and the tenacious grip the Communist party retains on the levers of power.
The tone is, in the very best way, that of a classic B movie, with Swift making for a suitably world-weary hero. He sketches with an expert's touch the shades and contrasts of a country where wealth, power and grinding inequality rub together like tectonic plates. Sooner or later, something will give and when it does everyone around will feel the ground shake.
This is a clever, atmospheric and in its best moments nail bitingly tense novel. Swift and Simpson are the ideal company for a journey down the mean streets of an alarming new world.
