The China Oil Plot: Operation Ace in the Hole

by Chuck Van Soye

Spy Fiction Mixed with the Realities of Today's Oil-Thirsty World After 20 years working for the U.S. Army Research Center, Bret Lee, a 44-year-old chemical engineer, retires to look for work in private industry, only to learn that in the tough 2010 economy, he's unable to find a job in his chosen field. But thanks to a quasi-government contact from his past, he's offered a high-paying job with a Venezuelan fertilizer company just outside Caracas. There's only one catch: he has to become a spy. Bret and his Chinese wife, Chu-Lin, accept the challenge, and both become enmeshed in the military, political, and diplomatic aspects of life within the most dangerous city of the world. With help from the local CIA and guidance from Washington, Lee uncovers an international plot that could throw all of Latin America into turmoil, and that could strangle strategic oil shipments to the U.S. Life gets even more intense when he finds himself locked up by SEBIN, the intelligence arm of the Venezuelan government. In a high-stakes game of poker, sometimes a player who has an ace card that only he can see, his "ace in the hole," will confidently bet big money that he will be the winner of that hand of the game. In the 21st century game of international petroleum supply, China puts big money and a lot more on the table to ensure that it will be the ultimate winner in obtaining Venezuela's oil production. But the new American spy also has an "ace in the hole," and his card trumps China's. The China Oil Plot skillfully blends real-world tensions with a thrilling plot that will keep you enthralled.

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2012

About the author

A retiree from an engineering, sales and marketing career, Chuck now relaxes in the culture-rich, laid-back resort city of Key West, FL, where as an officer of the Key West Writers Guild, he actively fellowships with several dozen other published writers on a week-to-week basis.
Ghost of Africa’s heroic protagonist, Bret Lee, also comes alive in two of Chuck’s other fictional thrillers, American for Sale, (2016) and Spy Mates, (2013). His followers also enjoy his fiction in the humorous urban fantasy, Young Again…and Again…and Again, (2014). These retirement-era books, all offered on Amazon, culminate years of professional work immersed in nonfiction as a McGraw-Hill editor and writer, the founding editor of DuPont’s monthly “Journal of Teflon,” a freelance writer for an ad agency, the nonfiction book Pondering Life’s Imponderables, and the editor of five Amazon books by other authors.

Reviews

[Nev Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok spy thriller

[Dotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought there was going to more to this book. it was all right.