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Formosa Straits
When Chinese-American entrepreneur Nick Lamp pays a visit to Taiwan’s shady underworld boss Cao Dai, he’s hoping for a promise of investment.
But what he finds is Cao’s dead body, and suddenly he is in the midst of a police investigation — as the main suspect.
His run to safety takes him through an unravelling web of false identities, duplicitous women, corporate espionage, and shocking revelations that could lead to Nick's own death.
One thing is clear: Nick has been framed and he’s the only one who can find out why.
His search for proof of his own innocence carries him from modern-day Taiwan and Hong Kong all the way back to prewar Shanghai.
Along the way he learns to trust only one person: himself.
‘Formosa Straits’ is a gripping thriller and a fascinating voyage into a mysterious culture that is an all-stops-out thrill of a ride.
Praise for Anthony Hyde:
‘One of the brightest, freshest new voices to appear in the international thriller business in a long time.’ USA TODAY
'An intricately woven tale of love, murder, and family set in the new Asia.' Kirkus
Anthony Hyde was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1946, to a book-loving family, and spent a number of years as a political science student and activist before turning his hand to writing. His first novel, The Red Fox (1985), became an instant bestseller worldwide.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
But what he finds is Cao’s dead body, and suddenly he is in the midst of a police investigation — as the main suspect.
His run to safety takes him through an unravelling web of false identities, duplicitous women, corporate espionage, and shocking revelations that could lead to Nick's own death.
One thing is clear: Nick has been framed and he’s the only one who can find out why.
His search for proof of his own innocence carries him from modern-day Taiwan and Hong Kong all the way back to prewar Shanghai.
Along the way he learns to trust only one person: himself.
‘Formosa Straits’ is a gripping thriller and a fascinating voyage into a mysterious culture that is an all-stops-out thrill of a ride.
Praise for Anthony Hyde:
‘One of the brightest, freshest new voices to appear in the international thriller business in a long time.’ USA TODAY
'An intricately woven tale of love, murder, and family set in the new Asia.' Kirkus
Anthony Hyde was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1946, to a book-loving family, and spent a number of years as a political science student and activist before turning his hand to writing. His first novel, The Red Fox (1985), became an instant bestseller worldwide.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
- GenresFictionMystery Thriller
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1996
6 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 18, 2024
Not a bad book, but it could have been so much better. Having lived there for so long, I have a soft spot for fiction based in Taiwan, especially since it can be so easily overlooked when compared to its more glamorous neighbors like Hong Kong and China. It’s hard to find a good mystery, spy story or crime caper set here—maybe because it’s just such a darn friendly and (at least from the outside) apparently harmless place. So I always start such books predisposed to giving them 3-4 stars—although Hyde ultimately didn’t make this easy. The plot starts off well enough with a quick, deep dive into murder, whores and sex (although, surprisingly, not with the whores). But from there it quickly devolves into a convoluted story going back to Shanghai in the '30s and the Communist takeover of China, which I imagine would be pretty confusing to anyone who hasn’t either lived there or at least taken some serious Asian History classes: “the Americans somehow induced Cao to warn Mao about the Lin Biao coup. But if Lamp could offer proof that Jiang Qing had spied for the Nationalists…”
Similarly, the hero also kept getting more and more complex as the story went on. Murder mysteries need a protagonist who is either an innocent everyman who’s in way over his head, or a hard-boiled cop who does this for a living. Nick Lamp begins the story as the former, but soon starts behaving like the latter with no apparent explanation other than that he’s just really cool. He consistently outsmarts and outfights a whole army of baddies, and about halfway through we learn that he’s also a pretty sharp knife-fighter—his father having taught him as a boy because, well, I guess that’s what Chinese dads teach their sons.
The title is an odd choice, as there is no explanation or even mention of the Formosa Straits, (the body of water separating Taiwan from mainland China). As to the writing itself, it ranges from pretty good to downright embarrassing, especially the romance (“Surely her lips were full of love? Why should I hear betrayal in her sighs?”), and sex (find your own example—it’s not hard). And while Hyde obviously did his research, he may have done a little too much, as he frequently wanders off into multi-page diversions on irrelevant (to the story, obviously not to history) incidents ranging from secret police chief Dai Li’s mysterious WWII plane crash to Henry Liu’s murder in San Francisco in the mid-80’s ("I read a book!"). He also name-drops Chinese streets and towns into nearly every paragraph, ("I can read a map!"). A bigger complaint is that there is a frequent if subtle racism to the story—the narrator is himself Chinese, and so can apparently get away with frequent references to Orientals, yellow skin and some of the uglier aspects of Chinese culture and society. But Anthony Hyde isn't Chinese, and so at some point it starts to sound a lot like Quentin Tarantino overusing the N-word.
Still, on a personal level I ended up enjoying myself. A lot of the details, while not really necessary, took me back to a particularly fun period of my life. At one point, Nick makes a brief stop at one of my old hangouts, a pub called “The Hope and Anchor” (although everyone called it “The Hopeless Wanker”). And the godfather-like figure whose murder sets the whole story in motion reminded me a lot of the late Johnny Huang, my own businessman/gangster mentor who first bankrolled my company in Taipei back in the late 70's. Now there is a story...
So...a generous 3 stars from me—although for anyone else interested in taking a literary side-trip to Taiwan, I’d still recommend Francie Lin’s The Foreigner.
Similarly, the hero also kept getting more and more complex as the story went on. Murder mysteries need a protagonist who is either an innocent everyman who’s in way over his head, or a hard-boiled cop who does this for a living. Nick Lamp begins the story as the former, but soon starts behaving like the latter with no apparent explanation other than that he’s just really cool. He consistently outsmarts and outfights a whole army of baddies, and about halfway through we learn that he’s also a pretty sharp knife-fighter—his father having taught him as a boy because, well, I guess that’s what Chinese dads teach their sons.
The title is an odd choice, as there is no explanation or even mention of the Formosa Straits, (the body of water separating Taiwan from mainland China). As to the writing itself, it ranges from pretty good to downright embarrassing, especially the romance (“Surely her lips were full of love? Why should I hear betrayal in her sighs?”), and sex (find your own example—it’s not hard). And while Hyde obviously did his research, he may have done a little too much, as he frequently wanders off into multi-page diversions on irrelevant (to the story, obviously not to history) incidents ranging from secret police chief Dai Li’s mysterious WWII plane crash to Henry Liu’s murder in San Francisco in the mid-80’s ("I read a book!"). He also name-drops Chinese streets and towns into nearly every paragraph, ("I can read a map!"). A bigger complaint is that there is a frequent if subtle racism to the story—the narrator is himself Chinese, and so can apparently get away with frequent references to Orientals, yellow skin and some of the uglier aspects of Chinese culture and society. But Anthony Hyde isn't Chinese, and so at some point it starts to sound a lot like Quentin Tarantino overusing the N-word.
Still, on a personal level I ended up enjoying myself. A lot of the details, while not really necessary, took me back to a particularly fun period of my life. At one point, Nick makes a brief stop at one of my old hangouts, a pub called “The Hope and Anchor” (although everyone called it “The Hopeless Wanker”). And the godfather-like figure whose murder sets the whole story in motion reminded me a lot of the late Johnny Huang, my own businessman/gangster mentor who first bankrolled my company in Taipei back in the late 70's. Now there is a story...
So...a generous 3 stars from me—although for anyone else interested in taking a literary side-trip to Taiwan, I’d still recommend Francie Lin’s The Foreigner.
January 11, 2016
I tried so, so hard to finish this book. I always knew it wouldn't be any good (hello, clichéd dragon cover) but I bought it because it was only a dollar and it was partially set in Taiwan, where my family's from. I didn't realize just how bad this book would be, though. Aside from the very boring and confusing murder mystery/international spy intrigue/Asian gangster part of the book, my entire reading experience was derailed by the main character, a Chinese man who spends a large portion of book praising the whites (so superior to those Orientals, who he is definitely, certainly, not at all like), wishing he was white himself (because he thinks like a white person and has the soul of a Westerner; he is absolutely not at all like those mysterious, slightly repulsive Chinese), and otherwise parroting these ideas that so very clearly come from the American author, who seems absolutely fascinated by "the Chinese" and at the same time contemptuous of them. This makes for terrible reading for anybody who realizes that, gasp, the Chinese are not one monolithic group of peoples and that "the West" and "the East" are painfully outdated, racist, ignorant ideas. This guy should have stuck to mediocre thriller plots without throwing in his half-baked, embarrassingly Orientalizing way of thinking. And no, you can not describe someone as "Oriental."
March 5, 2012
This is a real thriller, set in China by with the youngest son of a bi-racial highly successful family who were prominent before, during and for a while after world war II. He hopes to go into a successful business using international markets, but finding the body of a well-sought business tycoon and friend of his father's has really put a crimp into that idea. the story moves fast, is exciting, and the characters are very well presented. And the plot with it's twists and turns is very drawing and believable, too. I could hardly put it down. And I am looking forward to reading more by this author. I had heard of him, but never before read anything of his.
March 11, 2018
Based in Taiwan, our protagonist runs around trying to cover his ass when he discovers the bloody body of a potential business partner. This book was written in 1995, but reads like it is from the 30s. I had a hard time reading this book because our protagonist has rambling sometimes incoherent thoughts. I acknowledge the Taiwanese people have had a tough and turbulent past with many abusive invaders. This explains the horrible racism and sexism. It does not make it a comfortable read.
Although I enjoyed the depiction of Taiwan culture and history, I just could not like this book because I did not like the protagonist his rambling thoughts.
Although I enjoyed the depiction of Taiwan culture and history, I just could not like this book because I did not like the protagonist his rambling thoughts.
February 8, 2024
I believe that this book could have been interesting but it was not. The story tried to be a political explanation piece, but a murder thriller? I believe the setting and the set up of the story was good, but the author could not decide what kind of character Mr. Lamp was. Like apparently, his father in this fiction story had relations with Mao's Wife, but has little connection to the story. I believe the author has picked this region, because it was new and probably barely being written about, and just ran with different storylines and names. A pretty underwhelming story, and I was glad to finish this book.
May 1, 2021
Read in 1996. A fast paced multi-layed thriller.
September 23, 2025
Enjoyed this twisting plot although the complexity meant a lack of momentum in the first half
October 25, 2013
Un roman d'espionnage noir qui suit les tribulations d'un américain d'origine asiatique au coeur d'une sale affaire de meurtre, de corruption et de chantage entre de puissants politiciens, hommes d'affaires et de mafieux.
Un très beau livre d'Anthony hyde qui se lit avec un vrai plaisir et que j'ai savouré comme une partition de jazz, avec des effluves de fumée de cigarettes et de cognac et qui offre un dépaysement total pas la description précise et dense, loin des clichés d'une chine en pleine mutation.
un roman à découvrir pour les amateurs du genre.
Un très beau livre d'Anthony hyde qui se lit avec un vrai plaisir et que j'ai savouré comme une partition de jazz, avec des effluves de fumée de cigarettes et de cognac et qui offre un dépaysement total pas la description précise et dense, loin des clichés d'une chine en pleine mutation.
un roman à découvrir pour les amateurs du genre.
April 21, 2015
What, Goodreads gave this a 3.19. It was delightful, filled with intrigue, murder and a really good discussion of Taiwan, what it felt like, what it is and how it came to be thus. Later we meander to villages on mainland China and the Bund in Shanghai. Tells the story of sons and daughters of people who were influential in times past. Nice quick good read
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews