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Typhoon
Hong Kong 1997. Only a few short months of British sovereignty left before the territory returns to Chinese rule. It's a feverish city. And the spooks are hard at work, jostling for position and influence. So when an elderly man emerges from the sea, claiming to know secrets he will share only with the Governor, a young MI6 agent, Joe Lennox, sees the chance to make his reputation. But when the old man, a high-profile Chinese professor, is spirited away in the middle of the night by Joe's superiors and the CIA, it's clear that there's a great deal more at stake than a young spy's career. The professor holds the key to a sinister and ambitious plan that could have catastrophic repercussions for the world in the next century...
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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1135 people want to read
About the author
Charles Cumming
27 books1,283 followersCharles Cumming is British writer of spy fiction. His international bestselling thrillers including A Spy By Nature, The Spanish Game, Typhoon and The Trinity Six. A former British Secret Service recruit, he is a contributing editor of The Week magazine and lives in London.
http://www.charlescumming.co.uk/
http://www.charlescumming.co.uk/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
June 22, 2020
'As a nation we’re small, risk averse. We lack the imagination to do anything that might actually change things. If there’s a reason not to do something, you can guarantee that the British will find it…'
Anyone expecting a book about a severe weather event will be disappointed; but readers familiar with the author’s style of British "spook" thrillers will enjoy this one, timely given the current unrest in Hong Kong. It opens in June 2005 with SIS (MI6) operative Joe Lennox waking from a coma in a Shanghai hospital, to be greeted by his friend, William Lasker, a Beijing-based journalist and support agent for SIS, at his bedside.
Told partly through Lasker (in first person) and by others (in third person), the story unfolds in 1997 in the weeks before the official handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Joe Lennox is a NOC (non-official cover) agent, working for a logistics company, and describes how he was recruited by MI6 at Oxford and persuaded his girlfriend, Isabella, to join him in Hong Kong, she unaware of the double life he is leading.
The couple are out late one night with an expat party crowd, including Machiavellian womaniser, Miles Coolidge, who makes no pretense at being with the CIA. When Joe is called away to deal with “an administrative oversight” on a shipment – Miles knowing who Joe really is, is determined to find out what is going on.
A Chinese national and fluent English-speaker, claiming to be a university professor, with information of vital importance to the British governor, was caught on the coastline of the New Territories by a Scots Guard and taken to a safe house in Kowloon. Joe is to establish his bona fides, and after a long, long night, is relieved by Lenan, 2IC at the SIS station, and told to get some rest. When he awakes, he learns that the professor has been spirited away and returned to mainland China. By chance he discovers that Miles had a hand in it and challenges him.
He allowed Miles to lead him through the stifling, humid streets to a basement nightclub on Luard Road where there was a bouncer on the door, a dimly lit staircase and no entry fee. In Wan Chai, that usually meant only one thing: the club would be full of hookers.
The title TYPHOON refers to a covert operation to undermine the Chinese political and economic state by arming and assisting ethnic groups in self-determination, ostensibly raising human rights abuses of the Muslim minority, but it has little to do with altruism and the more pragmatic: to gain a foothold in the oil and gas rich province of Xinjiang, in western China. That is Miles’ main game, but as an individual he cannot help but covet Joe’s girlfriend, Isabella.
The second part of the story moves to 2004, where Joe is on a 3-year posting to London. 9/11 changed the political landscape, with freedom-fighters frequently radicalised. Joe, having lost his girlfriend to Miles and from postings across the Far East, finds a desk at Vauxhall Cross stifling, as he tells Waterfield, the former Head of Station in Hong Kong.
‘The current lot’ – he nodded across the river in the general direction of Whitehall – ‘will be out of a job in a few years’ time. Politics is cyclical, Joe. All one has to do is bide one’s time and the right people will come round again. Then things can go back to the way things were.’
China is gearing up for the Olympics in 2008. The TYPHOON project has been a disaster, with key figures dying of natural causes or the victim of brutal attacks, Waterfield wants Joe to return to China “incognito” to find Miles Coolidge and what he is up to. For Joe, it is a chance to find the woman he still loves.
‘Oh, everything’s wrong with Beijing,’ (Waterfield) said. ‘Freezing half the year, baking hot the other. Anybody with any taste prefers Shanghai.’
Which heralds the third part of the book and where the action and suspense heats up. Joe acts as a businessman, to encourage Miles to seek him out, and meanwhile he tracks down the professor.
There were no pleasantries, no gentle probings to establish the other man’s character and credentials. Wang Kaixuan had spent eight years dealing with spies: they were all the same to him now. ‘I have told your people I have nothing left to say. I have abandoned the struggle. I wish to live my life in peace.’
As if? Naturally, the story is from the ex-pat point of view, and there is little to raise the veil of inscrutability of the Han Chinese, though Miles sets Isabella straight about the Triads.
'Sure, there’s drug-running, people smuggling, violence. But Triad societies also pay for schooling in their local communities, find jobs for the unemployed, help out families who might have fallen on hard times. It’s not all protection money. It’s not all turf wars and assassinations. They run the construction industry here.’
There is a wealth of detail in this book, from politics to descriptions of the cities, from skyscrapers to slums. Overall, an interesting read, if a little uneven at times.
Anyone expecting a book about a severe weather event will be disappointed; but readers familiar with the author’s style of British "spook" thrillers will enjoy this one, timely given the current unrest in Hong Kong. It opens in June 2005 with SIS (MI6) operative Joe Lennox waking from a coma in a Shanghai hospital, to be greeted by his friend, William Lasker, a Beijing-based journalist and support agent for SIS, at his bedside.
Told partly through Lasker (in first person) and by others (in third person), the story unfolds in 1997 in the weeks before the official handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Joe Lennox is a NOC (non-official cover) agent, working for a logistics company, and describes how he was recruited by MI6 at Oxford and persuaded his girlfriend, Isabella, to join him in Hong Kong, she unaware of the double life he is leading.
The couple are out late one night with an expat party crowd, including Machiavellian womaniser, Miles Coolidge, who makes no pretense at being with the CIA. When Joe is called away to deal with “an administrative oversight” on a shipment – Miles knowing who Joe really is, is determined to find out what is going on.
A Chinese national and fluent English-speaker, claiming to be a university professor, with information of vital importance to the British governor, was caught on the coastline of the New Territories by a Scots Guard and taken to a safe house in Kowloon. Joe is to establish his bona fides, and after a long, long night, is relieved by Lenan, 2IC at the SIS station, and told to get some rest. When he awakes, he learns that the professor has been spirited away and returned to mainland China. By chance he discovers that Miles had a hand in it and challenges him.
He allowed Miles to lead him through the stifling, humid streets to a basement nightclub on Luard Road where there was a bouncer on the door, a dimly lit staircase and no entry fee. In Wan Chai, that usually meant only one thing: the club would be full of hookers.
The title TYPHOON refers to a covert operation to undermine the Chinese political and economic state by arming and assisting ethnic groups in self-determination, ostensibly raising human rights abuses of the Muslim minority, but it has little to do with altruism and the more pragmatic: to gain a foothold in the oil and gas rich province of Xinjiang, in western China. That is Miles’ main game, but as an individual he cannot help but covet Joe’s girlfriend, Isabella.
The second part of the story moves to 2004, where Joe is on a 3-year posting to London. 9/11 changed the political landscape, with freedom-fighters frequently radicalised. Joe, having lost his girlfriend to Miles and from postings across the Far East, finds a desk at Vauxhall Cross stifling, as he tells Waterfield, the former Head of Station in Hong Kong.
‘The current lot’ – he nodded across the river in the general direction of Whitehall – ‘will be out of a job in a few years’ time. Politics is cyclical, Joe. All one has to do is bide one’s time and the right people will come round again. Then things can go back to the way things were.’
China is gearing up for the Olympics in 2008. The TYPHOON project has been a disaster, with key figures dying of natural causes or the victim of brutal attacks, Waterfield wants Joe to return to China “incognito” to find Miles Coolidge and what he is up to. For Joe, it is a chance to find the woman he still loves.
‘Oh, everything’s wrong with Beijing,’ (Waterfield) said. ‘Freezing half the year, baking hot the other. Anybody with any taste prefers Shanghai.’
Which heralds the third part of the book and where the action and suspense heats up. Joe acts as a businessman, to encourage Miles to seek him out, and meanwhile he tracks down the professor.
There were no pleasantries, no gentle probings to establish the other man’s character and credentials. Wang Kaixuan had spent eight years dealing with spies: they were all the same to him now. ‘I have told your people I have nothing left to say. I have abandoned the struggle. I wish to live my life in peace.’
As if? Naturally, the story is from the ex-pat point of view, and there is little to raise the veil of inscrutability of the Han Chinese, though Miles sets Isabella straight about the Triads.
'Sure, there’s drug-running, people smuggling, violence. But Triad societies also pay for schooling in their local communities, find jobs for the unemployed, help out families who might have fallen on hard times. It’s not all protection money. It’s not all turf wars and assassinations. They run the construction industry here.’
There is a wealth of detail in this book, from politics to descriptions of the cities, from skyscrapers to slums. Overall, an interesting read, if a little uneven at times.
June 8, 2012
I recently finished Typhoon. I discovered Charles Cumming when I picked up his novel A Spy by Nature at my local library last year. I had not heard of him, and when I began reading that novel, I experienced that unique reader's thrill that comes with coming across a writer with extraordinary talent in storytelling, whose style is exceptionally lucid and engaging, and to my mind, whose insights into the human condition are astonishingly insightful for one new to the genre. Typhoon turned out to be further validation of this writer's craft, and in an interesting bit of the ironic way that "life imitates art", shortly after I finished it, the scandal in China broke with the dumping of the highly-ranked Chinese official Bo Xilai and the accusation that his wife Gu Kalai poisoned a British businessman Neil Heywood who had worked with both Chinese luminaries - a story that could very well have been penned by Mr. Cumming. His style and approach remind me of one of the greatest - in my mind - spy novelists ever, Charles McCarry, whose Tears of Autumn may be the most powerful, compelling and tragic tales of Vietnam and the Kennedy assassination ever written.
June 11, 2018
Dragged midway thru and ended with a nice bang!
March 3, 2015
As "Typhoon" nears its conclusion, a supersize poster of David Beckham gazes down on the scene of Shanghai's media-fuelled capitalism, "with Chinese characteristics". Charles Cumming is sometimes billed as John Le Carre's successor, though any posters in the latter’s Cold War thrillers no doubt toe the party line and are torn by the wind funnelled down streets next to the Berlin Wall. The dominant colour of the cityscapes in Le Carre is grey, whereas Hong Kong, Shanghai and even Beijing are full of brand-names, multi-screened colours and 30-somethings partying into the early hours.
The tensions are similar, though: a triangle of the Chinese state and its secret police, the CIA or at least a rogue American unit and the British secret service, with a separatist Uighur minority from Xinhiang in North West China (a world away from the coastal location of a dramatic economic boom, as China "comes out") as the catalyst. Cumming catches the peculiar mix of, on the one hand, Shanghai youth and business out-doing New York to be the capital of capitalism, and, on the other hand, a pervasive fear of the one-party state and its tentacles of surveillance and arrest, followed by imprisonment or execution. Somehow, M on the Bund and the shining malls are part of the same world as torture cells in provincial cities.
The plot is to discover and then thwart an extreme project to de-stabilise parts of China and undermine Beijing's triumphant emergence onto the world stage at the Beijing Olympics. The plot is driven by a personal triangle between the British SIS agent, Joe Lennox, the CIA agent, Miles Coolidge, and an expatriate woman, Isabella, initially Joe's girlfriend, and then Miles' wife. The motivations of these three characters are not the strongest part of the novel and the scenes between them seem clichéd, though it is always possible that Cumming is simply describing the superficial life of a cast transplanted from Spooks.
The other shortcoming of "Typhoon", is the way the story is told - through an insider journalist who writes a book about the events between 1997 and the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China and the approach of the count-down to Beijing, 2008. It is part of John Le Carre's skill that knowledge of events and motives are put together piecemeal, with some people knowing some things and not others. The telling becomes part of the story. “Typhoon” loses some of its credibility and tension because we know that the journalist knows. If there is a distinction between the thriller and the spy novel (and mostly, they overlap), it has to do with the uncertainty of knowledge. The narrative structure of "Typhoon" works against this important part of the genre.
The tensions are similar, though: a triangle of the Chinese state and its secret police, the CIA or at least a rogue American unit and the British secret service, with a separatist Uighur minority from Xinhiang in North West China (a world away from the coastal location of a dramatic economic boom, as China "comes out") as the catalyst. Cumming catches the peculiar mix of, on the one hand, Shanghai youth and business out-doing New York to be the capital of capitalism, and, on the other hand, a pervasive fear of the one-party state and its tentacles of surveillance and arrest, followed by imprisonment or execution. Somehow, M on the Bund and the shining malls are part of the same world as torture cells in provincial cities.
The plot is to discover and then thwart an extreme project to de-stabilise parts of China and undermine Beijing's triumphant emergence onto the world stage at the Beijing Olympics. The plot is driven by a personal triangle between the British SIS agent, Joe Lennox, the CIA agent, Miles Coolidge, and an expatriate woman, Isabella, initially Joe's girlfriend, and then Miles' wife. The motivations of these three characters are not the strongest part of the novel and the scenes between them seem clichéd, though it is always possible that Cumming is simply describing the superficial life of a cast transplanted from Spooks.
The other shortcoming of "Typhoon", is the way the story is told - through an insider journalist who writes a book about the events between 1997 and the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China and the approach of the count-down to Beijing, 2008. It is part of John Le Carre's skill that knowledge of events and motives are put together piecemeal, with some people knowing some things and not others. The telling becomes part of the story. “Typhoon” loses some of its credibility and tension because we know that the journalist knows. If there is a distinction between the thriller and the spy novel (and mostly, they overlap), it has to do with the uncertainty of knowledge. The narrative structure of "Typhoon" works against this important part of the genre.
December 9, 2009
The novel starts in the future with Joe Lennox a british spy asking one of his agents, the narrator, to write a story about the Typhoon operation.
The novel then drops back to the past in Hong Kong, where it all began. Joe Lennox is a NOC, an undercover agent for MI6, one of the British equivalent's for the CIA. He is undercover in Hong KOng right before the turnover of that country from Great Britain to the Chinese. Isabella, a beautiful reporter is his lover, but is unaware of his real career. Miles Coolidge is a CIA agent who is overt in what he does, and he knows what JOe Lennox's job actually is. Miles is envious of Lennox's youth and also wants Isabella. Lennox plans to propose to Isabella at one of the parties prior to the handoff.
Lennox is at dinner with Miles, Isabella and another reporter, who is a nameless reporter and narrator of the story. He also knows what Lennox does because Lennox is his handler. Lennox receives a call and is sent to interview Wang at a British safehouse. Wang is a Chinese defector who has swam from old China to Hong Kong with information about atrocities committed by the Chinese in one of the more Muslim provences. He has been captured by a British soldier. Miles figures out that something is up and using another British agent Ken Lenan, who he has turned to working against British interests, basically steals Wang from the safehouse for the purpose of bringing him back to China to run a terror network run by Miles and the Americans for the purpose of undermining the Chinese regime. The plan is codenamed Typhoon.
After Wang is whisked away, Miles learns from Kenan that Lennox plans to propose to Isabella, and Miles plans to use on of his sources to get Isabella away from Lennox by revealing that he is a spy who has been lying to her during their two year courtship. The plan works to perfection and Isabella turns to Miles.
8 years pass, and Lennox is approached by his boss about running an operation in Shanghai, where Lennox will again go undercover as having left MI6 so that he can find out if Miles is still running the Typhoon operation as several British subjects who were involved have turned up dead. Miles has been plannng to turn his terror network loose upon the Olympic games in two years but wants them to stay low right now. However, once you arm a terrorist, its hard to control who they want to kill. It turns out that one of the main recruits in the terror network that Miles is running has been indoctrinated against USA interests by the Pakastani secret service and his muslim brothers, and is moving out from under Miles control with his own plan.
Lennox is eager to do go against Miles b/c Miles is married to Isabella, who lives with him in China. It all comes to a head in an ending that was telegraphed in the beginning to some extent.
Cumming's latest spy novel, a New York Times noteworthy book, is great for the setting and the characters and that spycraft did not end with the Cold War and Le Carre. these are not the novels of secret boxes, but is a world where terror is the linchpin. Although there is collateral damage in the novel and the human drama between Miles, Wang, Lennox and Isabella which forms the core of the novel is well written and convincing, I found the novel a touch antiseptic.
All of the violence takes place off screen, with people finding out about others being killed, beaten or brutalized after the fact. I think this is part of the narration because its supposed to be from the reporter. Further we never feel that Lennox is in danger. Maybe that is because of the plot devise of starting the novel, with Lennox having escaped some kind of explosion.
Nonetheless, this appears to be a more modern take on the spy novel as the action takes place in the far east and involves terrorism. Also its a conflict between Britain and the US, which is unusual.
The novel then drops back to the past in Hong Kong, where it all began. Joe Lennox is a NOC, an undercover agent for MI6, one of the British equivalent's for the CIA. He is undercover in Hong KOng right before the turnover of that country from Great Britain to the Chinese. Isabella, a beautiful reporter is his lover, but is unaware of his real career. Miles Coolidge is a CIA agent who is overt in what he does, and he knows what JOe Lennox's job actually is. Miles is envious of Lennox's youth and also wants Isabella. Lennox plans to propose to Isabella at one of the parties prior to the handoff.
Lennox is at dinner with Miles, Isabella and another reporter, who is a nameless reporter and narrator of the story. He also knows what Lennox does because Lennox is his handler. Lennox receives a call and is sent to interview Wang at a British safehouse. Wang is a Chinese defector who has swam from old China to Hong Kong with information about atrocities committed by the Chinese in one of the more Muslim provences. He has been captured by a British soldier. Miles figures out that something is up and using another British agent Ken Lenan, who he has turned to working against British interests, basically steals Wang from the safehouse for the purpose of bringing him back to China to run a terror network run by Miles and the Americans for the purpose of undermining the Chinese regime. The plan is codenamed Typhoon.
After Wang is whisked away, Miles learns from Kenan that Lennox plans to propose to Isabella, and Miles plans to use on of his sources to get Isabella away from Lennox by revealing that he is a spy who has been lying to her during their two year courtship. The plan works to perfection and Isabella turns to Miles.
8 years pass, and Lennox is approached by his boss about running an operation in Shanghai, where Lennox will again go undercover as having left MI6 so that he can find out if Miles is still running the Typhoon operation as several British subjects who were involved have turned up dead. Miles has been plannng to turn his terror network loose upon the Olympic games in two years but wants them to stay low right now. However, once you arm a terrorist, its hard to control who they want to kill. It turns out that one of the main recruits in the terror network that Miles is running has been indoctrinated against USA interests by the Pakastani secret service and his muslim brothers, and is moving out from under Miles control with his own plan.
Lennox is eager to do go against Miles b/c Miles is married to Isabella, who lives with him in China. It all comes to a head in an ending that was telegraphed in the beginning to some extent.
Cumming's latest spy novel, a New York Times noteworthy book, is great for the setting and the characters and that spycraft did not end with the Cold War and Le Carre. these are not the novels of secret boxes, but is a world where terror is the linchpin. Although there is collateral damage in the novel and the human drama between Miles, Wang, Lennox and Isabella which forms the core of the novel is well written and convincing, I found the novel a touch antiseptic.
All of the violence takes place off screen, with people finding out about others being killed, beaten or brutalized after the fact. I think this is part of the narration because its supposed to be from the reporter. Further we never feel that Lennox is in danger. Maybe that is because of the plot devise of starting the novel, with Lennox having escaped some kind of explosion.
Nonetheless, this appears to be a more modern take on the spy novel as the action takes place in the far east and involves terrorism. Also its a conflict between Britain and the US, which is unusual.
August 17, 2019
'Typhoon', Charles Cumming's 4th spy novel, is yet another winner for my candidate for Current World's Greatest Spy Novelist. It's complicated, many names of people and places are unpronounceable, and the CIA is exposed taking actions that we Americans probably think they wouldn't do, but on the other hand it's beautifully written with a great plot and interesting characters, is set in exotic locations, and has one of those endings that are sort of in the gray area, with neither the good guys or bad guys escaping cleanly.
It'll be tough to explain the plot without spoilers, but I'll give it a shot. At the highest level, a rogue Western intelligence officer is plotting a terrorist attack at the 2008 Olympic games held in China in order to embarrass the country's governmental officials. One of the West's 'good guys', a Brit MI6 officer, discovers the barest outline of the plan and attempts to stop it. It's way more complex than that, with Chinese intelligence, MI6, CIA, autonomous regions of China, love triangles, dissidents, and competing factions within spy communities all involved. It's a bit hard to follow at times, but your patience and focus will pay off if you can handle it.
I'm a huge fan of Cumming and Typhoon is another effort reinforcing my belief that he's a worthy successor to the great John Le Carre.
It'll be tough to explain the plot without spoilers, but I'll give it a shot. At the highest level, a rogue Western intelligence officer is plotting a terrorist attack at the 2008 Olympic games held in China in order to embarrass the country's governmental officials. One of the West's 'good guys', a Brit MI6 officer, discovers the barest outline of the plan and attempts to stop it. It's way more complex than that, with Chinese intelligence, MI6, CIA, autonomous regions of China, love triangles, dissidents, and competing factions within spy communities all involved. It's a bit hard to follow at times, but your patience and focus will pay off if you can handle it.
I'm a huge fan of Cumming and Typhoon is another effort reinforcing my belief that he's a worthy successor to the great John Le Carre.
February 20, 2019
Trashy spy novel. Gets a few extra points for using iconic expat haunts in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which is fun for those familiar with the places. I suppose Cumming deserves credit for bringing broader attention to the situation in Xinjiang back in 2009, but his characters are laughable caricatures, and the dialogue is straight out of a B-movie script. Nothing special about the plot. Best thing that can be said is it's a quick, mindless read if you're into the spy genre and need a beach book.
March 14, 2023
This did have a slowish start, which is quite unusual for my favourite spy thriller writer, but the end made up for it, and I loved the very real backdrop of the handover of Hong Kong back to China. A standalone.
May 1, 2012
The second of Charles Cummings' books that I have read. The action takes place firstly in Hong Kong leading up to the colony's handover to the Chinese in 1997 and then some years later in China itself.
A Chinese professor, terrorists/freedom fighters, CIA operatives and Britain's SIS all cross each other and vie for attention and information in formulating their countries, organisations' or individual plans. There are links to oil, the Olympics, people displacement and political influence alongside hedonism and love.
All in all an very enjoyable and readable thriller.
A Chinese professor, terrorists/freedom fighters, CIA operatives and Britain's SIS all cross each other and vie for attention and information in formulating their countries, organisations' or individual plans. There are links to oil, the Olympics, people displacement and political influence alongside hedonism and love.
All in all an very enjoyable and readable thriller.
June 7, 2009
Charles Cumming is touted as the 'new' Lecarre, an odd description since we still have Lecarre but publicists are publicists. This novel is set in China, largely post 9-11 and leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games and captures some of the essence of 'global' attitudes. A fast paced account of a too good to be true British agent and an oh so believable American one. As far as spy stories go, this one works.
December 3, 2009
Fully engaging spy thriller pairing a British spy and a journalist in a timely story about China's treatment of the Uighur population in western China. The book has a pager-turner cinematic quality that kept me flying through the book nonstop.
January 9, 2016
Cumming writes well, tells a good story and gives the impression of having 'been there'. He takes his readers to the Far East in a convincing manner and gets inside his characters' heads. A fine piece of fiction that could have a lot of fact camouflaged inside it.
October 4, 2014
Clever plot lots of twists good pace. Not my usual genre but I really enjoyed it.
February 4, 2022
Professor Wang Kaixuan emerged from the waters of the South China Sea shortly before dawn.” So begins this well-constructed tale of high-stakes espionage, betrayal, and unforeseen consequences set in modern-day China. The story revolves around an improbably capable young MI6 agent, his flamboyant CIA counterpart, the young woman they both lust after, and a right-wing Washington cabal and the corporation that does its bidding. The book is well-researched, cogently written, and expertly plotted. If your taste runs to spy thrillers, this is one of the better ones of recent years.
HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS
In a move all too familiar to CIA-watchers, the Agency is plotting to to destabilize China by supporting the subversive actions of an Islamic group located in the country’s far west. Meanwhile, MI6 has set out to undermine them, since the two countries are operating at cross-purposes in China. The principal actors in this drama are officers of the two intelligence services Joe Lennox and Miles Coolidge. To complicate matters, the two share a girlfriend. And, as we soon learn, the driving force behind the plot is a right-wing Washington cabal.
AN AMBIVALENT “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP”
Charles Cumming, who is British, has an interesting take on his protagonist. “Miles Coolidge was the Yank of your dreams and nightmares: he could be electrifying company; he could be obnoxious and vain. He could be subtle and perceptive; he could be crass and dumb. He was a friend and an enemy, an asset and a problem. He was an American.” And is this what we call the “special relationship?”
Cumming does it again in words he puts in the mouth of MI6 officer Joe Lennox: “I am not anti-American. . . I just despise the current American administration. I despair that [President George W.] Bush has made ordinary, decent people all over the world think twice about what was once, and still could be again, a great country, when what happened on September 11th should have made ordinary, decent people all over the world embrace America as never before. I don’t like it that neo-conservative politicians bully their so-called allies while playing to the worst, racist instincts of their own bewildered electorate.” And, although Cumming wrote these words nearly a decade and a half ago, they could even more easily be written today.
A PLAUSIBLE STORY GROUNDED IN REALITY
Is it all hard to believe? Up to a point, of course. But there is potential aplenty in today’s Xinjiang, where the Chinese Communist government has sent more than one million Muslim Uighurs to “vocational education and training centers” that are, of course, concentration camps. And now, in 2022, we Americans cannot be surprised in the least to learn about “right-wing Washington cabals” with sinister aims since one departed the White House early last year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles Cumming is sometimes referred to as the successor to John le Carré, but I’d like to see him write about a more believable protagonist before I go along with that judgment. However, as I write in my review of Cumming’s The Hidden Man, his “flawed heroes, Alec Milius and Thomas Kell, resemble John Le Carre’s George Smiley more closely than James Bond, and their adversaries are real-world spy agencies rather than such fantasies as Spectre. Cumming’s work doesn’t attain the literary heights of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but few writers working today in the genre have mastered the craft as well as he. (Joseph Kanon and Olen Steinhauer are among the few I’ve read recently.)”
HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS
In a move all too familiar to CIA-watchers, the Agency is plotting to to destabilize China by supporting the subversive actions of an Islamic group located in the country’s far west. Meanwhile, MI6 has set out to undermine them, since the two countries are operating at cross-purposes in China. The principal actors in this drama are officers of the two intelligence services Joe Lennox and Miles Coolidge. To complicate matters, the two share a girlfriend. And, as we soon learn, the driving force behind the plot is a right-wing Washington cabal.
AN AMBIVALENT “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP”
Charles Cumming, who is British, has an interesting take on his protagonist. “Miles Coolidge was the Yank of your dreams and nightmares: he could be electrifying company; he could be obnoxious and vain. He could be subtle and perceptive; he could be crass and dumb. He was a friend and an enemy, an asset and a problem. He was an American.” And is this what we call the “special relationship?”
Cumming does it again in words he puts in the mouth of MI6 officer Joe Lennox: “I am not anti-American. . . I just despise the current American administration. I despair that [President George W.] Bush has made ordinary, decent people all over the world think twice about what was once, and still could be again, a great country, when what happened on September 11th should have made ordinary, decent people all over the world embrace America as never before. I don’t like it that neo-conservative politicians bully their so-called allies while playing to the worst, racist instincts of their own bewildered electorate.” And, although Cumming wrote these words nearly a decade and a half ago, they could even more easily be written today.
A PLAUSIBLE STORY GROUNDED IN REALITY
Is it all hard to believe? Up to a point, of course. But there is potential aplenty in today’s Xinjiang, where the Chinese Communist government has sent more than one million Muslim Uighurs to “vocational education and training centers” that are, of course, concentration camps. And now, in 2022, we Americans cannot be surprised in the least to learn about “right-wing Washington cabals” with sinister aims since one departed the White House early last year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles Cumming is sometimes referred to as the successor to John le Carré, but I’d like to see him write about a more believable protagonist before I go along with that judgment. However, as I write in my review of Cumming’s The Hidden Man, his “flawed heroes, Alec Milius and Thomas Kell, resemble John Le Carre’s George Smiley more closely than James Bond, and their adversaries are real-world spy agencies rather than such fantasies as Spectre. Cumming’s work doesn’t attain the literary heights of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but few writers working today in the genre have mastered the craft as well as he. (Joseph Kanon and Olen Steinhauer are among the few I’ve read recently.)”
May 12, 2025
Let’s start with the positives. Charles Cumming’s extensive research shines through in his depiction of China, diverging from the usual focus on Russia in spy novels. His vivid descriptions of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing capture the essence of expatriate life with authenticity, suggesting intimate familiarity with these locales. Additionally, Cumming’s portrayal of tradecraft is convincing, lending credibility to the narrative.
However, the novel suffers from significant shortcomings. Chief among them is the flat writing style, exacerbated by frequent head-hopping and excessive exposition that detracts from the story’s flow. The decision to employ an omniscient narrator, doubling as a journalist-spy, feels misplaced and detracts from immersion. These issues should have been addressed in the editing process to maintain narrative coherence.
Furthermore, the plot’s lack of plausibility undermines its impact. The premise involving American support for a Chinese-Muslim terrorist group during the Beijing Olympics strains credulity, leaving readers questioning the rationale behind such a convoluted scheme. Similarly, the involvement of a private corporation collaborating with the CIA seems far-fetched and detracts from the novel’s realism.
Characterization also falls short. Protagonist Joe Lennox fails to resonate, coming across as a passive figure still fixated on his ex-girlfriend, Isabella, even after seven years. His relationship with Megan in Shanghai feels forced and fails to add depth to his character. Supporting characters like Miles, portrayed as a caricature of a CIA agent, further diminish reader engagement.
In conclusion, while Cumming’s descriptive prowess shines in depicting settings, the novel’s narrative weaknesses prevent it from reaching its full potential. The intriguing backdrop of China and well-researched tradecraft are overshadowed by narrative inconsistencies and underdeveloped characters.
However, the novel suffers from significant shortcomings. Chief among them is the flat writing style, exacerbated by frequent head-hopping and excessive exposition that detracts from the story’s flow. The decision to employ an omniscient narrator, doubling as a journalist-spy, feels misplaced and detracts from immersion. These issues should have been addressed in the editing process to maintain narrative coherence.
Furthermore, the plot’s lack of plausibility undermines its impact. The premise involving American support for a Chinese-Muslim terrorist group during the Beijing Olympics strains credulity, leaving readers questioning the rationale behind such a convoluted scheme. Similarly, the involvement of a private corporation collaborating with the CIA seems far-fetched and detracts from the novel’s realism.
Characterization also falls short. Protagonist Joe Lennox fails to resonate, coming across as a passive figure still fixated on his ex-girlfriend, Isabella, even after seven years. His relationship with Megan in Shanghai feels forced and fails to add depth to his character. Supporting characters like Miles, portrayed as a caricature of a CIA agent, further diminish reader engagement.
In conclusion, while Cumming’s descriptive prowess shines in depicting settings, the novel’s narrative weaknesses prevent it from reaching its full potential. The intriguing backdrop of China and well-researched tradecraft are overshadowed by narrative inconsistencies and underdeveloped characters.
April 24, 2021
Getting into this book seemed harder than most and I seemed to simultaneously be invested but could also put the book down and never read it again.
I loved the way Charles Cumming could give you an impression of a character just from the phrasing when they spoke or little bits which build on the personality.
The last section (probs 100 pages) really ramped up and trying to read it under my own time constraints added spectacularly to the tension and bubbling to the finale which overall I have to give credit for.
However, and I don’t know why but I feel indifferent to this book and I had done all the way through.
I may well read another Charles Cumming novel and see if this was a one off or just the writing isn’t to my taste; there is something there but not quite hitting the mark!
I loved the way Charles Cumming could give you an impression of a character just from the phrasing when they spoke or little bits which build on the personality.
The last section (probs 100 pages) really ramped up and trying to read it under my own time constraints added spectacularly to the tension and bubbling to the finale which overall I have to give credit for.
However, and I don’t know why but I feel indifferent to this book and I had done all the way through.
I may well read another Charles Cumming novel and see if this was a one off or just the writing isn’t to my taste; there is something there but not quite hitting the mark!
January 25, 2017
Typhoon is an espionage thriller set mainly in pre-handover Hong Kong and 2005 Shanghai. If you can believe it, the Pentagon/CIA areembroiled in a plot to both destabilize China prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and line the pockets of a corporation with oil money. At the centre of this plot are the Uighurs of Xinjiang. Their dislike of the Chinese government makes them the perfect ally to wreak havoc. There’s only one problem: an SIS agent named Joe.
What I likedCumming is a master at creating personal torment in his characters. So much so that you can’t help but feel sorry for them. The scene at Miles’ apartment, for example, was portrayed so vividly that
Not many fiction authors have tackled the Uighur cause with such detail. The research was well done and you definitely come away having learned a lot about a significant minority population in China.
This story was much more cerebral than it was action-packed. It was as if it was played out in the minds of Miles and Joe, rather than on the streets of Hong Kong and Shanghai.
As usual, Cumming does a great job with the descriptions of spy craft.
What I didn’t likeThe Uighur characters were not developed particularly well. And their cause was highlighted mainly by a Han Chinese man and the CIA. It could’ve been helpful to build an understanding of the Uighur plight through a Uighur character.
There were times when monologues and explanations went on for too long.
There was something about Isabella’s character that bothered me. It seems a common occurrence that in spy novels the female characters aren’t much more than accessories.
To further the above point, much of the story boiled down to a fight over Isabella between Miles and Joe. Realistic, perhaps, but not particularly original.
June 18, 2011
This story starts as the British are handing over Hong Kong to the Chinese. A strange Chinese (Wang) swims to Hong Kong and manages to bluff his way to interogation rather than repatriation. While the British agent is interogating him the Americans manage to spirit him away. And so starts the life of the strange Typhoon conspiracy. Told as a narrative of a novelist it follows the life of Joe Lennox into Hong Kong and back to the UK and then into China itself as a SIS operative always working undercover. Ultimately the real purpose of the Typhoon operation is revealed to Joe as is the relationship between Chinese professor, the americans who spirited him away and the highly complex web of international political intrigue that leads, as always, to the insatiable thirst for oil in the West. The tale ends, more or less, with a semi successful plot to explode bombs (IED's) in cinema's and clubs in China and the prologue makes a veiled link to these events and the London Bombings known as "7/7".
This is a truly excellent book and well worth the praise heaped on it by others and Charles Cumming may well be, as the Observer has said, taking up the Le Carre mantle. This was an audio book
This is a truly excellent book and well worth the praise heaped on it by others and Charles Cumming may well be, as the Observer has said, taking up the Le Carre mantle. This was an audio book
January 28, 2010
It took me about two-thirds of the book to really be intrigued by the story. Partly, that's because I'd recently read another novel (Palace Council) that's fairly heavy with historical detail. Partly, that's because Cumming's narrative style is just different from other espionage authors.
What I found somewhat tedious in the telling was the fact that so much of this novel is just matter-of-fact dialogue between the main characters. Very little actual activity or action until near the end. No doubt, that's actually a more realistic portrayal of an MI6 or CIA operative's lifestyle! Fair enough, but it's not what I usually find entertaining about these stories.
In addition, there's probably a bit of a generation gap here - I'm substantially older than the author. So I tired pretty quickly of the hip-bar-scene scenarios. May be a genuine insight into the social scene for these expats in Hong Kong and China, but I just grew weary of the CIA agent's constant sexual foraging.
All in all, an enjoyable read - just not what I expected.
What I found somewhat tedious in the telling was the fact that so much of this novel is just matter-of-fact dialogue between the main characters. Very little actual activity or action until near the end. No doubt, that's actually a more realistic portrayal of an MI6 or CIA operative's lifestyle! Fair enough, but it's not what I usually find entertaining about these stories.
In addition, there's probably a bit of a generation gap here - I'm substantially older than the author. So I tired pretty quickly of the hip-bar-scene scenarios. May be a genuine insight into the social scene for these expats in Hong Kong and China, but I just grew weary of the CIA agent's constant sexual foraging.
All in all, an enjoyable read - just not what I expected.
Read
July 29, 2011I loved this book. I got it out of the library because it was one of the NYT 50 best books of last year that sounded like I would like it, and the library had--it is actually more of a thriller-spy novel than a straight ahead fiction novel--so perfect for my plane rise into Lake Tahoe--finished it before the plane left Denver, actually. Great main character, unlikable American spy who gets the girl and we all feel bad about that, but she probably would have distracted our hero from the job at hand. It was a pleasant story very well written--not high falluting stuff but vedry good and highly recommended.
February 9, 2014
In my opinion, Charles Cumming is the natural successor to John le Carre. And as wonderful as le Carre's books are, if you are either too young to remember, or lack awareness of, WWII or the Cold War, reading him has a rather untethering sensation.
Cumming's works take place in the latter part of the 20th and early 21st centuries and so if you have been paying attention at all the backdrops are familiar.
Exactly the case of Typhoon, which begins with the transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and continues the stories of two spies -- one CIA and one MI6 -- to the Mainland in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.
Not everything is resolved in the end, but a really, really good read.
Cumming's works take place in the latter part of the 20th and early 21st centuries and so if you have been paying attention at all the backdrops are familiar.
Exactly the case of Typhoon, which begins with the transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and continues the stories of two spies -- one CIA and one MI6 -- to the Mainland in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.
Not everything is resolved in the end, but a really, really good read.
August 10, 2014
A great read. But I am biased. The book is set primarily in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and, so, knowing both of those cities well, I am biased. Especially in Hong Kong, I remembered many of the locations in the book from when I lived there, and Cumming captured the atmosphere in both cities very nicely. Even apart from by bias, the characters are interesting and you care about them, and the plot is intricate, unpredictable, and frighteningly plausible. One need not know HK or Shanghai to enjoy this book. This is well-done all-around and is a terrific spy novel with an Asian backdrop and flair. I definitely recommend to those interested in the espionage genre, especially in Asia.
December 19, 2009
a book with as many intriguing issues as you want to read: Spy,China, HK handover, Xijiang indenpendance movement instigated by CIA, intermingled with Pakistan intelligence. Life in modern shanghai,old bund, nightspot, French concession.... there's also a triangle love story, a young and flawed character. moral questions are raised and conflicts between MI6/CIA showed.
Of the two parties of the book, I like the first one the most, it's more intensive and character building more real.
Of the two parties of the book, I like the first one the most, it's more intensive and character building more real.
February 22, 2010
An excellent spy novel with my hometown Shanghai as the backdrop. I just love Charles Cumming's writing, cool and elegant, and like Le Carre's books, no unrealistic happy endings. It also gave people a better understanding of the Uighur situation in China, a complicated subject matter that didn't grab much attention in the media. Overall a very well researched and enjoyable read.
July 22, 2013
So nice to return to a reliable author after experiencing two disappointing new books by other writers that received favorable reviews but were not to my liking. Of special interest to me, having visited Hong Kong, was the account of the reversion to China. Cumming consistently tells a good story and I always come away with a history lesson.
December 19, 2009
i love espionage and this is one of the very best i've ever read.
November 10, 2019
A really good spy novel - well written & intelligent.
October 2019: Re-reading.
October 2019: Re-reading.
December 18, 2009
Entertaining read, once you get by the typically one-dimensional European view of Americans.
May 24, 2020
Joe Lennox seems to be the perfect spy. Having graduated from Oxford with a first class degree in Mandarin in the mid 1990s he is, almost as a matter of course, recruited into MI6. Equally predictably, he finds himself posted to Hong Kong in the run up to the handover of the colony back to Chinese rule in 1997. All in all, his career seems to be developing entirely as he and MI6 might have planned.
Shortly before the handover an aging Chinese man swims across the straits to land in Hong Kong. He is found by a British soldier from the Black Watch regiment who takes him into custody. This is no ordinary refugee, however. He speaks exceptionally good, idiomatic English and recognises the Black Watch insignia.
He is removed to a safe house for questioning, which is undertaken by Lennox, who establishes a rapport him. We learn that he is Professor Wang, and he gradually spins a story about potential insurrection in Western China where the Uighur Muslim community is showing signs of rising up against decades, or even centuries, of suppression by the Han Chinese. Wang seems able to offer a wealth of detail, and Lennox thinks that he may be on to a major espionage coup.
Lennox never gets to find out. While he is taking a break for sleep, Wang is spirited away by some of Lennox's MI6 colleagues, working in association with Miles Coolidge, senior CIA operative for that area. No explanation is forthcoming, and Lennox finds himself out in the cold.
Seven years later and the world, post-911 is completely different. Lennox is back in the Far East, now based in Shanghai, as is Coolidge.
Cumming spins a complicated tale but never lets the reader's attention flag. The plot is certainly on a par with le Carre at his finest. Cumming can't quite match le Carre's unique prose style, of course, but then who can? Lennox is an engaging and likeable character, and his relations with colleagues, counterparts from other agencies and also the 'civilian' bystanders whom he deals with are all plausible.
This was a very entertaining novel, and a worthy heir to le Carre's 'The Honourable Schoolboy'.
Shortly before the handover an aging Chinese man swims across the straits to land in Hong Kong. He is found by a British soldier from the Black Watch regiment who takes him into custody. This is no ordinary refugee, however. He speaks exceptionally good, idiomatic English and recognises the Black Watch insignia.
He is removed to a safe house for questioning, which is undertaken by Lennox, who establishes a rapport him. We learn that he is Professor Wang, and he gradually spins a story about potential insurrection in Western China where the Uighur Muslim community is showing signs of rising up against decades, or even centuries, of suppression by the Han Chinese. Wang seems able to offer a wealth of detail, and Lennox thinks that he may be on to a major espionage coup.
Lennox never gets to find out. While he is taking a break for sleep, Wang is spirited away by some of Lennox's MI6 colleagues, working in association with Miles Coolidge, senior CIA operative for that area. No explanation is forthcoming, and Lennox finds himself out in the cold.
Seven years later and the world, post-911 is completely different. Lennox is back in the Far East, now based in Shanghai, as is Coolidge.
Cumming spins a complicated tale but never lets the reader's attention flag. The plot is certainly on a par with le Carre at his finest. Cumming can't quite match le Carre's unique prose style, of course, but then who can? Lennox is an engaging and likeable character, and his relations with colleagues, counterparts from other agencies and also the 'civilian' bystanders whom he deals with are all plausible.
This was a very entertaining novel, and a worthy heir to le Carre's 'The Honourable Schoolboy'.
July 27, 2021
The novel begins with this quote attributed to Confucious:
"The superior man understands what is right; The inferior man understands what will sell."
Underlying the action of this spy novel, set in China, is the issue of intelligence agents holding to decent principles, especially when their government leaders engage in dubious deals and policies.
Joe Lennox, of British Intelligence, is the 'superior man' - or he tries to be. The US agent, Miles Coolidge makes no such claims, indeed he seems to revel in being the bad boy around town. Both are involved at two different periods (1997 and 2008) in intelligence activities in China. Linking the two is Isabella, a love interest for both. (I found this the least convincing aspect of the book.)
Most interesting to me was the background of the Chinese Government's persecution of the Uighur Muslim population in the so-called autonomous region of Xinjiang, an appalling example of China's human rights record. I also enjoyed the settings in Hong Kong at the time of the handover from Britain to China (1997) and in Shanghai in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics (2008). Coincidentally I was in each of those cities in those particular years so that connected me to the places and the atmosphere of those times.
I was interested enough in the characters and the background issues but found the novel slow moving until the action and tension ramped up in the last third. Charles Cumming apparently has a growing reputation as a successor to John Le Carre. He's nowhere near as good in my view - or not yet at least.
"The superior man understands what is right; The inferior man understands what will sell."
Underlying the action of this spy novel, set in China, is the issue of intelligence agents holding to decent principles, especially when their government leaders engage in dubious deals and policies.
Joe Lennox, of British Intelligence, is the 'superior man' - or he tries to be. The US agent, Miles Coolidge makes no such claims, indeed he seems to revel in being the bad boy around town. Both are involved at two different periods (1997 and 2008) in intelligence activities in China. Linking the two is Isabella, a love interest for both. (I found this the least convincing aspect of the book.)
Most interesting to me was the background of the Chinese Government's persecution of the Uighur Muslim population in the so-called autonomous region of Xinjiang, an appalling example of China's human rights record. I also enjoyed the settings in Hong Kong at the time of the handover from Britain to China (1997) and in Shanghai in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics (2008). Coincidentally I was in each of those cities in those particular years so that connected me to the places and the atmosphere of those times.
I was interested enough in the characters and the background issues but found the novel slow moving until the action and tension ramped up in the last third. Charles Cumming apparently has a growing reputation as a successor to John Le Carre. He's nowhere near as good in my view - or not yet at least.
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