China Run - Kalte Jagd: Thriller | Eine Mutter kämpft um das Leben ihres Kindes

by David Ball, David Ball

Wenn der größte Traum zum Albtraum wird – und eine erbitterte Jagd Der fesselnde Thriller »China Run« von David Ball als eBook bei dotbooks. Wie weit darf man gehen, um das Leben eines Kindes zu schützen? Voller Zuversicht reist die amerikanische Anwältin Allison Turk gemeinsam mit anderen hoffnungsfrohen Eltern nach Sie haben die Erlaubnis erhalten, hier Kinder zu adoptieren, um ihnen eine bessere Zukunft bieten zu können. Vom ersten Moment an fühlt Allison eine tiefe Verbundenheit zur kleinen Wen Li – umso härter trifft sie der Schock, als die Gruppe kurz vor der Abreise von korrupten Beamten der Entführung bezichtigt wird … und die Kinder zurücklassen soll! Im letzten Moment kann Allison den Vollstreckern der chinesischen Polizei mit Wen Li entkommen. Doch nun befindet sie sich auf der Flucht durch ein fremdes Land, in dem sie niemanden kennt und keine Freunde hat – mit einem kleinen Mädchen in ihren Armen, das sich schutzsuchend an sie klammert … Zu den Männern, die nach der verschwundenen Amerikanerin suchen, gehört auch der Polizist Ma Lin. Je länger die unbarmherzige Jagd dauert, umso größer werden seine Zweifel, ob er wirklich auf der richtigen Seite steht. Aber kann er wirklich in Frage stellen, woran er sein Leben lang geglaubt hat? Temporeich, vielschichtig, Ein Thriller, der unter die Haut geht! Jetzt als eBook kaufen und genieß »China Run« von David Ball. Wer liest, hat mehr vom dotbooks – der eBook-Verlag.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, China, Adult, Thriller, Audiobook, Mystery

588 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 30, 2002

Reviews

[Larry Bassett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I paid $1 for China Run from a bargain counter at a Target, not my usual source of reading material. But I was in the process of adopting a little girl from China and this book seemed to be begging to be read. I started it but was soon distracted by the process of the adoption and the rest of life. The adoption completed going on four years ago, I recently pulled the book from its pile and thought I would try again. I am glad I did. There is a good deal of mystery, suspense, travelogue, history, culture, violent death and adventure here.

Whatever you have heard negative about China this novel will confirm! From bribery and other corrupt processes to selling children into the Asian sex trade and selling babies into black market adoptions, it is all here. China PR does not fair well here although as you might suspect there are some good Chinese people who make the story happen. In fact, maybe they are a little too good, several risking and some loosing their lives for the main characters. The kind of characters that you often find in mystery and spy and adventure stories and usually seem unlikely to me but essential to the story.

China Run was probably researched in the late 1990s. And there was a good deal of research done, that is certain. But research about 20th century China has a half-life of about 5 years. Things are changing so rapidly that a book published in 2002 is probably out of date in many ways by 2010. I don't know at what point you refer to a book as historical fiction. It probably isn't ten years but maybe we should use cat years for China and call it 55 years instead of 10.

China Run is nearly nonstop international intrigue with a nine year old playing an unlikely central role, people taking big risks for people they don't know, characters managing to hold onto their luggage throughout their fugitive experience including escaping from a sinking boat. The airlines should only be so good at hanging onto suitcases! But how would the baby have had enough formula powder for the entire book otherwise? I guess this books counts on you willingly suspending disbelief for a lot of its effectiveness. But I would say that it is worth the effort. Anyway, I got my dollar's worth.

[Lartemis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio-book. The story was action packed! I enjoyed the author's descriptions of the local colors, smells, and sounds: from the big city hotel to the rural pig-sty, I felt I was there. The author is explicit in describing the treatment of abandoned and orphaned children, mostly girls. He deals with the Chinese mafia, police brutality, and other issues. I am hopeful that these problems have improved in the ten years since the book was written, especially with the lifting of China's "one-child-policy". I am not naive enough to imagine that there is total reform, especially as sex-trafficking has become an issue even in my little area of Wisconsin.

[Bert Tomlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this audiobook basically to hear narrator George Guidall. He keeps you on the edge of your seat. Quite a change from other mysteries I have read recently. Loved listening to it.

[Trudy Wyss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really was sucked in by this book at first. I listened to half of the audiobook but gradually got more and more bothered by my inability to believe that the characters would actually do what Ball said they were doing. They were running with babies when they had been promised other babies. It wasn’t like they would go home without a child. I understand they had bonded with those babies, but still. They’re running through a country they don’t know, the police and government officials are after them, and then people actually start to die! People are dying and risking everything to help Americans who prefer the babies they have to other babies. And the main character, Allison, is running with her 9-year-old stepson, putting him at risk not to save this baby she’s known for 4 days—the baby’s safety is never at risk—but to keep her. The motivation just didn’t fit the extremes to which the characters were willing to go.

[Susan Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, well-researched, and fast-paced read. American Allison Turk journeys to China, accompanied by her young stepson, to pick up her new daughter through a government adoption agency. Her group of American prospective parents picks up six new babies. But something goes horribly wrong -- before the adoptions can be finalized, authorities tell them they have been given the wrong babies and the children must be returned to the Chinese government and exchanged for other babies. Allison and two other mothers defy the order, taking off across China in a bid to save their children.

[Pam_Reads]

The ending was fast but getting there was and adventurous journey. I recommended it to several friends and family members and sent a copy to my daughter. I followed the journey on a map, did some research on the areas along the way and in other words, was totally submersed. China, rivers, small quiet homes, corruption of those in power, unexpected strength of character, unexpected mountain-like obstacles. Jump in and hold on.

[Patricia Bourque · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the book but I had to suspend reality when Allison, Ruth and Tyler had enough baby wipes, formula, food, medicine and bandages even though they had been thrown from an exploding boat and were always on the run through monsoons and mud - somehow they managed to carry their luggage/backpacks with them along with the baby.

Other than that, it was a good story and kept you interested until the very end. Once again though, good guy finished last.

[Rūta Matilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pēc pēdējo teikumu izlasīšanas, apskāvusi grāmatu un ar asarām acīs kādu laiku skatījos pa logu, nespēdama sagremot to emociju un notikumu pārpilnību kādu autors pamanījies iekļaut šajās 450 lappusēs. Elpu aizraujošs stāsts par neiedomājamu mātes instiktu, mīlestību un absolūtu bezbailību, stājoties pretī pasaules ļaunumam. Spilgts ieskats Ķīnas realitātē.

“Ja tu nebaidies, tad tikai tāpēc, ka neesi pie pilna prāta”

[Evitina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ķīnas politika par "vienu bērnu ģimenē" ,mafija un augsta ranga amerikāņi,kas dodas adopcijā uz ķīnu un to kā viss noiet greizi, bērnunami, slimnīcas un melnais tirgus. Un to kā cīnas un izbauda kontrabandu augsta ranga ierēdņi

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book. A quick read compared to his other novel, Empires of Sand. I would have handed the baby back to security. Why risk it all for a baby? You haven't even had it for one day.

Details the emotions of being abandoned in the middle of nowhere in a strange foreign country

[Ilva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Es padevos pie 66%. Mani nekad nav īpaši vilinājusi literatūra par Āziju (tāpat arī par Āfriku ne), un šis "vilinājums" arī neuzrunāja.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chinese adoption of girl babies in the year 2000. Based on a true life incident.

[Mrs. Danvers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just... dumb. It makes me wonder what made me think it would interest or please me. After about 150 pages, I had had enough nope to close it and move on.

[Kelly Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Mmtimes4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

""Allison realized she'd been awake for twenty-four hours. She hadn't done that since college. It had been the most remarkable twenty-four hours of her life -- hours in which, for better or worse, a choice had been made, a line crossed. There was no going back. Each time she thought about it, she felt the same strange shock: She was a straitlaced civil engineer from Denver, huddled in the bowels of a broken-down cargo boat on the Wan Li Chang Jiang, the Yangtze River. Hunted by police, with her stepson and a baby that wasn't legally hers. "With all that, she was not even heading toward Shanghai, toward home.

"Instead, she was heading upriver, deeper into the heart of China....""


AS FRESH AS TODAY'S HEADLINES -- THE CHILLING, SUSPENSEFUL STORY OF A MOTHER, A NEWLY ADOPTED CHILD, AND A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT TRYING TO SEPARATE THEM...


For Allison Turk, the journey to China to claim the daughter she is adopting had been a trying experience, a series of false starts and long waits. Forced to travel without her husband, she makes the trip with her nine-year-old stepson. She hopes it will be a bonding experience, but so far this hasn't happened.

When she finally holds the little girl in her arms, however, she knows that the trip has been worth all the effort and ag gravation. In only two days, she will board a plane for home, taking with her the greatest pride and joy she has ever known.

Then suddenly everything unravels. Summoned to an emergency meeting of the adoptive parents, Allison is told a mistake has been made -- a "clerical error." The Americans have been given healthy infants rather than children with special needs, for which they are technicallyqualified, and they are told they must exchange their babies for different children. Allison is faced with a terrible decision: Should she capitulate and surrender the child she has come to love intensely, or risk an attempt to reach the American consulate in Shanghai, where she might at least have a chance to negotiate and keep her baby?

Joining with several other American couples caught in the same dilemma, Allison chooses to run. There is a more sinister reason underlying the nightmare than they know about, and their flight spawns a massive manhunt led by a ruthless police colonel wielding all the terrifying apparatus of a police state. What ensues is tense, dramatic, and totally believable -- a race in which Allison not only struggles with her infant daughter and recalcitrant stepson, but is caught in a political tug-of-war that forces her to display a depth of courage and a strength of will she had never known she possessed.

Inspired by a true-life incident, "China Run" takes the reader on a breathtaking chase across China that is gripping, compulsively readable, and frighteningly real.

This book was recommended by a friend. I enjoyed it and wondered how much was truth and what was fiction. As a parent of adopted child, I know how much you love them from the minute you set your eyes on them. It gave me a chance to think about people who have gone before us to make adopting from China possible. I have a friend in the process of adopting a medically fragile little girl of China, so excited for them and for this little girl to have a chance to be part of a loving home. A good exciting read.

[Althea Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book didn't sound too great to me, from the cover blurb, but I'd read
and really really liked both of David Ball's other novels, Empires of Sand
and Ironfire (also published as The Sword and the Scimitar). Both of those
are big, dramatic historical epics full of blood and romance. China Run,
on the other hand, is a contemporary thriller about adoption in China. Not
the most thrilling topic, to me. But like I said, I REALLY liked his other
two novels, so I picked this book up.
I didn't expect it to be as good - but I also didn't expect it to be this
BAD. This book is sheer, 100% anti-China propaganda. Now, I'm not saying
that the Chinese government isn't bad - the problems with China and its
government could indeed fill whole books. But this novel relies on shock
tactics. The problem isn't the facts, but the way it's written.
A group of Americans go to China to adopt baby girls. They're given a set
of babies, but after a couple of days, they're told there was a mistake -
they were supposed to get handicapped children, not healthy infants. Some
of the group refuse to accept this, kidnap the babies, and go on a
dangerous flight through China. Interestingly, Ball doesn't make the
Americans ideal parents. They include a blatant racist and a psychotically
violent man, and the main character, Allison, who's made out to be a hero,
is obviously really a nutcase, who has already taken a birth mother to
court to try to take her baby, in America, and is just like, "YOU WILL NOT
TAKE ANOTHER BABY FROM ME! I WANT A BABY!" - even though she already has a
stepson!
OK, so the fleeing Americans put themselves, the babies and others in
danger, a lot of people die, and it's only by chance that a Chinese
investigator discovers a secret orphanage where the best-and-brightest
orphans are adopted for a premium fee, some pretty girls are trained to be
high-priced escorts and prostitutes, and terminally ill orphans have
organs removed for transplants when they die. Is any of that really that
horrific? I don't think so. But apparently we're supposed to think it is.
Anyway, the investigator gets executed for his pains, as do a lot of other
people of varying degrees of guilt, and one Chinese baby gets to come back
to America and live with a psycho pseudo-mom.
Whatever.

[Kaity Pullon · Rating 4 out of 5]

China Run
I am going to give it positive review. I liked the book a lot it was one of my more favorite books. I liked the book because it is usually the kind of books I read. I liked the book because it is so adventures and outgoing. I do not like the book because it is so long. It is still a great book even though it is so long.
Yes it did seem like it was really happening. It was kind of both. In some areas of the book you knew what was going to happen. But in other parts of the book you did not know what was going to happen. It moves very fast for me. But the chapters in the book are so long. It felt like it toke me forever because of the long chapters.
There are a lot of parts where the author writes in Chinese because he writes their conversations. Yes I do like there still of writing. Why because I was reading a book about China Run. So it would make sense that there would be some Chinese words. No the writing is not too simple or to wordy at all. No the author does not over develop things and the author does not under- develop things either. The writing was relatable because I would have done the same things those parents did for their kids. They did not try to make you understand the writing it was very easy to understand. Yes the dialogue is realistic I could see people on a boat running from the government easily.
The point of the book was for people to put their feet into their shoes. To see how it would to be a mother and then get your kid taken away from them. No there really was nothing that would stick with me. People should get out of this book that it is hard to be parents that adopt kids from another country. Also it is hard to just give up your kid that you just got. You should learn to follow all the rules of another country so you do not end up running everywhere in another country. It made me realize that parents will do anything for their kids.

[Dorothyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai lu ce livre étant attirée par son thème: l'adoption! Le début est poignant et on ne peut que ressentir l'émotion de ces nouveaux parents à l'idée de perdre leurs enfants. Que l'on comprenne ou non la décision de cette femme de s'enfuir avec son bébé dans une Chine très stricte sur la réglementation des adoptions et où l'on ne voyage pas facilement et discrètement... on rentre dans l'histoire très facilement et avec trépidation, que va-t-il leur arriver? Vont-ils y arriver?
La 1ère moitié du livre, très bien!

Puis... j'ai commencé à m'ennuyer et à m'agacer, que de catastrophes jalonnent leurs routes (accident, naufrage,...), ça en devient complétement irréaliste, trop de malheurs s'abattent sur eux, je n'y croyais plus!
J'ai malgré tout lu jusqu'au bout, cela se redresse un peu à la fin mais malgré tout, bilan mitigé de cette lecture. Ça ne me laisse pas un souvenir génial, tellement j'ai cessé d'adhérer à la fin.

[Rob & Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative book about trying to outwit the ways a controlled society work in tracking people.
Though the book is based on a true story, the question is what part, children, corrupt officials, war lords, human organs being sold, its law , saving face or human compassion.
I enjoyed the authors pace with its sudden turns of events and mixture of people with some who think outside the state's expectation and others who see money to be made regardless of who is effected.
Right or wrong , three USA woman escape thru China with their adopted children that the officials want back and will replace them with other children. This adventure brings out the story of the China Run and the author exposes items we hear about but do not think about all the time. Perhaps some parts are expanded for the story but it is based on a country that is still one party and one way.
Time will tell
Rob

[Lindee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I'm pretty provincial when it comes to this sort of thing, but I know that swearing will turn me off almost any book immediately. Due to my upbringing, the sound of any swear word, said or read grates upon the ear. If the story had been one iota more exciting or the characters one bit less believable and likable, I'd have dumped the book back in the drop.

One thing I disliked was how the author would summarize his next section in one sentence before explaining the actual events. "It was three o'clock the next day when the guard saw Tyler." He then explains how the guard seeing Tyler comes about. It's done numerous time and began to bother me.

Other than that, the book was amazing. It was a great book to add to my dossier of knowledge concerning other cultures.

[Sally Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about a culture I have only read a few books about so I was open to learning new things about the Chinese. I am very grateful the author, David Ball, included a map (you'll need it if you read it to follow along). The reason I gave this book 4 stars was that it was so suspenseful and the love that Allison had for her adoptive daughter was amazing. So believable and beautiful. It actually opened my mind (which previously never considered adopting a child since my body does okay producing them on its own) to the real love that a woman can feel for a child that is not her own flesh and blood. My conclusion is that love knows no boundaries.

[Erin Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A true account of the culture, society, and government of China. I knew from the first chapter that the author really did his research to show the inside view of the layers of Chinese corruption, closed doors, and every day life of the people.
I listened to the audio version on a road trip. The character voices were a bit challenging to adjust to. The vocalics get better once the characters developed. Some parts of the book just kept going, so I was tempted to skip a few scenes 3/4 of the way through.
It opened my eyes to the reality of adapting from China, but it will not deter me from adapting some day.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a special one to me - I found this one solely because it was read by George Guidall and I could get it downloaded to my phone. I was having a hard time following all of the characters and on Shelfari (now defunct) most books had a characters list that I could reference or at least print off and make notes as I went. This one did not have such a character list so somehow I found him (I think probably he has a website - it's been a few years) and I wrote him with a request for the list. He didn't have one handy but took the time to write one up for me and e-mailed it back! It was so cool!

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook. Although it has taken me months to listen to it, I didn't lose my place between listening times because the plot held my interest and the prose wasn't complicated. I learned about China and how the government treats its people, especially children. The characters were pretty believable, though somewhat stereotyped, and the ending wasn't really a surprise, but it was satisfying after such a long book to have a happy ending. The reader did a good job with the various characters.

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a suspenseful and intense story. A story of Americans adopting Chinese babies that goes wrong in a huge way. Not sure all of the story was believable but it was a good story in spite of that. I had to keep reminding myself this was fiction! I did have trouble keeping some of the characters straight (the names were confusing) and some of the book dealt with torture which I had difficult reading.

[Rj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if you are not into Asian literature, this is an exciting book. Ball manages to take a rather unrealistic situation and having you believe it is a true account. I would not recommend this book to a parent in the the early stages of the international adoption process. You have enough to think about now. Wait until you have your child safely home to pick up this book.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up off the free shelf at the library and it was a good read. I didn't want to put it down because I kept wondering how Allison and her stepson were going to escape with their adopted daughter/sister. I was amazed at the people who stepped up to help her to escape and was disappointed in her husband at first who seemed to turn her in. I was so glad with the "happy" ending!

[Debby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel begins with several Americans gathered together in a hotel in China preparing to pick up the daughters they are adopting from a Chiese orphange. Something happens and the book is a page turner from then on. This is a great book for one of those "I just want to sit and read" days

[Sharoncaredio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this author hunting for Books on CD to listen to during my communte time. The story kept me on the edge of my seat, pleading with the characters not to take risky actions. David Ball's detailed richness brings the characters to life.

[Kathleen Bartolotta]

so enjoyed this story of adoption of chinese babies, but based on true happenings to 6 families in china at same time and the hardship and disappointments during the adoption phase while in china, must read to realize the pain the adoptive parents went through!