Night Heron

So Mick Herron's Slough House series has me looking with guarded interest at the modern espionage genre again - I've been burned before, but this satisifies the need for spy novels that deal with sophisticated international relations, power plays behind closed doors, corporatisation, surveillance states, counter-espionage, and the wracking tensions and costs of the poor, compromised souls at the coal face. It's a fast-paced, wide-ranging book about a prisoner who escapes from a Chinese labour camp, making his way through a world of computers and cameras and mobile phones that he barely understands to make contact with his old British Intelligence handlers to sell them a one-off look deep inside Chinese networks in exchange for money and show more freedom. Picking a British journalist to be his go-between, he soon sets off alarm bells in the corridors of power across three continents. Brisk, exciting, with a general air of authenticity that I can only judge by the sense of reality it conveys, which is effective, it's certainly what you'd look for in a post-LeCarre spy thriller. show less

Night Heron is a good beginning. Adam Brookes's novel seemed to me to be the spy novel that Clive Cussler might try to write. It is not the over the top techno thriller of the late Tom Clancy. It does however, lay the groundwork for a new British spy series that could potentially be well-received. A few scenes were very obvious as to where they were going to lead, but overall there were enough surprises to keep me reading.
The main criticism I have is the locations at the beginning of the chapters since the entire chapter was not always in the same location. This should be eliminated from future editions/novels or done more in the style of Tom Clancy's Op-Center series with shorter chapters. This was still a good light read and I would show more like to see more by this author. show less

When I first began reading Night Heron, by Adam Brookes, I wasn’t at all sure that I would be very impressed with it. The first several pages abound with notes I made on misspellings and awkward wording. On page 5, the author writes, “The thunder crumpled the empty packet in his hand, turned, raised his arm, and hurled it into the shadows. It hit 5995 on the chin, causing him to jerk reflexively, as if he had been struck.” 'He was struck, was he not?' My note read. 'By the cigarette packet?'

The staccato sentence structure the author uses in the first several pages led me to muse, on the bottom of page 6, 'Terse, short sentences convey fear or edginess or urgency… for a time. Carry on with them for too long and it’s just trying show more too hard.'

Still, I carried on, in hopes that the entire book would not thus try my patience. My hopes were answered, in spades. I can only presume that the editors were a bit lackadaisical in the opening pages, or perhaps the author was overcoming first-book jitters. Whatever the case, he soon settled into writing a fast-paced, engrossing thriller that I am quite pleased to add to my library.

My one slight disappointment with the book, when it was all said and done, was that I found little to like in any of the characters. Our protagonist (called, in turns, prisoner 5995, Peanut, and Li Huasheng) is not very admirable. He seems to have begun as a passionate revolutionary, but is now nearly as brutal as those who imprisoned him. Hardly surprising; ideology would be hard to maintain under such circumstances. However, he does show kindness and even a degree of affection to the girl Yin, otherwise known as Beautiful Peony.

By the same measure, journalist Philip Mangan has some admirable characteristics, but also seems somewhat self-absorbed. Intelligence analyst Trish Patterson was perhaps the most commendable character in the book, but even she seemed somewhat ineffectual and, with one notable exception, averse to taking risks to do the proper thing. In short, Brookes manages to make his characters quite human and recognizable to each of us; after all, it is rare for any of the human race to be entirely heroic, or entirely evil. This strategy is uncommon, in my experience; often, in books, heroes are exclusively heroic, and villains exclusively villainous. Brookes’ characterization is multi-faceted and complex, which serves to make both heroes and villains quite fascinating.

Perhaps the only two truly and completely likeable characters in the book are Ting and Harvey, and both of them pay quite a price for their decency and loyalty; whether the irony of this is intentional is not quite clear, but I suspect that it is.

The only reason I did not finish this book in one day is that I feel asleep reading it, shortly past three AM, on the day it came in the mail (which, fortunately enough, was a Friday). I finished it the following day. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I look forward to Brookes’ further works. show less

Phrases such as “taut writing,” “extreme tension,” “involved plot” seem to be in use for almost every book on the market today that concerns itself with spies and intelligence gathering. Perhaps even that hoary old cliche “torn from the headlines!” will rear up. But I have to tell you I found “Night Heron” by Adam Brookes to be all of those and more. I neglected chores, put off other delightful pastimes and generally abandoned myself to this book. The author is a journalist with experience in the East and Mid-east and he brings an authenticity to his writing that cannot be denied.

Prisoner 5995 escapes a Chinese Labor Reform camp after twenty years incarceration, and returns to Beijing. There he makes contact with a show more freelance journalist, Mangan, using him as a conduit to send a message to British Intelligence. The message comes to the desk of Trish Patterson, late of Army Intelligence but now newly in the civilian side. To her, a former intelligence source, named Peanut (an interesting play on the prisoner’s real name), has resurfaced after a twenty year hiatus. Mangan is terrified of the contact fearing the Chinese as he already walks a thin line because of his reporting on the “Fellowship.” And Peanut wants what is owed him by the British.

Proposing a one-off job Peanut promises more top secret information to come. But is this really Peanut making this offering? The Brits can’t be sure. Perhaps he is a “dangle” trying to set up either Mangan or even the British Intelligence Service. But the proposed information is important and after a series of high level meetings involving several Departments the decision to go ahead is made.

But in this age of digitized data espionage is no longer conducted by slipping into offices and photographing secret papers. A new approach is necessary and Patterson has it in the form of a “gadget” developed by one of their outside contractors. Sent to Peanut through Mangan the plot enters a new and even tenser section as the “gadget” is put to work and retrieves far more than the designers apparently intended. General jubilation all around. But a new force is felt lurking in the background, who or what cannot be determined.

Things go awry for both Peanut and Mangan when an American infatuated with a lovely Taiwanese girl inadvertently lets slip a piece of information that she reports to her Chinese masters and they must run for their lives. A hurried contact with Patterson and she sets up an extraction point but can they get there ahead of both the Chinese and the secretive lurkers?

If you are any kind of a spy, espionage, secret service type of fan, get this book. If you are not a fan read it anyway and find out how a well written spy thriller can keep you up all night! show less

Prisoner 5999 has escaped from an isolated labor re-education camp in Northern China. His real name is Li Husheng. In 1989 he was a graduate student in rocket engineering and he was arrested in Tiananmen Square for assaulting a soldier. He is also the Night Heron, but only his British handlers know he is a spy. They nicknamed him Peanut. Now 20 years later, Peanut has used all of his spycraft to evade capture and make his way back to Beijing. It is payback time. Peanut kept silent during his imprisonment; he did not betray his handlers or the other four spies in his network. All he wants now is to get out of China with a new identity to start a new life.

But China, and especially Beijing, has changed in 20 years. In 1990 the Internet was show more in its infancy, smart phones didn't exist, and there weren't surveillance cameras on every lamppost. In 2010, anyone could take his picture and put it on the internet in seconds. His only link to his past is a British newspaper office where his handlers had worked. They are long retired and running tea mornings in the Midlands. So he draws liberal journalist Philip Mangan into his escape plan with a sensational, and to Mangan, crazy scheme to prove his identity by passing on top secret Chinese reports about their rocket development program. Even though he has serious doubts about Peanut, Mangan contacts the British Embassy. In London, MI6 Agent Trish Patterson has to decide if Peanut is genuine or an elaborate Chinese plot to expose and humiliate their spy network.

As Patterson tries to persuade her superiors that Peanut is the real deal, Peanut is being watched by an old lady and her family. She is appalled at his antics. Doesn't he realize that ducking into buildings and doubling back on himself to evade a tail only draws attention? Those surveillance cameras are programmed to record behavioral patterns and anyone ducking and hiding, not walking in a straightforward manner, is flagged. But who is employing the old woman to watch Peanut? Why are Patterson's decisions being resisted in her own department? Who has tipped Chinese police to Mangan's visit to a camp of dissidents? Someone wants this mission to fail and it will take a combination of 20th century spycraft and 21st century technology to save Peanut, Mangan, and even Agent Patterson.

I enjoyed this fast-paced thiller with the somewhat good guys being pursued by an ambiguous enemy. Who really is pulling the strings on the global geopolitical stage? show less

Nice modern spy thriller set in China. Escaped prisoner who spied for the Brits makes his way back to Bejing and hooks up with a thoroughly unprepared journalist to act as his cutout give it an old school Cold War feel. Dabbles into the cyber frontier and hints at industrial espionage keep it current. Great first novel. Recommended for any thriller lovers looking for something completely different.

Night Heron is a well-paced espionage thriller that displays Adam Brookes' writing and research skills and a deep knowledge of China. I was surprised at just how good this book is. The characters and plot are very well done and Brookes increases the tension at pretty much a perfect pace.

Brookes offers some commentary on how and why intelligence gathering is done these days and draws some conclusions that only a journalist or outsider might come up with.

Night Heron is comparable to some of the best contemporary espionage thrillers.