The General of Tiananmen Square

Book # 15, in the Ava Lee series

Ava is in the French Riviera with Pang Fai and Lau Lau for the premiere of Tiananmen at the Cannes Film Festival. The film wins numerous awards and international acclaim. Chen is the producer and soon makes a distribution deal with a major American firm. Several months later the film hasn’t been released Chen is worried and travels to Los Angeles to see what is preventing it to be shown to the public. En route from his home in Bangkok he goes missing.... Ava is called to investigate and the story takes off....

I love this series each installment has its own captivating story. It is sheer pleasure to follow Ava globetrotting experiences. It took some time for the excitement to kick in but after a short show more while I was completely swept up. As in its predecessors, the plot is complex and fast-paced; the writing style is strong, clever and involving. The story is simply irresistible, once started it is easy to be hooked to the last page. No fear if you read this one out of sequence, it stands well on its own.

Although we have less action than some of the previous stories rather we have much hopping around: plane flights, restaurant meals and lots and lots of wine drinking, oh yes description galore of fancy gala clothes nevertheless I say “The General of Tiananmen Square” is another great caper I enjoyed quite a bit and furthermore it is not a taxing read.

This ARC was provided by the House of Anansi/Groundwood Books via Edelweiss for my thoughts. show less

Ian Hamilton has produced another brilliant thriller. In this one, Ava takes on the Communist Chinese government, with mixed results. The nasty side of the Chinese government is on full display.
A great plot and atmosphere with a cast of interesting characters. The story is tense and suspenseful, with a cliffhanger at the end when Ava says: "..I promise you that whoever did this will pay for it."

In The General of Tiananmen Square, Ian Hamilton pens his fifteenth novel in the Ava Lee series and brings to an end the story-arc which has seen Ava and her company, Three Sisters, back the development and filming of a movie entitled Tiananmen.

Of course, there are red carpets to walk, dresses, shoes and hair styles to select and distribution deals to seal. Ava and the Three Sisters play a very behind-the-scenes role in these details. Why? Because much of the company's other businesses are located, for the most part, in South East Asia where mainland China controls, manipulates, threatens, and, generally, bullies people, countries, and governments unwilling to toe-the-line.

China is especially sensitive about anything to do with the show more massacre of countless Chinese, especially young Chinese, in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

This novel is more complex than some may at first realize and more cerebral than many Ava Lee novels. [XBR] However, those who understand how the intelligent and clever Ava usually operates, will accept how the author uses this novel to set up the one which follows. Readers of the entire series will undoubtedly speculate about the possible emergence of a vengeful Ava Lee. show less