The Foreigner

“Yeah, The Chinaman. Only I’ve found out he’s Vietnamese, not Chinese.”

Just one of the many twists in this book! I picked it up after seeing "The Foreigner", the movie adaptation that just came out on dvd. Turns out, this is one of those rare times where the movie is pretty faithful to the book! Only, for me, the IRA plot makes more sense in the book, as it was written in 1992, as opposed to the movie, which seemed to be set in 2017. Nguyen Ngoc Minh is one hell of a character and I was rooting for him the whole way!

p.s. - I find it kind of strange that Mike Cramer is the character that gets more books! He literally comes into this story 26 pages from the ending, and has almost no impact at all. Weird.

Like a few others, probably, I sought this book out after seeing the movie version, The Foreigner. It’s a good old-fashioned suspenseful revenge story. A rogue IRA unit conducts its own bombing campaign in London. Nguyen Ngoc Minh’s wife and daughter are two of the victims. He systematically wages his own crusade of revenge. Nguyen was a North Vietnamese soldier who came to work with the U.S. Special Forces and resurrects the skills he learned. It makes for an intriguing and well-paced story with some unintended consequences.

I read this book on first publication in the early 90’s and I enjoyed but I must admit on this second reading it felt somewhat dated if not dull and formulaic.

It certainly has an explosive (literally) start with the brutal death of the wife and daughter of a quietly spoken man called Nguyen Ngoc Minh. We quickly learn that this seemingly mild-mannered owner of a Chinese restaurant is in fact a trained and lethal killer from a long forgotten war in the killing fields of Vietnam. He wants revenge for the senseless murder of his family and uses his battle skills and training to single handedly start a one man war against the IRA. We follow Nguyen on his sad quest knowing that whatever the outcome the journey will be bloody and violent show more and yet hoping that some kind of justice will prevail.

This book is actually advertised as the first in the Mike “joker” Cramer series....which is a bit of a joke in itself as our very own muscle bound SAS hero only appears as the story concludes. His jokes, testosterone and muscle bound attitude is therefore very limited and for that I am eternally grateful because the real hero in the book is Nguyen Ngoc Minh.....a simple man living a quiet life when everything he knows and loves is destroyed and this sets him off on a journey with just one question....why?? show less

Good thriller. I read it after seeing the film "The Foreigner" so I would probably have rated it higher if I was completely new to it. However, Stephen Leather should be entered into the bad sex scene competition if he hasn't already as there are several qualifying scenes in this book.

Four out of ten. An ex-Viet Cong veteran, was living the quiet life in South London until the day his wife and youngest daughter were destroyed by an IRA bomb in a Knightsbridge department store. Then, simply but persistently, he began to ask the authorities who were the men responsible, what was being done. And was turned away, fobbed off, treated as a nuisance. Which was when the Chinaman, denied justice, decided on revenge. And went back to war.

So good. The movie was a pretty good adaptation of this novel. Really enjoyed it. Kind of thought-provoking. Good action,

Kisah seorang ayah yang menuntut bela atas kematian anak perempuan dan isterinya.