An American soldier of fortune pursues a Japanese war criminal through the streets and alleyways of war-torn Peking in this edge-of-your-seat thrill ride from the author of The Chinese Bandit Peking, 1948. In the midst of a brutal winter, the Communists tighten their stranglehold on the ancient capital, preparing to strike. Peasants starve, students riot, police crack down, and an entire city shivers on the edge of revolt.
A decade ago, Maj. Jack Burnham was an American civilian living in China when the Japanese invaded. Now, he has returned on a mission to capture a notorious war criminal before Peking falls to the Red Army. Kanamori Shoichi raped, murdered, and pillaged his way through China during World War II--he also broke Burnham's nose. If caught, Kanamori will be brought before a tribunal and made to pay for his crimes, large and small. But finding one man in a devastated city of millions is no simple task.
Luckily, Burnham has the help of a beautiful Chinese doctor eager to help her people find justice, as well as his own expert knowledge of the language and culture. But when he finally locates Kanamori, the showdown Burnham has sought for so long will be far stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined.
The Last Mandarin is the 2nd book in the Far East Trilogy, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
About the Author :
Stephen Becker (1927-1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of Elie Wiesel's The Town Behind the Wall and André Malraux's The Conquerors. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington College, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His best-known works include A Covenant with Death (1965), which was adapted into a Warner Brothers film starring Gene Hackman and George Maharis; When the War Is Over (1969), a Civil War novel based on the true story of a teenage Confederate soldier executed more than a month after Lee's surrender; and the Far East trilogy of literary adventure novels: The Chinese Bandit (1975), The Last Mandarin (1979), and The Blue-Eyed Shan (1982).
Review :
"A Chinese banquet of a book . . . of sumptuous feasts and incredible poverty, of exquisite brothels and mindless savagery . . . so rich and allusive the senses are almost overpowered." --Los Angeles Times "Fascinating . . . Erotic . . . Exciting." --The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Becker is a strong writer with a special feel for the Orient at its darkest and dirtiest. . . . Vivid." --Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Stephen Becker
"Becker changes the way you look at the world." --Pat Conroy
"There are writers you have to love from the very first line. Stephen Becker did that for me when I opened up The Chinese Bandit. I was standing up when I picked up that book, but before I got to the end of the paragraph, I sat down and read till dinner. Is there a better testimonial for a novelist?" --Joe Haldeman, author of The Forever War
