Night Heron

This is a pulp spy novel set in western China and then Beijing! This is obviously not my usual thing, but one of my favorite podcasts (Sinica!) recommended it, and it's been on my to-read list for a while.

It was fun! Very awkwardly written in places, but still a page turner. It had a rush-to-the-finish sequence at the end that definitely ran out of gas before it was through. The worst part was the lame protagonist, who was neither interesting nor cool; he could have been swapped out with anybody else.

But really, I was in it for the setting: I'm fascinated by western China and obviously a spy novel set in Beijing was cool.

Noted on January 11, 2019