Year of the Tiger

Paul Chavasse, head of MI5, is about to retire when he meets a Tibetan monk who asks about his rescue of Dr. Karl Hoffner from Tibet. As Chavasse recounts his adventure in 1960, Higgins covers the politics of China, Tibet, and Russia, as well as their political relations with Britain and the United States. Patrick MacNee follows the complex plots and action, switching from British English to representations of English by Russian, Tibetan, and Chinese characters. Although the representations seem true to life, they're a little stilted, and MacNee seems to have problems keeping the characterizations consistent, causing the listener to question which speaker is talking. MacNee brings the Cold War and its strange bedfellows to life with Higgins's words and myriad plots. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

October 2, 1996
Originally published under a pseudonym in 1963, Higgins's thriller focuses on the cold war-era space race.