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Rock Paper Tiger

by Lisa Brackmann (Goodreads Author)

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 583 ratings · 134 reviews

American Iraq War veteran Ellie Cooper is down and out in Beijing when a chance encounter with a Uighur—a member of a Chinese Muslim minority—at the home of her sort-of boyfriend Lao Zhang turns her life upside down. Lao Zhang disappears, and suddenly multiple security organizations are hounding her for information. They say the Uighur is a terrorist. Ellie doesn’t know wh...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published June 1st 2010 by Soho Press

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Dec 26, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Iraqi war vets, ex-pats in China

Shelves: mystery, contemporary, china, female-author, female-protagonist, audiobook, war, thriller

I had no idea what to expect from this book; I was just intrigued by the title and the cover and the synopsis. I was very pleasantly surprised to get a fast-moving, well-written tale with an ex-pat's view of contemporary China.

The first-person narrator, Ellie Cooper, is a young former US Army medic hanging out in China on a semi-expired visa, still shell-shocked by the destruction of her marriage and her ongoing issues with PTSD relating to some really bad things that happened in Iraq. She marri...more I had no idea what to expect from this book; I was just intrigued by the title and the cover and the synopsis. I was very pleasantly surprised to get a fast-moving, well-written tale with an ex-pat's view of contemporary China.

The first-person narrator, Ellie Cooper, is a young former US Army medic hanging out in China on a semi-expired visa, still shell-shocked by the destruction of her marriage and her ongoing issues with PTSD relating to some really bad things that happened in Iraq. She married a fellow soldier she met in Iraq, who brought her to China when he left the service and became a "contractor" for a private security firm, and like most such ill-thought military marriages, things quickly fell apart. Her estranged husband is now living a "God-centered life" with the Chinese girl he hooked up with, and between badgering Ellie to sign the divorce papers, urges her to "accept Jesus into her heart," which is a nice bit of bitter humor that runs throughout the book, as Ellie also keeps receiving Jesus-y emails from her mother back home.

While Ellie is trying to pick herself up and put herself back together, she has been hanging out with an eclectic bunch of Chinese artists and MMORPG addicts. One day she visits her artist friend Lao Zhang, and finds a Uighur -- a Muslim minority ethnic group in China -- visiting. Lao Zhang disappears, the Uighur disappears, and the rest of the book becomes paranoia fuel for poor Ellie, as she has absolutely no idea what any of these people were up to, if anything, but both Chinese and American agents are after them and thinks she does know something. All of her friends become suspect, she is sent on a bizarre quest given to her inside her friend's online game which she thinks is meant to help him in the real world, and meanwhile her not-quite-ex-husband is involved in the whole thing as well. Right up until the end, you are no more sure than Ellie is who the bad guys and who the good guys are or WTF is going on.

The story itself is fast-paced and interesting, but nothing hugely revelatory happens at the end. The appeal of this book is the view of China, the accuracy of which I cannot attest to, but it reads like a thoroughly modern and believable tour through the kinda-communist semi-capitalist military-corporate-industrial complex that is today's PRC, a place that is trying to put a happy shine on what's still very much a corrupt police state, but one where you can find KFC, McDonald's, or Starbucks (or a Chinese knockoff thereof) on any street corner in Beijing. Ellie is only semi-acclimated, so she's still an alien in a place she knows she doesn't belong.

Ellie's voice is what made me enjoy this book so much. She's probably one of the most compelling and believable characters I've read in a contemporary novel in quite a while. She's not tough or bad-ass- she's in over her head, she just wants a little peace and safety, but she keeps getting walloped, emotionally and physically, and she has no choice but to "suck it up and drive on," as we used to say in the Army. She joined the Army as a kid looking to make some money for college and found herself dropped into the deep end, and now she's fallen into another pit in China. She's wracked with guilt, anger, and physical and mental disabilities, but as her life keeps taking left turns, she tries to do the right thing even while scorning her own ability to figure out what that is.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable novel. A combination of a mystery, war story, and ex-pat adventure/thriller, this doesn't make any lists of great literature or super-memorable reads for me, but I still recommend it without reservation, and if the author turned it into a series with Ellie as a recurring character, I would certainly be on board.(less)

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Dec 27, 2010 C.J. Shane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Terrific book...the first I've read in a long time that kept me up late turning pages.
Brackmann has a lot to say about the perfidy of those in power everywhere who join forces and will stop at nothing to maintain power, about the nasty little deals that governments/corporations/the very rich make with each other, and how their deals affect the rest of us ordinary folk in all the countries of world. If that all sounds a bit too political, then let me put it another way. Brackmann has done a maste...more

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Dec 25, 2010 Cara Lopez Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was an excellent political thriller, with many more layers of meaning than I've usually found in this genre. The descriptions of China were vivid and evocative and took me back to my own experience of that fascinating country. The descriptions of a young female veteran's experience of the Iraq war were thought-provoking. The protagonist was unlike any I've yet seen, a breath of fresh air - or perhaps I should say polluted air, which is what made her interesting.

Ellie McEnroe wasn't especia...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Ben Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars

If I told you how much I loved reading Lisa Brackmann's words+sentences+paragraphs+chapters, overall serendipitous extraneous story, I'd have to commit murder. But that would go against my ethics. So, I'll just have to draw a little blood from my fingertips furiously typing my new manuscript REGGIE ROCKETSHIP AND HIS BOOM BOOM POW GALAXY OF SECRETS.

Rock Paper Tiger, first person narrative, present tense fascination, refreshed my energy knowing Brackmann created such a creative, urban, realistic...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, mystery-thriller, audiobooks, theme-visual-arts, favorites, ebooks, has-trains-in-it, read-more-than-once, read-in-2012

At once depressing and uplifting

(Edited to add: Changed rating to 5 stars, added to favorites. Looking forward to the author's next novel, coming out in 2012.)

Depressing, due to its bleak view of geopolitics. Uplifting, due to the depth of its main character, the breadth of its cast of minor characters, and both depth and breadth in its depiction of modern-day China. I know extremely little about geopolitics and China; all I can say is that everything sounded plausible to me. I would also give f...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Donna LaValley rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel impressed me in several ways. First, the story takes place in “modern” China. It was published in 2010 and the main character describes the desolate “Birds Nest” building and others that I had so recently seen on TV while watching the Olympics taking place there. With a Starbucks on every block, Ellie navigates her neighborhood in search of “safe” internet connections.

Ellie was wounded in Iraq and during recovery married Trey, who works for the US government in China. She follows him...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Travis Richardson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lisa Brackman’s debut novel is a knockout. Ellie Cooper is a wounded Iraqi veteran living in China. She is going through a divorce with her husband who works for a private contractor that seems to do jobs that the US government cannot legally do. Elle has found refuge in the Chinese art community and with her part-time lover, the up-and-coming avant-garde artist Lao Zhang. When Lao befriends an Uighur dissident, he disappears the next day and Ellie becomes the center of attention from multiple f...more

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Sep 09, 2012 John Eich rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ahhh, the annoying protagonist...my favorite. Suddenly finding herself connected to (internationally) suspected terrorists, chased by both Chinese Secret Police and a menacing global security company (think Blackwater), the protagonist gets drunk at every occasion (why have a beer when you can have ten), adopts a core strategy of "what the f*%k...I'll figure it out tomorrow", mopes in a constant funk about her terrible ex-husband, and acts like a sulky teenager in the midst of wealthy Chinese in...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fic-literary, fic-escapist

Rock Paper Tiger is a bit of a mashup between a thriller, a story of a young woman finding herself while abroad, and a commentary on modern China. In it, a former Army medic named Ellie, still haunted by her experiences in Iraq, is adrift in Beijing, distanced from the soon-to-be-ex-husband who brought her there. She's sort of involved with a Chinese artist whose works might be somewhat political, who happens to know a man who's a member of China's Muslim minority. Suddenly, the artist goes unde...more Rock Paper Tiger is a bit of a mashup between a thriller, a story of a young woman finding herself while abroad, and a commentary on modern China. In it, a former Army medic named Ellie, still haunted by her experiences in Iraq, is adrift in Beijing, distanced from the soon-to-be-ex-husband who brought her there. She's sort of involved with a Chinese artist whose works might be somewhat political, who happens to know a man who's a member of China's Muslim minority. Suddenly, the artist goes underground, and Ellie finds herself a person of interest to several different parties, including some menacing men from a US security firm, a mysterious community of online gamers, and possibly the Chinese authorities.

The main strength of the book, I thought, was the convincing voice of its protagonist. Ellie's earnest viewpoint and reflections seem believable for a working class female former soldier with a Jesus-loving mom back in Arizona and a few regrettable choices in her own life, and I enjoyed getting to know her as a character. She's not a badass, nor is she a pushover. I also thought the author presented a messily authentic picture of China as a 21st century boomtown, a whirlwind of concrete, ancient shrines, karoake bars, strip malls, poverty, new money, kitsch, police state, artist collectives, and Starbucks. I found the Chinese characters convincingly Chinese in their attitudes (though, of course, I'm not an expert).

That said, the novel's main plotline is a disappointment. There’s lots of running around, but the nature of the larger drama Ellie gets involved in and its players remains ill-defined, fizzling the plot’s initial energy. Brackmann seemingly wanted to have elements of a political thriller, but not actually wade into politics. The subplot concerning Ellie's experiences in Iraq (told through flashback) is more gripping, though, and shows that Brackmann can do a taut scene when she wants to.

In my overall opinion, Rock Paper Tiger is a book that aspires to more than it quite delivers. But, I enjoyed the trip enough that it was worth the 5$ I spent at an audible sale. In my opinion, the audio narrator does a good job personifying Ellie, though the accents seem hit-or-miss on some of the other characters.(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Richard Burger rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rock Paper Tiger, an up-to-the-minute, kaleidoscopic romp through contemporary China with some side-stops in US-occupied Iraq, is the first novel of Lisa Brackman, who I know as a fellow blogger who focuses on China. Lisa has done the impossible: created a taut, breathless thriller that along the way takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through China, the big cities, the smaller cities, the places tourists go and the country's underbelly. She manages to weave into the narrative an endless stream...more

11 likes · like · see review

Jan 28, 2012 James Thane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ellie Cooper is a veteran of the Iraq war who got more than she bargained for when she enlisted. Wounded both physically and emotionally, she finds herself in China, living from day-to-day on the fringes of an artistic community. Her best friend is an artist named Lao Zghang. Ellie, who is separated from her husband, sometimes sleeps with Lao, but they are not really lovers.

One day, Ellie goes to Lao's home, looking to hang out and perhaps watch him work. There she meets a mysterious Uighur who...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 Zhou rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: china, audible-book-read

I think this author has a lot of friends pumping her book. This effort is neither "thrilling" or 'fast paced". It meanders and slogs. The protagonist is self-loathing and whines too much. While I applaud non-Chinese writers who try and breath some real life into Chinese fiction that is generally lacking work appealing to Western readers, Lisa didn't have enough time on the ground to give her any real gravitas, and it shows in her work. For readers who have spent time in China outside of the expa...more

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May 08, 2011 Timothy Hallinan rated it 5 of 5 stars

An absolutely terrific first thriller about a female U.S. Army medic, damaged physically and emotionally in the Middle East, who finds herself in Beijing with her husband, whom she met in Iraq and who's on assignment. While still addicted to the Percocet she takes to dull the pain in her patched-together legs, she's putting her world together emotionally when her husband cheats on her. At the beginning of the book she's dodging his attempts to finalize the divorce and hanging out with a colony o...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Ms.pegasus rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: action fans, readers interested in stories set in China

Shelves: thriller, china, fiction

Ellie (Chinese name, Yili) describes the dilapidated squalor of her environs in Haidian Qu, and the reader is instantly drawn in. How did she, an American woman, get here? More hints are dropped – her leg hurts so badly that she alleviates the pain with a dwindling supply of percocet. She has some interesting friends, including a serious artist named Lao Zhang, a painter and performance artist in the “Mati Village” district, an artist colony on the norther outskirts of Beijing. Her roommate, Chu...more Ellie (Chinese name, Yili) describes the dilapidated squalor of her environs in Haidian Qu, and the reader is instantly drawn in. How did she, an American woman, get here? More hints are dropped – her leg hurts so badly that she alleviates the pain with a dwindling supply of percocet. She has some interesting friends, including a serious artist named Lao Zhang, a painter and performance artist in the “Mati Village” district, an artist colony on the norther outskirts of Beijing. Her roommate, Chuckie, is a geeky online gamer with the screen name of Eloquent Evergreen Monkey in “The Sword of Ill-Repute” - a World of Warcraft type of role-playing game. Ellie's avatar is Little Mountain Tiger and Lao Zhang's screen name is Upright Boar. Ellie met Lao Zhang through Chuckie – mutual “Sword” enthusiasts. These are all characters of heightened intensity, and we believe in them because they are part of this millieu of artists never quite safe from the scrutiny of the authorities or the duplicity of political barter.

The narrative alternates between Ellie's past, her present pursuit by two threatening “suits” who might be government agents or worse -- freelance security contractors -- and the mysterious online gaming characters who drop veiled hints about the danger she and Lao Zhang (who has gone into hiding) are in. We see these characters through Ellie's eyes and because of that, the reader is always kept in suspense: Which of these characters are friends and which are threats motivated by private agendas? It is also because of this subjective viewpoint that the reader is drawn to Ellie, a blend of vulnerability and tough defensiveness.

ROCK, PAPER, TIGER by Lisa Brackmann is alive from page one. The environs are described with intense vividness: “I'm living in this dump in Haidian Qu, close to Wudaokou, on the twenty-first floor of a decaying high-rise. The grounds are bare; the trees have died; the rubber tiles on the walkways, in their garish pink and yellow, are cracked and curling.” That's from the very first paragraph. The Chinese references add to the authenticity. Characters greet each other with the traditional “ni hao.” When beer flows, its Yanjing or Quingdao . At one point a character tentatively remarks to Ellie: “Hong xian....It is about fate....It is the red thread that tangles but does not break. It is the thing that connects some people to each other. Because they are meant to be connected.”

This is a character centered book, and it concludes with a satisfying sense of character growth, even if we feel some sense of loss at the resolution of the plot.
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Mar 09, 2011 Ellee rated it 2 of 5 stars

The story is compelling. I had to finish it. The main character/heroin has depth but the depth is murky and stale. She is a tortured soul who is stagnant, confused, unmotivated. The story, it drags you through to the end kicking and screaming. About halfway through the book, I was praying for it to end. It is well written but the heroine is just along for the ride. She should have just stayed home. Her lack luster approach to life is translated to her lack luster approach to solving her dilemma....more

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Nov 09, 2010 Brian Davis rated it 2 of 5 stars

The settings are good: the streets of Beijing, low-life apartments and artiste squatter warehouses, the hard-sleeper trains, the Net cafes filled with smoke and noise and young men living on-line. The sandbox of Iraq and Saddam's old compounds. The Misty Mountain Tea Garden and the Arbors of Serenity virtual environments.

The characters diverse: slouching skate-punk artists, sophisticate art dealers, US Army security contractors, medics, Congressional aides, Chinese students, street savants, com...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Hannio J rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book nor am I sure what exactly made me want to pick it up but I'm glad I did.

Normally anything related to war isn't my cup of tea but I found myself fascinated by the fact that it was set in China, a country where a friend of mine has just gone for a year. The description of the places she went to were interesting and I could see them in my head (Very handy when stuck on a train leaving London)

I wasn't greatly fussed about the character of Ellie. I d...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, fiction, thriller, read-in-2010

Ellie is a veteran of the Iraq war, suffering from PTSD and a leg injury sustained during her tour of duty. She's living in China after her husband, whom she met while in Iraq, dumped her for another woman. She is living day by day, doing what she can to survive, making new friends, and trying to sort out the mess her life has become. She becomes close to a Chinese artist, Lao Zhang, and though their relationship isn't well defined, she considers him her closet friend. One night, feeling lonely...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books

Ellie/Lili was a medic who served in Iraq and then decommissioned after an injury from a bombing. She had moved to Beijing with her husband Trey after he left the military for a job in a security company but the marraige quickly broke down when she discovered he was cheating on her. Ellie is sharing a flat and has a friend and sometime lover who is an artist. She's suffering from post traumatic stress and seems barely able to look after herself at times. She goes to visit her artist friend and m...more Ellie/Lili was a medic who served in Iraq and then decommissioned after an injury from a bombing. She had moved to Beijing with her husband Trey after he left the military for a job in a security company but the marraige quickly broke down when she discovered he was cheating on her. Ellie is sharing a flat and has a friend and sometime lover who is an artist. She's suffering from post traumatic stress and seems barely able to look after herself at times. She goes to visit her artist friend and meets a stranger there. Within days, her friend has left town and there are big bad men coming after her to find out what she knows about the stranger. She discovers that the American government want the man, believing he's a potential terrorist and then it seems like the Chinese government are after her friend but I'm not quite sure why. He's not a political activist but it could be because of his association with this other person. Ellie ends up being chased by both factions, the Chinese government/police and the American security faction. Both of them are pretty scary and threatening and she ends up on the run from one end of China to another but isn't able to escape. They all seem to be able to know exactly where she is all the time and one or the other appear in coffee shops, on deserted roads, on trains. It's a bit baffling.

It also ends a bit abruptly. Ellie isn't able to get any useful information and keeps having encounters with strangers and allowing herself to be drawn into dangerous situations, even though she doesn't trust anyone she meets. It almost seems like she just doesn't care what happens to her and takes the risk anyway. This appears to be related to the post traumatic stress and we do get flashbacks to her time in Iraq to find out more about how all that came about and how it affected her so her motivations seem more understandable. Who can she trust? Some people that seem to be scary could actually be on her side but it gets a bit confusing at times.

All that being said, i did like the book. Ellie was flawed and broken but you knew why. I wasn't quite as keen on all the things that happened to her. It just seemed like too much, too threatening, and then a twist would be thrown in just to add to the confusion. Maybe the reader is meant to feel as unsettled and confused as Ellie was so if that was the case, it worked! (less)

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Jun 12, 2010 Jill Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Character, character, character!

Many of the reviews I've read have focused on the fast pace and fascinating tour of modern-day China Lisa Brackmann renders in Rock Paper Tiger but, for me, what made this debut novel so engrossing was its main character, Ellie McEnroe Cooper. Ellie is an Iraq war veteran physically and mentally wounded by her experiences in Iraq, which Brackmann blends wonderfully in flashbacks throughout the novel. Ellie and fellow comrade Trey Cooper's shared experience in Iraq...more Character, character, character!

Many of the reviews I've read have focused on the fast pace and fascinating tour of modern-day China Lisa Brackmann renders in Rock Paper Tiger but, for me, what made this debut novel so engrossing was its main character, Ellie McEnroe Cooper. Ellie is an Iraq war veteran physically and mentally wounded by her experiences in Iraq, which Brackmann blends wonderfully in flashbacks throughout the novel. Ellie and fellow comrade Trey Cooper's shared experience in Iraq unites them, but once married and living a civilian life again, they find the one thread binding them is fraught with shame because of their silence at witnessing their fellow soldiers frequent unethical behavior. When Trey's job leads him to China, Ellie follows in a half-hearted attempt to save her fast-crumbling marriage. Besides, what else is there to do. And that, in a nutshell, is Ellie at the start of the novel--a woman without direction whose head's not really in the game.

Whether Ellie likes it or not, though, after Trey's unfaithfulness ends their marriage and her sometimes-lover mysteriously flees the artist colony in which he lives, Ellie becomes a player in a dangerous game between artists, thugs, and government officials. As Ellie battles through her percocet-induced haze to understand why she's been targeted and determine who's friend and who's foe, the foreign setting really enhances the sense of isolation (and thus reader sympathy). Her muted reality becomes all too acute as she's stalked throughout China understanding little, but strengthening her will to survive.

Not only did I root for Ellie, I wanted to walk alongside her, help her figure things out, and share in a laugh that encountering such absurdities can only be responded to with humor. I could have easily hung out with Ellie longer, and while reading it even awoke one morning thinking about her.

I don't want to give away the ending, but unlike some of the other reviewers who thought it fell a bit flat, I disagree. I thought it perfect that after being lost for so long because of her past, she find purpose again in the present. While Ellie's been chased throughout China, what she ran into is her true self.
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Aug 27, 2010 Ed rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2-stars, 2010, read-on-kindle, new-author-to-me, debut-novel

I stumbled onto to Rock Paper Tiger after it was named one of the Top 10 Fiction Books So Far (for 2010) and coupled with (at the time) a nearly perfect 5-star average rating, plus having an interest in China since visiting Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, this thriller seemed right up my alley.

I will admit I like to blend into the crowd and can be influenced by the opinion of others, but during and after this one, I was kind of wondering if we had all read the same book. I will say it was very re...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Kate Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

This deserves 3.5 stars and only missed 4 because it is most certainly going to become outdated at some point. The writer includes to many internet cafes, ipods, and sneaker brands not to. That said, this book was a nice surprise and highly enjoyable. One of the things I look forward to in my reading is being transported to another place and the opportunity to be a voyeur or live vicariously through the characters in a story. This book provides ample opportunity for this as well as allowing the...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Gregory S. rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's probably a mistake to read this as a mystery or detective story. It's probably a mistake to read it as a thriller. But if you're looking for a solid and intriguing PTSD story set in modern China (which, I admit, is a pretty narrow genre), then you'll enjoy Rock Paper Tiger.

There's a paradox at work in this novel. The protagonist is often annoying--but annoying in a way that an old friend is sometimes annoying. I cared about what happened to her, but at the same time I found myself wishing...more

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Jun 28, 2012 Maria rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-2012

Others might say this is a fantastic first novel (or whatever number it is), that it's a great plot with interesting characters, etc etc etc.

But if it wasn't on my iPod, which is the only consistent reading apparatus I have, I'd have thrown the book across the room. As it is, I'm a bit surprised I finished it. I wasn't interested enough in the occurences, the characters, anything to justify reading all 300-some pages. The only reason I went ahead with it, actually, was because I only realized ho...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Jane Hammons rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, fiction-historical, fiction-mystery-crime-etc

I was fascinated from beginning to end by this book about a young American Iraq war veteran living in China. Ellie/Yili is married to Trey (who is divorcing her), who she met at "Camp Falafel" in Iraq. As she struggles to live with the "crime" they both committed in Iraq, she becomes involved with the world of visual and performance artists in China, primarily Beijing. The way Brackmann intertwines the war in Iraq, dissident Chinese artists, gaming, lost souls, and global politics is masterful,...more

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Jul 03, 2010 g rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-read, ya

Not your typical YA. With protagonist Ellie Cooper at the helm, ROCK PAPER TIGER is fast-paced and frightening story set in China. Cooper is an Iraq War Vet with a foul mouth whose husband has left her and whose artist lover has recently disappeared. A chance meeting with an Uighur--a Chinese muslim minority--leads Cooper on a chase around China, from Beijing to Treasure Chicken Village, with various US and Chinese agencies at her heels. A warning for the faint of heart: there are some disturbin...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Alexander rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book more. It expresses a 'sense of place' for modern China well and the plot does indeed have a page-turner element to it. The integration of the contemporary Beijing art scene into the story also provides an engaging dimension. Ultimately, the book falls short of its potential largely because the protagonist, Ellie, becomes increasingly irritating and unlikable as the story progresses. While I think I understand the intent to tie Ellie's Iraq flashback sequences to her cu...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Ed Miracle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mainstream-fiction

Overlapping conspiracies in modern, semi-dystopic China, interleaved with Iraq war flashbacks,
make for some dizzying head-trips (and real trips), as Ellie Cooper becomes a reluctant agent of she knows-not-what, struggling against an array of very real, very powerful creeps. Despite its exotic locales, or perhaps aided by them, this story felt a lot like the old Prisoner TV drama, starring Patrick McGoohan. (Who are these people and why are they doing this to me?) Apart from the on-going woman-in...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Gloria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: suspense-thriller

This is one of those page turners where you are really not sure who the good guys are until near the end. A young women who is kind of lost in life is living in China when she gets caught up in a complicated drama. This story reveals a lot about contemporary China. It also suggests a lot of negative things about the U.S. military and how they treat prisoners. Touches on PTSD, art, high-tech wizardry, and a bare hint of romance. While there is a strong female protagonist, none of the characters a...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Jpmist rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned

Rarely have I gotten half way thru a book and given up out of frustration. Seems the author plays her cards very close because she refuses to give me any hint of story. Lots of back story which if I had any reason to care about her lead character might have kept me in longer than it did.

So far a story about an aimless troubled Iraq drifter careening off one misadventure after another. Her backstory has something to do with a guy even more screwed up than she is and the payoff seems directed towa...more

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About Lisa Brackmann

Lisa Brackmann has worked as an executive at a major motion picture studio, an issues researcher in a presidential campaign, and the singer/songwriter/bassist in an LA rock band. She still takes pride in her karaoke-ready repertoire of bad pop hits and an embarrassing number of show tunes. A Southern California native, she lives in Venice CA, and has lived and traveled extensively in China.

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BBCode	[url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7542399-rock-paper-tiger?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320545030l/7542399.jpg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7542399-rock-paper-tiger?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann[/url]

Rock Paper Tiger

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