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Quiller #6
The Mandarin Cypher
Sent on a mission to Hong Kong by the secretive London Bureau, Quiller is given little information about his goal. As Quiller pursues his investigations, while under constant surveillance and surviving assassination attempts, his mission's objective becomes evident.
Quiller must swim through waters in Chinese territory, barely surviving underwater assaults, to get aboard a ship guarding what looks like an oil rig but is far more deadly. To achieve his mission and survive, Quiller's martial arts skills, including underwater combat, and his ability to outwit his enemies are brought into full play.
Called by The New York Times "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents," THE MANDARIN CYPHER shows Quiller in top form -- and reveals a bit more about this complex, intense, brilliant and solitary character.
Quiller must swim through waters in Chinese territory, barely surviving underwater assaults, to get aboard a ship guarding what looks like an oil rig but is far more deadly. To achieve his mission and survive, Quiller's martial arts skills, including underwater combat, and his ability to outwit his enemies are brought into full play.
Called by The New York Times "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents," THE MANDARIN CYPHER shows Quiller in top form -- and reveals a bit more about this complex, intense, brilliant and solitary character.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
12 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Adam Hall
169 books99 followersAuthor also wrote as Elleston Trevor.
Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.
Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 18, 2024
Another great Quiller book, this one kicking off just two months after The Tango Briefing, (the first Quiller I read a few years ago; I'm obviously reading these way out of sequence).
The story is set in 1974-75 Hong Kong, towards the very end of the Mao Tse-tung era, and as such presents a nice time-capsule look at the waning days of "bad China," just before Deng Xiao-ping introduced "good China," (which today is sadly veering back towards the "bad" side again); back when the only way to physically see China was to take a local bus from Kowloon up through the New Territories to Man Kam Po, then hike through some scrub fields up to a barbed wire "no man's land" where you could stare across at some other scrub fields and say to yourself, "yup - that's China!" And so this book was particularly fun for me, as not only did I arrive in Taiwan in 1978 (and take my first trip to Hong Kong and the "yup - there it is" border in early 1979); but I had also just gotten my dive certification in '75 or '76 - and so I was able to appreciate (and critique) Hall's descriptions of both HK and Quiller's underwater scenes.
And in general, I gotta say Hall got most of it right. As with his other Asia-set stories, here again he could have added a lot more local color; but as I've noted before, he probably had neither the time not travel budget to do a lot of on-the-ground research for his more far-flung stories. Overall, he does a good job establishing both the flavor and geography of Hong Kong, even if his surveillance scenes start to sound like those "The Californians" sketches on SNL, ("I took Manzanita down to Olympic, made a right over by the Vons Pavilion, then took that all the way down to Robertson…"). He did, however, miss a golden opportunity to cover Quiller's arrival at the old Kai Tak airport, which offered one of the most hair-raising landings in the world as it brought you down parallel and so close to the high-rise apartments in Kwun Tong that you could literally look in people's windows and see what they were watching on TV, before landing on a runway so short that if you overshot it (as planes frequently did), you ended up in Kowloon Harbor. And speaking of, said harbor was so famous for its pollution and overall noxiousness that even Bob Hope famously joked about it during a stopover on one of his Vietnam War USO tours.*
As to the SCUBA scenes - again generally good, although he has Quiller at one point put on his fins before walking down a hall, (something that would NEVER really happen, as the only way to walk in fins is to shuffle backwards); and it was interesting to see Quiller still using a double-hose regulator à la Sean Connery in "Thunderball" a full decade earlier, as I thought most divers had switched to the newer single-hose setups by then.
To the story itself…most Quiller plots involve some sort of MacGuffin that's mainly there to justify the almost non-stop action, (largely fight scenes and car chases). And true to form, it took me until page 230 (out of just 300) here to learn just what the hell the plot of this book was, (which to be fair, was pretty much the same amount of time it took Quiller to figure it too). But from there on, it all DID make some kind of sense…and so overall, another nice read.
Have to comment on Hall's unique writing style. Aside from his famous run-on sentences, he tends to end most of his chapters with a cliffhanger, and then begin the next one well after that particular situation had been resolved, eventually catching readers up as Quiller moves forward. This seems like a tough trick - and probably is - but more often than not Hall pulls it off nicely. He also tends to wrap up his stories quite abruptly, with Quiller still well up shit creek just two pages or so before the end…and then it's bing-bang-boom!, "mission accomplished" with absolutely no denouement - which again, sounds odd but usually does work well for both the author and his creation.
One negative note: Hall's fictional "Bureau" is kinda cool, in a goofy, unbelievable Tom Cruise "Impossible Missions Force" way. But calling their agents or operatives or whatever "shadow executives" is just clunky…"Shadow Executive" might in fact work as the title for a single "Mission: Impossible" movie, but otherwise it's just downright awkward.
But still, one of the better Quiller's I've read - and that's saying a lot, because Hall has written himself some damn fine spy stories!
* So…Bob Hope arrives at Kai Tak, and a bunch of reporters are waiting for him as soon as the plane doors open. Hope takes a deep breath, makes a face and says "Good Lord, what's that smell?" Embarrassed, a reporter explains, "well, that's shit, Mr. Hope" - to which ol' Bob says "I know it's shit - but what did they DO to it??"
The story is set in 1974-75 Hong Kong, towards the very end of the Mao Tse-tung era, and as such presents a nice time-capsule look at the waning days of "bad China," just before Deng Xiao-ping introduced "good China," (which today is sadly veering back towards the "bad" side again); back when the only way to physically see China was to take a local bus from Kowloon up through the New Territories to Man Kam Po, then hike through some scrub fields up to a barbed wire "no man's land" where you could stare across at some other scrub fields and say to yourself, "yup - that's China!" And so this book was particularly fun for me, as not only did I arrive in Taiwan in 1978 (and take my first trip to Hong Kong and the "yup - there it is" border in early 1979); but I had also just gotten my dive certification in '75 or '76 - and so I was able to appreciate (and critique) Hall's descriptions of both HK and Quiller's underwater scenes.
And in general, I gotta say Hall got most of it right. As with his other Asia-set stories, here again he could have added a lot more local color; but as I've noted before, he probably had neither the time not travel budget to do a lot of on-the-ground research for his more far-flung stories. Overall, he does a good job establishing both the flavor and geography of Hong Kong, even if his surveillance scenes start to sound like those "The Californians" sketches on SNL, ("I took Manzanita down to Olympic, made a right over by the Vons Pavilion, then took that all the way down to Robertson…"). He did, however, miss a golden opportunity to cover Quiller's arrival at the old Kai Tak airport, which offered one of the most hair-raising landings in the world as it brought you down parallel and so close to the high-rise apartments in Kwun Tong that you could literally look in people's windows and see what they were watching on TV, before landing on a runway so short that if you overshot it (as planes frequently did), you ended up in Kowloon Harbor. And speaking of, said harbor was so famous for its pollution and overall noxiousness that even Bob Hope famously joked about it during a stopover on one of his Vietnam War USO tours.*
As to the SCUBA scenes - again generally good, although he has Quiller at one point put on his fins before walking down a hall, (something that would NEVER really happen, as the only way to walk in fins is to shuffle backwards); and it was interesting to see Quiller still using a double-hose regulator à la Sean Connery in "Thunderball" a full decade earlier, as I thought most divers had switched to the newer single-hose setups by then.
To the story itself…most Quiller plots involve some sort of MacGuffin that's mainly there to justify the almost non-stop action, (largely fight scenes and car chases). And true to form, it took me until page 230 (out of just 300) here to learn just what the hell the plot of this book was, (which to be fair, was pretty much the same amount of time it took Quiller to figure it too). But from there on, it all DID make some kind of sense…and so overall, another nice read.
Have to comment on Hall's unique writing style. Aside from his famous run-on sentences, he tends to end most of his chapters with a cliffhanger, and then begin the next one well after that particular situation had been resolved, eventually catching readers up as Quiller moves forward. This seems like a tough trick - and probably is - but more often than not Hall pulls it off nicely. He also tends to wrap up his stories quite abruptly, with Quiller still well up shit creek just two pages or so before the end…and then it's bing-bang-boom!, "mission accomplished" with absolutely no denouement - which again, sounds odd but usually does work well for both the author and his creation.
One negative note: Hall's fictional "Bureau" is kinda cool, in a goofy, unbelievable Tom Cruise "Impossible Missions Force" way. But calling their agents or operatives or whatever "shadow executives" is just clunky…"Shadow Executive" might in fact work as the title for a single "Mission: Impossible" movie, but otherwise it's just downright awkward.
But still, one of the better Quiller's I've read - and that's saying a lot, because Hall has written himself some damn fine spy stories!
* So…Bob Hope arrives at Kai Tak, and a bunch of reporters are waiting for him as soon as the plane doors open. Hope takes a deep breath, makes a face and says "Good Lord, what's that smell?" Embarrassed, a reporter explains, "well, that's shit, Mr. Hope" - to which ol' Bob says "I know it's shit - but what did they DO to it??"
July 11, 2021
A more succinct Quiller adventure than what I am used to; a briefer Quiller read than I desired; a more compact packaging of Quiller thrills than I expected. The writing--as usual--as consistently taut and frantic as ever; but as Quiller journeys to Hong Kong this time (only two books ago he was in Bangkok) the locale doesn't demand that Hall go to great feats of description. Only one book ago Quiller was in the deserts of Tunisia and Hall was hugely evocative. Here, just a few lines of attention is paid to setting in each chapter. This makes the lean read.
Nevertheless there is a heaping handful of psychological insights, cunning strategies, flairful touches of action and pacing. Still; left me wanting a bit more. Each of the two previous Quillers I enjoyed kept me on a knife-edge for almost two weeks each. I finished this romp in little more than two days.
There's a total of three very fine scenes of hand-to-hand combat. One of them, in SCUBA gear. That was indeed nifty. Freaky underwater fighting.
The usually strong sense of 'satisfaction' and 'fulfillment' at the end of any Quiller yarn: definitely present in this one. Ingenious and audacious.
Still, Quiller didn't have to go through quite so much of an ordeal in this tale as he usually does. It was not balls-to-the-wall. An 'easy' Quiller read, if one can say that.
His superiors --his controllers --are relatively benign this time around, instead of 'tossing him to the wolves' as they usually do (something wholly lacking in Fleming's Bond series). But there's only one mystery to solve: an English scientist has been killed and his widow is behaving suspiciously.
Anyway I sure hope Adam Hall (aka Elleston Trevor, the author of this series and many other greats like 'Flight of the Phoenix' ended his days a wealthy man. These books of his are stupendous.
I continue to maintain my opinion that he is the best modern-day writer of action thrillers; carrying on in the tradition of Hammett. There are very few other writers who can make this claim.
Nevertheless there is a heaping handful of psychological insights, cunning strategies, flairful touches of action and pacing. Still; left me wanting a bit more. Each of the two previous Quillers I enjoyed kept me on a knife-edge for almost two weeks each. I finished this romp in little more than two days.
There's a total of three very fine scenes of hand-to-hand combat. One of them, in SCUBA gear. That was indeed nifty. Freaky underwater fighting.
The usually strong sense of 'satisfaction' and 'fulfillment' at the end of any Quiller yarn: definitely present in this one. Ingenious and audacious.
Still, Quiller didn't have to go through quite so much of an ordeal in this tale as he usually does. It was not balls-to-the-wall. An 'easy' Quiller read, if one can say that.
His superiors --his controllers --are relatively benign this time around, instead of 'tossing him to the wolves' as they usually do (something wholly lacking in Fleming's Bond series). But there's only one mystery to solve: an English scientist has been killed and his widow is behaving suspiciously.
Anyway I sure hope Adam Hall (aka Elleston Trevor, the author of this series and many other greats like 'Flight of the Phoenix' ended his days a wealthy man. These books of his are stupendous.
I continue to maintain my opinion that he is the best modern-day writer of action thrillers; carrying on in the tradition of Hammett. There are very few other writers who can make this claim.
December 19, 2015
Elleston Trevor's (Adam Hall) best. This is my new favorite novel. While you can't really compare books in different genres (which is better, 1984 or The Great Gatsby?), The Mandarin Cypher reigns at the top of the espionage thriller mantle. There is no filler, no wasted prose, only pace, pace, and more pace. Mystery? Check. Danger? Check. Reversals? Check. Tight prose? Check. Spycraft? In spades. Most importantly, it has a terrific ending, so rare and difficult.
You know you have a great book when you smile as you read ... yes, even talking to yourself a few times.
What's that? No, I can't tell them that ... spoiler and all. They'll see.
You know you have a great book when you smile as you read ... yes, even talking to yourself a few times.
What's that? No, I can't tell them that ... spoiler and all. They'll see.
October 29, 2017
Could not suspend enough disbelief.
November 21, 2015
Quiller in British controlled Hong Kong on a supposedly routine mission while he waits for the real mission to get going. Considerable underwater action for the first time in a Quiller novel; probably some Bond influence there. Lots of good plot twists and plenty of action, but it’s tough to say more without spoilers.
March 17, 2021
The Mandarin Cypher is the sixth book in the brilliant "Quiller" series by Elleston Trevor (writing as Adam Hall). Quiller is a "shadow executive" who takes on dangerous missions for a deep black agency within the British government known only as "the Bureau". Quiller is basically a Cold War British ninja: expert martial artist, driver, pilot, scuba diver; adept at secret communications, stealth and spycraft.
In many ways Quiller is the anti-Bond and anti-Helm. Almost monk-like in his pursuit of shadow op perfection, he doesn't gratuitously womanize, drink, or lose his temper; he's always highly technical, introspective and controlled on his assignments. Where James Bond is a stylish playboy, Quiller is an introverted geek; where Matt Helm can be a cowboy and a thug, Quiller is a model of forbearance and professionalism. He's like a spy version of Donald Westlake's "Parker" character: a "grey man" with little personality or personal baggage; all business, totally focused, disciplined and stoic during ops; absolutely formidable at his chosen profession. The major difference being that Parker is a criminal out entirely himself, whereas Quiller is a Queen and Bureau man who has to play by other people's rules.
In this installment, Quiller is sent to Hong Kong to investigate the death of a fellow agent in a supposed fishing accident. Quiller quickly finds himself targeted for assassination by a cell of Red Chinese agents and romantically entangled with the beautiful but needy widow of the murdered agent. Quiller learns that things are not as they seem, and something fishy is afoot out in the South China Sea. It's all related to an operation code-named "Mandarin" about which Quiller is being kept in the dark by his controllers in London. After about 125 pages of Hong Kong intrigue that some readers might find a bit tedious, the climactic action sequence begins: Quiller must infiltrate an oil rig in international waters owned by the People's Republic of China and find out what it's up to. This leads to some intense sequences, as Quiller must survive long scuba dives, naval mines, hand-to-hand combat, hostile Chinese forces and bombshell directives from his London controllers. The surprise ending is highly dramatic, if a bit improbable.
As always with this series, the action is tense and realistic, and the stream-of-consciousness calculations of the computer-like Quiller put you right inside the head of the savant-spy. Here's a passage that nicely sums up both the writer's style and Quiller's philosophy of "the edge":
Having read six or seven Quiller books now, I have to concur with the widely held opinion that it is one of the very best spy fiction series ever written. The Mandarin Cypher is another fine installment in a series that no fan of the genre should miss. Highly recommended for fans of thinking man's spy fiction.
In many ways Quiller is the anti-Bond and anti-Helm. Almost monk-like in his pursuit of shadow op perfection, he doesn't gratuitously womanize, drink, or lose his temper; he's always highly technical, introspective and controlled on his assignments. Where James Bond is a stylish playboy, Quiller is an introverted geek; where Matt Helm can be a cowboy and a thug, Quiller is a model of forbearance and professionalism. He's like a spy version of Donald Westlake's "Parker" character: a "grey man" with little personality or personal baggage; all business, totally focused, disciplined and stoic during ops; absolutely formidable at his chosen profession. The major difference being that Parker is a criminal out entirely himself, whereas Quiller is a Queen and Bureau man who has to play by other people's rules.
In this installment, Quiller is sent to Hong Kong to investigate the death of a fellow agent in a supposed fishing accident. Quiller quickly finds himself targeted for assassination by a cell of Red Chinese agents and romantically entangled with the beautiful but needy widow of the murdered agent. Quiller learns that things are not as they seem, and something fishy is afoot out in the South China Sea. It's all related to an operation code-named "Mandarin" about which Quiller is being kept in the dark by his controllers in London. After about 125 pages of Hong Kong intrigue that some readers might find a bit tedious, the climactic action sequence begins: Quiller must infiltrate an oil rig in international waters owned by the People's Republic of China and find out what it's up to. This leads to some intense sequences, as Quiller must survive long scuba dives, naval mines, hand-to-hand combat, hostile Chinese forces and bombshell directives from his London controllers. The surprise ending is highly dramatic, if a bit improbable.
As always with this series, the action is tense and realistic, and the stream-of-consciousness calculations of the computer-like Quiller put you right inside the head of the savant-spy. Here's a passage that nicely sums up both the writer's style and Quiller's philosophy of "the edge":
So all you can do is settle for the situation and check every shadow, every sudden movement, and try to make sure there'll be time to duck. And of course ignore the snivelling little organism that's so busy anticipating what it's going to feel like with the top of the spine shot away, why don't you run for cover , trying to make you wonder why the hell you do it, why you have to live like this, you'll never see Moira again if you let them get you , trying to make you give it up when you know bloody well it's all there is in life: to run it so close to the edge that you can see what it's all about.
Having read six or seven Quiller books now, I have to concur with the widely held opinion that it is one of the very best spy fiction series ever written. The Mandarin Cypher is another fine installment in a series that no fan of the genre should miss. Highly recommended for fans of thinking man's spy fiction.
January 21, 2016
Rereading this series....Quiller....simply the best.
June 8, 2022
5 minus. As always - an excellent hard core spy novel written by the best of them all.
December 14, 2018
A good book.
June 3, 2012
Steam of consciousness is an interesting literary device, especially when applied to the inner thoughts of a field agent from a shadowy British intelligence organization that isn't MI-5 or -6 or any other number, for that matter, but is the one that gets the actual work done. The Quiller stories take a lot of unexpected turns that remain plausible, but even with a lot of experience reading these novels, you can't really see where things are going until you get there. The Mandarin Cypher is set in Hong Kong, and you get a good taste of the exotic East as Quiller penetrates a plot that is as twisted and slithery as the snakes that make him uncomfortable. Funny, you'd think he'd be okay with snakes.
January 24, 2017
Another good Quiller spy thriller.
Read
May 26, 2018I loved this novel as it demanded my attention. The author (Adam Hall) sounds as if he served in one of the intelligence services, possibly England's. The protaganist is thinking in the first person without ever saying "I thought", making it intriguing.
Want to read
November 16, 2018Synopsis: Quiller is in Hong Kong; he thinks he's on vacation. But every alleyway leads to danger. He takes on villains one, two and three at a time.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews