Plastic surgery disguises secret agent Larry Heddon to look exactly like Richard Bliss, the American defector to Red China. Heddon's mission in China is almost completed when the real Bliss is killed. Now the perfect disguise is a horrible trap! Heddon must escape--before it's too late.
Thrilling tale of crime and espionage behind the Bamboo Curtain.
Read this book in high school English. It (along with I AM THE CHEESE) stuck with me over the years, so when I was able to lay my hands on a copy, I jumped at the chance. I wasn't disappointed. Fantastic read.
Larry Heddon's a 'retired' spy. But China won't let that get in the way of killing his wife and kidnapping his son back to Beijing. Eager to retrieve his son, Heddon tries every diplomatic way possible to get his son back, but this is 1970s China and the Communists aren't interested in the yack of imperialist dogs. Five years pass before a real chance to steal into China comes; five agonizing years of not knowing whether or not his son remembers him or has been brainwashed by Heddon's and America's greatest enemy--an American traitor!
In the 70's our school had a yearly bookmobile sale. It was also the time of "Right to Read" and each kid was given several books for free. Kids would typically take a book and throw it aside. I collected a bunch and read this novel and found it exciting. It reminded me of James Bond, so I taught the book until they fell apart then had 40 copies Permabound and used them for another five to seven years. It is unfortunately out of print.
Read it in 7th grade (the middle of the Cold War) for the Social Studies unit on China presumably as something to make the subject a little more fun. And it worked. I remember enjoying it at that age.
Loved this as a kid; it was assigned my eighth grade reading class, and was certainly more entertaining than other offerings at the time. Good memories. --jw