The Chinaman Audiobook By Stephen Leather cover art

The Chinaman

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The Chinaman

By: Stephen Leather
Narrated by: Russell Boulter
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The "Chinaman" understood death.

Jungle-skilled, silent, and lethal, he had killed for the Viet Cong and then for the Americans. He had watched helpless as his two eldest daughters were raped and killed by Thai pirates. Now, all that was behind him. Quiet, hard-working, and unassuming, he was building up his South London take-away business - until the day his wife and youngest daughter were murdered by an IRA bomb. Then he began to ask the authorities who were the men responsible, what was being done - and was turned away, fobbed off, treated as a nuisance. That was when the Chinaman, denied justice, decided on revenge...and went back to war.

©1992 Stephen Leather (P)2007 Isis Publishing Ltd. Action & Adventure Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense

Critic reviews

" The Chinaman is a gem of a thriller, perfectly constructed and full of the unexpected." ( Library Journal)
Excellent Plotline • Great Character Development • Engaging Thriller • Surprising Twists • Superior Performance
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For a novel called the Chinaman, the book doesn't really focus on the Nguyen character enough. Instead it dragged a little too much with the IRA members relationships and inner conflicts. The Nguyen character could have had more depth and development.

The performance was good. His nailed his British Isles accents but his vietnamese accent at times sounded like a generic Asian accent and other times sounded Japanese. He also should learn how to pronounce the name Nguyen (sounds more like ngwen) and other vietnamese words such as "Hue" (pronounced hoo-ay not Hyoo).

Decent thriller

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I enjoyed the book. Interesting to watch the movie afterwards. I recommend watching the movie.

Fun read

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Great characters, excellent plot line, great character development, moves quickly with no boring stretches. I felt like I was able to understand the motivations of each of the pricipals. The author is a very good writer and the narration is first rate. I am very glad I listened to this book, would encorage you to check this one out.

What a surprise

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I bought this book after watching the movie. Of course, this is much better. The only thing I didn't like was the main character's accent.

Great book

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this was certainly worth my time and money. Will look to see what else the author has to offer

really liked this one

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This audio book is really well done and was great to listen to. I was sorry when it ended.

Fun/nteresting story with a superior performance.

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Eloquently detailed, but at times, perhaps too much during the most fast moving parts of the story. Excellent accent narration, especially the "Chinaman".

Eloquently detailed, but...

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I really enjoyed this book by Mr. Leather. He wove the stories of the different characters together so that one remained sympathetic and horrified at the same time. Mr. Boulter is an outstanding narrator and his voice adaptations made each character vividly stand out. I will look for both author and narrator for future listening entertainment.

Exciting and interesting.

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Turning loose a trained Vietnamese assassin among a bunch of IRA bombers is an idea loaded with possibilities. It's a great little book, but the author falls into the trap of Orientalism in his characterization of the Viet Cong hero: he makes him into a single-minded cutthroat with the tracking skills of Natty Bumppo. He could have been a Joyce fan, or a horse racing bettor, or a baseball or lacrosse fan. But no. He does know how to make nitroglycerin out of antifreeze and fertilizer and set it off with a flash bulb. Not too deep. The Irish terrorists get full three dimensional portraits, on the other hand, including cottages, favorite drinks, Land Rovers and girl friends. Still, the plot moves right along and it's a fun read, with plenty of surprises -- all of them for the deliciously astonished white folks, and many of them fatal.

Great plot idea, but...

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I can't believe the ending. I am so disappointed in this story after everything that happened

no spoilers

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