By: Thomas Perry Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 336 Publication Date: June 10, 2003 Release Date: June 10, 2003
Product Description: The much-loved comic thriller by the author of the Edgar Award–winning The Butcher’s Boy is now, by popular demand, back in print, featuring a new Introduction by bestselling author Carl Hiaasen.
When Leroy “Chinese” Gordon breaks into a professor’s lab at the University of Los Angeles, he’s after some pharmaceutical cocaine, worth plenty of money. Instead, he finds the papers the professor has compiled for the CIA, which include a blueprint for throwing a large city into chaos. But how is the CIA to be persuaded to pay a suitable ransom, unless of course someone actually uses the plan to throw a large city into chaos—Los Angeles, for instance? Assigned to cope with the crisis and restore the peace, veteran agent Ben Porterfield steps onto the scene to remind us that the CIA’s middle name is, after all, Intelligence. Enlivening the mix are Gordon’s beautiful girlfriend, Margaret, his temperamental cat, Dr. Henry Metzger, and Metzger’s friend, an enormous half-wild dog with huge teeth.
I ordered this book in part because of all the positive reviews. I really wanted to enjoy the story, but I just could not get into the book. I'm not really sure why - I would be hard pressed to say anything negative about the book, it just was not for me.
"How does that cat get in and out of here like that?" -- "I don't know." -- "Maybe the dog has a key." This was Perry's second novel, and I was prepared to be somewhat disappointed; sophomore novels are seldom as good as first novels, especially the first novel was an award-winner. But not this time; it's a hoot and a half. It's a caper yarn rather than a mystery and there's a strong thread of Westlakian bizarre humor woven throughout. Chinese Gordon, ex-military and a master tool and die maker in Los Angeles, organizes a raid on a university drug study and manages opportunistically to grab an extremely secret CIA report as well from another office. The report outlines the Company's contingency plans for taking over various cities in times of crisis from natural disaster -- or by creating its own crises where necessary. Gordon and his two associates (plus his girlfriend, who has most of the brains of the group) note that considerable detail is provided in the case of Mexico City. And they are aware that the Mexican government would not be happy with the American government were such a document to be published. Sounds like a good way to blackmail the CIA, right? The point of view shifts frequently from L.A. to Langley, where several old hands and a couple of high-ranking bozos manage to misinterpret almost everything. Must be a Latin American terrorist group. Or maybe the Russians. The section where Gordon's gang demonstrates its capabilities by immobilizing all of Los Angeles for a day is highly cinematic and I'm amazed this has never been made into a film. Oh, yeah: The title. Chinese Gordon has a subversive cat named Dr. Henry Metzger, and the dog -- a two-hundred-pound junkyard mastiff -- belongs to him. To the cat, that is, not to Chinese Gordon. Yeah, it's that kind of story.
Outstanding! I can't remember when I first read this. In paper for sure. There is absolutely nothing to dislike about this book. I have read it several times and love it every reading. A terrifically fun read. To write more is stupid. "Butcher's Boy" is a very nice read also.
That's WHAT in the back of Gordon's van???? Having loved Perry's Jane Whitefield books, and been dazzled by their pace and that of a couple of subsequent works of Perry's, I was intrigued to pick up this well-reviewed early work. Metzger is, surprisingly, the name of our protagonist's cat! His human `Chinese' Gordon, is a rather petty criminal who stumbles onto a major opportunity. Blackmailing the CIA? Gonna try, anyway. Bring in Latino Mafia-like members as allies? OK, but how long will it last? Do all this while upsetting the workings of a city the size of Los Angeles? Pick a couple of vulnerable spots and attack them. Gordon and his cronies are easy to root for 'bad guys'. The CIA agents are a pleasantly varied lot. The action rolls past you like Gordon's van well over the speed limit. Wonderful fun, particularly if you live in and/or know the Los Angeles area as I do. Add my five stars to all of the others. Great pace, funny and sometimes violent scenes, a great moll for Gordon, a winner for Perry like so many of his others.
Savage and funny I have a taste for books that are both funny and intense, and for that reason this is perhaps my favorite of all Perry's books. Years ago, I read sections of it (the parts about Chinese Gordon, his friends, and their adventures) out loud to my then ten year old son. (I thought the other sections weren't suitable for a child, so I censored them.) He howled with laughter, and both of us were awed by the scenes in which a few men completely, bloodlessly, shut Los Angeles down. What a glorious idea. Another reviewer is quite right -- this book would make a great "caper" movie. Where's the Rat Pack when you need them?
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