At the end of General Tiananmen the producer, Chen, and the director, Lau Lau, are killed by assassins in Taiwan. The Communist Chinese government will reach outside its borders to exact revenge on those who would attempt to publicize to the world what happened in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989. Uncle had warned Ava in a dream not to poke the bear. She ignored his warning and Chen and Lau Lau are dead.
Distraught and furious, Ava vows revenge. I went down to the library the day after finishing General Tiananmen and borrowed The Fury of Beijing. I had to know what happened.
Ava normally feels no guilt over her actions. It is different this time. There is good reason to feel guilty over pushing the Tiananmen movie to be made and screened at the Cannes Film Festival and then screened in America to be made eligible for the Oscars. She underestimated the Chinese government. At the same time she realizes wallowing in guilt is self-pity.
While furious she remains rational. She contacts Xu, the head of the Shanghai triads, to help her.
He swiftly finds out from Taiwanese triads that a local businessman, Song Pin-Lin, was recruiting assassins to kill Chen and Lau Lau. The Taiwanese triads turned him down.
She starts investigating Song. A bright and ferocious Chinese triad, Lop, is sent by Xu to help and protect her.
Anticipating she wll need to go to Asia Ava realizes she may need another identity beyond Ava and beyond her second identity, Jennie Kwong. She has false documents created for her to be Chow Qi. In Mandarin Qi means “wondrous”.
She senses the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) is involved. Chinese in and out of China dread the MSS.
Song’s company, Green Dragon Import / Export, is a front for the MSS.
Ava and Lop aggressively question Song.
Ava crosses a line in pursuing who ordered the deaths of Chen and Lau-Lau. Ava and Lop had alternatives to killing. As with most thrillers there is no exploration of the lives and families of the killed. The investigation takes them to Beijing. It is no surprise the murders were orchestrated at high levels of the Chinese government.
Ava and Lop describe themselves as avenging angels. I say they are at best tarnished angels.
Just when I thought that Ava was proceeding with a bloody vengeance that would leave bodies strewn in her wake she re-evaluates her thirst for retribution.
Perhaps unconsciously, she channels Uncle`s approach to making a high level response to violence. He would carefully assess what could hurt the opponent the most with the least impact on his triads. Any violence would be measured and only used in furtherance of his sought resolution of the conflict.
When even Lop hesitates as he considers the risks of violence against the MSS Ava realizes she must adjust her approach. She schemes to exact focused revenge.
Ava, while no longer a Catholic believer, is a believer in Old Testament justice.
While I cannot enjoy vigilante justice, which often has collateral damage, Ava’s determination to avenge the deaths of her friends felt right for her character. The book was very well written with more complexity than some of the later books in the series.
As the book raced to the ending I was reminded of how I was caught up in the drama of the assassin in The Day of the Jackal as he meticulously planned to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.
I knew the ending of the series was coming but had not realized it was The Fury of Beijing until I read the acknowledgements. While reading the book it had the feel of winding down the series but I also felt there would be 1-2 more in the series. I will write more about my thoughts on the series. It is the second long running series I have recently finished. I read the last of the Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear two years ago. Next will be Gail Bowen whose book Homecoming will be the final Joanne Kilbourn book.
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