Year of the Tiger (Paul Chavasse)

Paul Chavasse has had a long and distinguished career in British intelligence. He is literally on the eve of his retirement when two rather remarkable events occur in rapid succession. He is approached, in person, by none other than Prime Minister John Major who begs him to stay on. Then he receives an unexpected visit from a robed Buddhist monk who engages him in conversation about a harrowing adventure he had in Tibet over 30 years before. The story of that remote adventure provides the bulk of the narrative to Year of the Tiger by Jack Higgins. Told in the third person though from Chavasse's point of view, this is a fast paced tale with plenty of action and a number of unexpected twists. The year is 1962 and Chavasse is called upon to rescue an Albert Schweitzer like doctor who is under house arrest in Chinese occupied Tibet. Chavasse defies all the odds as he struggles to get the elderly humanitarian and his beautiful housekeeper across the border to the safety of Kashmir. Not only must he overcome the brutally harsh and thin aired Tibetan terrain, he must also outsmart the thoroughly malevolent Colonel Li and the soldiers in his command. Though the plotting is rather far fetched, I found Year of the Tiger to be a pretty good action-adventure novel. A 4 star effort, recommended to readers who enjoy fast paced action with a few surprises along the way.

Surprises in every chapter in this book! un-down-putable!

This book is basically a rewrite of an earlier book by Higgins. it features one of his early heroes Paul Chavasse, a British agent. Paul has smuggled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet and must go back to get a Russian space scientist. I found the book very similar in tone to the Quiller series by Adam Hall. Excellent 60s style espionage tale.

This book is a great read! Probably one of the most enjoyable Higgins novels I've read. A spy and survival novel set in the frozen Himalayas. You don't know how in the heck he's going to get out of the country alive, but you sure hope he does. The past meets the present at the climax ending.