Former CIA agent Craig Page has finally moved on from his ignominious firing by jealous CIA Director Kirby. Page started his own private consulting company in Italy, enjoying the lack of Washington bureaucracy while still using his skills to make the world safer for democracy.
CIA and Corruption
He quickly returns to the world of espionage in the United States after the death of a young reporter who was about to publish a story that would completely change global politics. Page never had a choice about getting involved; the murdered journalist was his daughter, Francesca Page.
Francesca’s superior, Elizabeth Crowder, teams up with Page as they try to uncover Francesca’s journalistic coup that would have made her a household name if she had not been killed in Calgary. Although a novice, Francesca found out that Iran and China formed an agreement promising disastrous consequences for the United States, beginning in less than two weeks from discovery.
Iran and China
Page and Elizabeth quickly travel to Iran and China to track down this written agreement that no one seems to have seen but is necessary to prevent its enactment. Although he mentions Francesca periodically, Page never seems quite as brooding or enraged about his daughter’s death as would be expected. Instead, he has the presence of mind to pursue a relationship which, even with a spy’s necessary ability to compartmentalize, seems unbelievable.
Page’s focus does prevent the novel from becoming morose and keeps the attention on the “three-headed monster” driving the arch villains’ plan. Not only do Page and Elizabeth have to find out who’s really behind the agreement but they need to learn what internal sources want the United States’ worst enemies to succeed at any price.
Allan Topol
Allan Topol makes it clear in both his fiction and his non-fiction that he believes that this nightmare scenario featuring an agreement between Iran and China could not only happen but could conceivably completely decimate the current western standard of living.
The conservative author wrote an op-ed in Glenn Beck’s January 2, 2012 newsletter that current conditions between the two countries and China’s “moves to counter the US” make a “war between China and the United States more likely.” Since the Chinese surprisingly cut back their oil purchases from Iran during the same month, American analysis of China and Iran's interests should remain intriguing.
Topol’s assessments and point of view provide background for his story of a bereaved spy determined to once more save his country in an increasingly unstable world.
Sources
Topol, Allan. The China Gambit, New York, NY: Vantage Point, 2012.
Topol, Allan. “The China Threat.” Op-ed in Glenn Beck Newsletter. January 2, 2012.
Topol, Allan. “China’s Military Expansion.” Military.com. January 12, 2012.
Bonnye Good - Bonnye Busbice Good received an Editor's Choice award for her article on Your Historic Home's Interior Design Secrets and has also written ...
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