Farewell the Dragon by Lee Barckmann

Farewell the Dragon by Lee Barckmann drops the reader in China in October of 1987 among a host of characters from around the world all with different agendas, beliefs, and motivations. As they come together, clash, find common ground, suspect one another, and betray each other, they create a drama that had me struggling to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys. Barckmann doesn't shy away from the edges when it comes to painting his main character, or any of his characters, as flawed. Even as the story unfolds around the murder of two foreigners, there's an element that nothing is what it seems on the surface. Many of the characters seem incredibly uncertain of their feelings for one another ratcheting up the drama, the betrayal, the suspense. Both secrets and honesty were used as weapons throughout Farewell the Dragon. Farewell the Dragon brings relationships, sex, international intrigue, religion, politics, and a society in flux to create an examination of human nature that is at once blunt and nuanced.



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