The gang responsible for the abduction is known as the Crippled Dragon Tong. What kind of stupid name is that?
What's interesting about Mr. Forrest's injury is that it happened after the villains throw a bomb at the vehicle carrying Brad and his father. Somehow, Brad's father manages to sprain his ankle without getting out of the vehicle.
I find lots of things about these books make absolutely no sense, like Brad's maneuver on page 43. Actually, after reading the passage around six times, I can finally picture it. However, it is still incredible. Brad is pulling himself out of a hole by bracing his back on one side and feet on the opposite side, inching up bit by bit.
Just a step from the top his left foot jammed into the first small crevice he'd found then his right foot slipped out of control.Brad is quite an athlete.
Instantly Brad called all of his finely tuned muscles and razor-sharp reflexes into play. Twisting his body in the air, he pushed hard with his left foot
His left shoulder dropped but with his right hand he grasped the chimney's lip.
S-m-a-c-k! Brad's left hand joined his right and he was hanging full length from the top.
Then as easily as chinning himself on a bar Brad pulled up his weight and wiggled out on the edge.
Later in the story, two Chinese officials come aboard the junk and conveniently speak about their private plans in English. Right...
Brad pulls a Biff Brewster. Brad decides to go ashore to be captured on purpose so that he can find out where Mr. Hays is held. This is assuming that Brad will be taken to the same place. Like Biff, Brad ends up regretting that he let himself get captured.
Brad is almost executed by firing squad in this story. How many series book characters can you think of who have nearly been executed by firing squad?
The Chinese names chosen are distracting. Soon and How are two such names which happen to be both English words, so when the names were used in the middle of sentences, I sometimes misunderstood and had to read the sentence again. Another Chinese name used is Pi, which is also a Greek letter. The odd choice of names, as well as the strangeness of the plot, causes this book to read like a crazy, campy spy story.
I didn't really care for this book. It's similar to the Biff Brewster book Mystery of the Chinese Ring, which I also found hard to believe at times. The Biff Brewster book is better. I assume that whoever wrote this book read the Biff Brewster books, which were published first, and copied ideas from them. Unfortunately, the ideas copied were not the best ones to choose.
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