The Year of the Scorpion

The first bullet caught the girl her in the shoulder, the second in the thigh...

The Chinese border guard stopped firing - she was dead, snared in the wire that had ended her dash for freedom. The Hong Kong police could collect her body in the morning.

The murderous old men who clung to power in Peking would never know how close she had come to unmasking their prize spymaster in the West. The elusive Scorpion - who has penetrated the nerve centre of the Trident submarines they fear so much because they still have no defence against them.

And now Scorpion has also penetrated the seething opposition that threatens to destroy the last and greatest Communist empire . . .

The Year of the Scorpion is Michael Hartland's finest achievement - an explosive thriller packed with action, courage, love and betrayal.