Book review - "The High Commissioner" by Jon Cleary (warning: spoilers)

An excellent, unpretentious thriller badly filmed in 1968. It remains enjoyable although some of the depictions of blacks and Chinese are a bit creaky (Madame Cholon and her assassins feel a bit too Fu Manchu, as do the Chinese government agents). Scobie Malone is an engaging hero, the action is clear and well complicated (and there's plenty of it) with solid subplots about the dead wife, assassins at the Conference, a double agent butler, etc. The romance between Scobie and Lisa the secretary is also nicely handled, if very G rated. It's got quite a downbeat finale for a popular "entertainment" - the peace conference fails, the High Commissioner loses his wife (who he really loved), an assassin and double agent escape...