The China Doll

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First edition

The China Doll is the second novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series.

Publishing history

The book was first published in April 1964 (Number A105F) by Award Books part of the Beacon-Signal division of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation (New York, USA), part of the Conde Nast Publications Inc. The novel was written by Valerie Moolman. Copyright was registered in the US on 16 June 1964.

Tagline

Sex and savagery are the facts of life for every spy, and to survive, he'd better be good at both...

Plot summary

After the events described in Run, Spy, Run, Carter is recuperating at home in New York from another assignment (Operation Ice Pick), when he is assigned to be the personal bodyguard for Nikita Khrushchev during the Soviet Premier’s attendance at the opening session of the United Nations (dating the story to late September 1963). Carter foils two separate assassination attempts on Khrushchev. AXE and its Soviet counterpart (known here as SIN) believe the assassinations are linked to communist Chinese efforts to destabilize relations between the USSR and USA. Carter is sent to Japan to infiltrate a Chinese communist spy ring. He is assisted by a top Russian spy (Comrade Guren). They learn that a Chinese crime syndicate called CLAW, operating from the safety of the Forbidden City in Peking, is behind the destabilization plot. Their mission is to assassinate CLAW’s leader, known only as the Mandarin. Carter and Comrade (disguised as guardsmen of the Forbidden City named Lo Mei Teng and Hong Tu Lee, respectively) leave Japan by boat and arrive in China near Shanghai. They intend to walk to Peking. By chance en route they meet Yasunara (who is Chinese despite her apparently Japanese name), the chief concubine of the Mandarin. After saving her party from an airplane attack, they escort Yasunara by car back to the Forbidden City. Yasunara sees through the disguise and Carter and Comrade are drugged, captured and imprisoned by the Mandarin in an underground labyrinth beneath the Forbidden City. Carter and Comrade are to die by being eaten alive by huge turtles. Using a small concealed knife (Hugo Junior), Carter and Comrade escape, killing the Mandarin and feeding his body to the turtles. Yasunara is knocked out and taken hostage as Carter and Comrade wend their way through the underground maze to an exit near the river. The Mandarin’s second-in-command, Chou Chang, is lying in wait near the exit with armed guards. Prepared to die in the face of overwhelming odds Carter and Comrade make a final stand. Bluffing, they start to strangle Yasunara to trick Chou Chang into revealing his location in the dimly lit underground cavern. When Chou Chang reveals himself he is wounded by a thrown knife. In the confusion that follows, Carter uses a small poison gas bomb (cousin of Pierre) to overcome the remaining guards and escape. Yasunara stabs and kills Comrade but is herself choked to death by Comrade as he dies. Carter escapes the Forbidden City dons the clothing of a guard and makes his way down to the river, where he is rescued by Julia Baron (Carter's assistant in Run, Spy, Run) and two American agents in a waiting launch who take him to safety.

Main characters

• Nick Carter (agent N-3, AXE, undercover using the assumed names Richard MacArthur, Henry Stewart, Lo Mei Teng)
• Mr Hawk (Carter’s boss, head of AXE)
• Comrade Guren (agent X-17, SIN, undercover using the assumed name Hong Tu Lee)
• The Mandarin (head of CLAW, Carter's adversary)
• Chou Chang (Mandarin's second-in-command)
• Yasunara (chief concubine to the Mandarin) - the China Doll of the title
• Taka (former concubine to the Mandarin, working as Chinese spy in Japan)
• Julia Baron (US agent, previously featured in Run, Spy, Run)

Physical and personal characteristics

In addition to the physical characteristics of Nick Carter described in the first novel, Run, Spy, Run, we learn that Carter is over 6 feet tall, smokes Players cigarettes, drinks whisky, and obsessively watches television news reports. He lives in a spacious apartment on the West Side of New York. He speaks Russian and Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua).

Publicity

Promotional material was quoted on the cover of the first US edition and replicated that found on the first novel Run, Spy, Run with one addition, as follows:

• "Counter-intelligence of the highest order!” Leo Marguiles, Publisher Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine

Trivia

• The story makes several references to the plot and characters from the first novel in the series Run, Spy, Run
• Other AXE agents are referred to by code name. Agent J-2 briefs Carter on his trip to Japan.
• The organisation C.L.A.W. appears to be an acronym but it is not stated for what.
• Carter uses two new named weapons - Hugo Junior (a smaller version of Hugo the stilletto), and "cousin of Pierre" a smaller version of Pierre the Pellet (poison gas bomb).
• Carter loses all his named weapons (Wilhelmina, Hugo, Pierre) during the course of the novel.
• Robyn Tyler - Carter's girlfriend in New York - is mentioned again briefly in A Bullet for Fidel, The 13th Spy and Danger Key.

Plot errors

• Carter and Guren intend to walk from Shanghai to Peking (a journey of about 1500 km or 1000 miles by road). At 40 miles per day, assuming no assistance is obtained, it would take 25 days to reach their destination; an unfeasible proposition for an urgent and secret mission.
• Carter's colleagues (Julia Baron and 2 American agents) arrange a waiting boat for his escape from the Forbidden City; so why was it necessary for Carter and Comrade to walk to Peking from Shanghai? A landing in, or at least closer to, Peking could surely have been arranged.
• The descriptions of the attitudes of the local population toward religion, other leaders, and socially acceptable behaviour are incorrect. For example, the Forbidden City is said to be ruled by an elite of 12 Buddhist monks in league with the Mandarin. Religious belief or practice was banned throughout China because it was regarded as backward and superstitious by communist leaders who had been critical of religious institutions. Likewise, under the rigorous state control of most aspects of daily life, organized crime syndicates and the worship of alternate leaders such as the Mandarin, would not be tolerated. The practice of keeping concubines such as Yasunara and Taka was abolished when the communists came to power. The use of a palanquin, as described in the book, as a form of transport for a concubine would be seen as old-fashioned and elitist and not accepted.
• The location, layout and administration of the Forbidden City are incorrect. The Forbidden City is located in central Beijing. In the book it appears to be located in a gorge, near a river, on the periphery of Beijing, and can be approached by bypassing the city itself.
• The nature of the airplane attack on Yasunara is not explained. The airplane appears to be Russian but the motive and logistics of mounting an air attack on the Mandarin's concubine from Soviet territory or elsewhere are not explained.
• In preparing to enter China, Carter appears to bind Pierre (a small poison gas bomb) to his foot as a concealed weapon. Later, it is revealed that the weapon is actually a smaller version of Pierre (described as "cousin of Pierre").
• The events in The China Doll are set around late September 1963 (timing based on the usual opening date of the United Nations General Assembly featured at the start of the novel) and follow those of Run, Spy, Run (set in early September 1963). In between the two events, Carter conducts "Operation Ice Pick". Even at the height of the Cold War, a single agent engaging in 3 major operations in one month is far-fetched.