THE MANDARIN CYPHER

In the Bureau, death is a disease with no complications."" Quiller, that veteran operative of Memorandum fame, returns to the field in Hong Kong for what he believes to be a mere ""gumshoe number."" The mission--investigating the possibility of foul play in the drowning of Ministry of Defence technician George Henry Tewson--proves to be a hairy one from the very start when Quiller finds his toothpaste poisoned and his Bureau colleague a corpse. Shortly thereafter Tewson turns up alive and well in the hands of the Chinese for whom he's designing a missile site disguised as an oil rig. Quiller has to survive a karate fight in a snake-pit and an underwater swim through minefields--then he's ordered to do the impossible. Bonded, particularly since it reminds you of Dr. No, despite the inscrutable codes and nonstop cerebration. Unquestionably the right man on a slow-moving junk.