4. The Bitter Tea by Gavin Black

There is a great institution in Berkeley called Urban Ore.  It's a giant warehouse that accepts almost anything used and then sells it.  Basically a recycling store, but they do a really good job of curating.  This is where you go if you are looking to renovate a house and do it with nicely built used things.  They also have a pretty large and good book section.  I didn't find any major prizes, but did come up with several semi-obscure mid-20th century British thriller and crime books, including this cool Fontana.  Turns out it is part of a 13-book series starring mildly adventurous Singapore businessman David Harris.

This book starts out with him at a fancy party high in the hills above Singapore when a visiting Chinese dignitary pays a surprise visit via helicopter.  When this guy attracts the woman Harris was talking to, he goes for a little walk in the jungle on the edge of the property.  He happens to be there when shots ring out and then notices a rifle-carrying figure, a figure that he recognizes, fleeing down the hillside.  Stuck in the wrong place and not wanting to get shot by trigger-happy soldiers nor to get interrogated, he effects a sloppy escape, wrecking a car but managing to make his way back to his hotel room without being spotted.  Once at least physically out of this mess, we learn more about Harris's business ventures including the shipping company of which he may lose control when one of the board members dies.

It's a nice mix of traditional espionage in the Asian theatre with some business intrigue.  The emphasis ends up being on the former and it was made interesting by the milieu (it motivated me to read up on Singapore) and the novel situation they generate.  There is some action, but Harris does his work by being shrewd and avoiding trouble. So we get a neat escape from a hospital, a slippery stair trap and a nice fight in the dark that ends with a heavy table being flipped on the adversary.