SearchNew here?
Chinese Puzzle — Hachette UK ebook edition
Hachette UK ebook edition

The DestroyerBook 31972

Chinese Puzzle

When a Chinese emissary dies aboard a BOAC flight and General Liu vanishes in New York, the U.S. President turns to CURE to find the general and protect the planned visit of China’s Premier. Remo Williams is assigned to guard Liu’s wife, Mei Soong, with Chiun as interpreter. Competing assassins and factions repeatedly draw the trio into attacks, while Chiun’s hostility toward Chinese people complicates the search. Smith fears CURE has been exposed and begins preparing to dismantle it. Remo’s search eventually reaches a Chinatown network, where the disappearance and the threatened peace visit prove more complicated than he first believes.

Read the plotFind an editionAlso at Kindle · Google
Plot contains spoilersReveal the full storyHide the plot · 1 min read

A BOAC flight carrying a Chinese emissary is poisoned; the public report calls the deaths botulism and omits the Chinese passenger and his aides. As plans for the Chinese Premier’s visit to the United States proceed, General Liu disappears in the Bronx. The President asks CURE director Harold W. Smith to find him, and the story recounts how an earlier unnamed President founded CURE, hired Smith, and established succession rules. Smith assigns Remo to protect Liu’s wife, Mei Soong, and to locate the general; Chiun accompanies them as interpreter despite his hatred of Chinese people. In Boston, Remo rapes Mei while trying to regain control of the assignment, a violation Chiun later criticizes as mechanical.

Several groups try to kill Remo, including contract attackers in Puerto Rico, Maria Deloubier and retired sniper Ricardo Guerner, Wah Ching youths, and a group at a Chinatown karate dojo. Smith sees a photograph of Remo with Chiun and Mei and starts CURE’s destruct plan, which would kill Remo through Chiun and end the organization. Remo survives a plot involving CURE operative Bernoy “Sweet Shiv” Jackson, who does not know his connection to CURE, and spares him. General Liu’s point of view reveals he arranged the deaths aboard the transport plane, staged his own disappearance and opposes the Premier’s peace visit. Mei poisons Remo and brings him to Liu; Chiun rescues Remo, and Liu kills Mei.

Remo and Chiun accompany Liu to Peking. There, Liu attempts to kill the Premier and blame the Americans, but Chiun uses the sword of Sinanju to kill Liu. The Premier survives, while the end leaves the peace process uncertain.

Sources for this summary

Characters & places

Spoilers

Full articles

Characters 33

Places 36

Organizations 23

Groups 6

People 1

Lore 3

Chapter summaries25 chapters · spoilers

  1. Chapter 1

    A poisoned BOAC flight kills its Chinese emissary; Washington learns that the Premier still intends to visit and the President secretly calls CURE.

  2. Chapter 2

    At the San Juan Hotel Nacional, Remo completes a dangerous descent exercise and resumes training with Chiun.

  3. Chapter 3

    The U.S. loses track of General Liu in the Bronx; the President asks CURE to find him, while a flashback recounts how the founding President recruited Smith and established CURE.

  4. Chapter 4

    Remo recalls his execution and recruitment, and discusses Chiun’s hostility to China as the President’s visit plans upset him.

  5. Chapter 5

    Smith assigns Remo to protect Mei Soong and locate General Liu; Remo accepts and agrees to take Chiun as interpreter.

  6. Chapter 6

    A staged taxi ambush targets Remo and Smith in Puerto Rico; Remo kills the attackers and the driver, then takes Smith to the airport.

  7. Chapter 7

    Remo and Chiun meet Mei Soong at Dorval; she identifies herself as Liu’s wife while their ideological argument and Chiun’s hostility complicate the assignment.

  8. Chapter 8

    A photograph of Remo, Chiun and Mei threatens CURE’s secrecy; Smith prepares CURE’s destruct procedure and continues the assignment.

  9. Chapter 9

    Maria Deloubier recruits retired sniper Guerner to kill Remo and shows him the photograph of Remo and Chiun.

  10. Chapter 10

    In Boston, Remo and Chiun argue with Mei; Chiun ties her up, and Remo uses coercive physical force to prevent her leaving.

  11. Chapter 11

    The narration shows Remo rape Mei while she is unable to resist; Chiun later calls the act mechanical.

  12. Chapter 12

    Chiun recounts Sinanju’s founding legend and the village’s dependence on contracts; Remo refuses to abandon the mission, and they spot a sniper.

  13. Chapter 13

    Chiun disrupts Guerner’s aim; Chiun kills Maria and Remo kills Guerner after learning only that a Communist group hired him.

  14. Chapter 14

    Remo revisits the Bronx route and wrongly concludes that General Liu was taken to Chinatown by train.

  15. Chapter 15

    At Little Italy’s San Gennaro Festival, Wah Ching youths pursue the trio; Chiun takes Mei away while Remo is arrested after a staged restaurant complaint.

  16. Chapter 16

    CURE’s attorney Boffer uses code violations and countercharges to get Remo and Wo Fat to withdraw their complaints.

  17. Chapter 17

    Back at the hotel, Remo suspects Mei has been contacted; he shops for her and steers the group back toward Chinatown.

  18. Chapter 18

    Smith is about to poison himself and have Chiun kill Remo under CURE’s destruct plan, but Remo calls, refuses to send Chiun back, and makes Smith delay.

  19. Chapter 19

    Sweet Shiv Jackson recounts how his numbers operation made him useful to CURE; sent to kill Remo, he tries to flee but returns under pressure from his handler.

  20. Chapter 20

    Remo enters the Chinatown dojo with Chiun and Mei; Chiun insists Remo display Sinanju technique with grace before Mr. Kyoto, whose father is an old acquaintance.

  21. Chapter 21

    Remo defeats the dojo’s black belts in a lethal fight, and Mei is shaken by his ability.

  22. Chapter 22

    General Liu’s point of view reveals that he staged his disappearance, killed his guards and intends to derail the Premier’s peace visit.

  23. Chapter 23

    Mei poisons Remo and leads him to Liu; Chiun finds Remo, and the elderly Chinese traditionalist kills himself rather than face Chiun. Liu kills Mei.

  24. Chapter 24

    The President learns Liu has returned and speaks with Smith, who says CURE will continue under changed conditions and confirms Remo is lucky to be alive without explaining what went wrong.

  25. Chapter 25

    Remo realizes Liu staged his own disappearance; at the Forbidden City, Liu tries to frame Remo and Chiun for a plot against the Premier, and Chiun kills Liu.

Other mentions29 names & references

Editions & covers

Explore cover history

Edition · cover shown

Hachette UK

2014-08-21

ISBN 9780751557992

Edition details

References & notes

Sources 42 references
  • witness:00000007:ch01:p0014
  • witness:00000007:ch05:p0036
  • witness:00000007:ch08:p0023
  • witness:00000007:ch25:p0035
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0053
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0058
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0060
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0062
  • witness:00000007:ch15:p0016
  • witness:00000007:ch15:p0018
  • witness:00000007:ch16:p0016
  • witness:00000007:ch16:p0018
  • witness:00000007:ch01:p0023
  • witness:00000007:ch08:p0030
  • witness:00000007:ch13:p0046
  • witness:00000007:ch19:p0041
  • witness:00000007:ch22:p0016
  • witness:00000007:ch23:p0055
  • witness:00000007:ch25:p0090
  • witness:00000007:ch11:p0036
  • witness:00000007:ch11:p0037
  • witness:00000007:ch11:p0042
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0090
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0092
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0098
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0099
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0104
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0105
  • witness:00000007:ch03:p0109
  • witness:00000007:ch01:p0005
  • witness:00000007:ch01:p0006
  • witness:00000007:ch01:p0011
  • witness:00000007:ch01:p0024
Edition and source notes

Names are the bibliography’s title-level “written by” attribution key, not a verified edition byline. credited_authors is null because no first-edition cover/title page was checked. A creator name in the general franchise metadata must not be treated as proof of sole drafting.

cataloged copyright-year notation: 1972. Describes the copyright-year notation on an institutional holdings entry, not a verified first printing, original publication year or on-sale date. The physical copyright page was not inspected. Source

Chinese Puzzle:

Publisher's description: A US-based crisis follows the death of a Chinese diplomat and the abduction of a senior Chinese adviser, drawing Remo into the international standoff.

Story timeframe

Coarse estimate from the assumed incumbent’s historical presidency. The term range is context, not a claim that the plot spans the term or that a particular event occurs at either endpoint.

Historical term dates: Source 1

Presidential clues

Presidential clues

Current U.S. President: retained hypothesis — Richard Nixon (possible intended referent; novel does not name him).

Richard Nixon (possible intended referent; novel does not name him)

Medium-high as an intended historical parallel when the founder/successor sequence is combined with the German-accented professor-adviser. Nixon remains unnamed. The novel’s planned visit by China’s Premier to the United States is different from Nixon’s historical visit to China in February 1972.

The incumbent U.S. President

Richard Nixon (possible intended referent; novel does not name him)

  • At the opening he is shown in the White House area during an autumn Washington crisis briefing after the emissary’s death; he stresses that the Premier’s visit remains on and secretly summons Smith and the “person.”
  • He appears publicly on television announcing the impending visit by China’s Premier; the book supplies no name or date.
  • He asks Smith to find Liu because failure would imperil the visit; later he resists Smith’s planned destruction of CURE, orders him not to do it, and asks for Remo’s status.
  • The closing scenes show him shoeless in his office and in telephone contact with Smith.
  • His closest adviser speaks with a German accent and is repeatedly addressed as Professor. The preceding retrospective scene distinguishes the founder, a Southern-drawling successor and the present incumbent.

Medium-high as an intended historical parallel when the founder/successor sequence is combined with the German-accented professor-adviser. Nixon remains unnamed. The novel’s planned visit by China’s Premier to the United States is different from Nixon’s historical visit to China in February 1972.

The book fictionalizes diplomacy: the Premier plans to visit the United States, whereas Nixon historically traveled to China. Neither a calendar year nor the incumbent’s name is supplied; do not assign a story date from publication metadata.

The President who founded CURE

John F. Kennedy (possible intended historical referent; unnamed in the novel)

  • The narrator recounts Smith’s first meeting with the President and describes him as a young man with sandy hair and a recurring back injury.
  • The President says the country risks dictatorship, appoints Smith to lead an outside force, and instructs him to stop crime and corruption without taking human life.
  • He says he will inform his successor and establishes that CURE dissolves if Smith dies; asked about his own death, he says his heart is fine and he has no intention of assassination, then answers a hypothetical about being assassinated.

Strong intended-JFK interpretation in the combined early-book evidence, including this direct recruitment/founding scene and Book 4’s young-President/Dallas reconstruction. This scene itself gives no name or Dallas reference and its assassination discussion is hypothetical.

The founding scene is directly narrated, unlike a character’s speculation, but identity remains unstated and historical parallels cannot establish all fictional founding details.

The Southern-drawling successor

Lyndon B. Johnson (possible contextual inference for the Southern-drawling successor; not named)

  • The narrative says Smith informed a new President one November and transcribes his “Ah” dialect and informal phrase about “rub someone out.”
  • The following paragraph says this President explained CURE to “this President,” and p0110 distinguishes another President now asking Smith.

Medium for the middle successor because his sequence and dialect evoke LBJ; no year, name, policy or uniquely identifying detail appears. No historical identity is assigned to the other successors from this passage alone.

The text omits names and exact dates. The succession sequence supports relative order but does not by itself establish real administrations.

China’s unnamed Premier

Possibly Zhou Enlai, but the novel does not give the Premier’s name.

  • The U.S. President’s briefing says the Premier’s trip is still planned and General Liu is his close friend and former Long March/Yenan comrade.
  • The Premier’s visit anchors the U.S. mission and Liu’s motive; in the final scene he is personally present in Peking and is not part of Liu’s plot.

Low-to-medium historical-context inference; title and diplomatic episode are compatible with Zhou Enlai, but the book gives no name or date.

Zhou Enlai was the Premier who met Nixon in China in 1972, but the novel describes a different planned trip to the United States and supplies no name or year. The historical parallel remains a hypothesis.

The President’s professor-adviser

Henry Kissinger (strong intended parallel; adviser unnamed in the novel)

  • The narrative describes a professorial manner and speech shaped by a German childhood.
  • The President calls him Professor and withholds the CURE contingency from him.

Strong contextual fit: official historical records establish Kissinger’s German birth, Harvard faculty career and appointment as Nixon’s National Security Adviser. No proper name is observed in these scenes.

Matching biography supports an interpretation, not a source-confirmed character name or proof of a story year. This is the current incumbent’s adviser, not CURE’s founder.

All 155 books in The Destroyer

Phrases & sayings in this book

Spot a mistake, or know something this page doesn’t?Suggest a correction