A. Marc Ross’s Attacking the Dragon is a conspiracy thriller about a covert international campaign to weaken China’s Belt and Road Initiative through engineered violence and political destabilization. After a bombing in Shenzhen devastates a Party delegation, investigators trace a connection to defective steel rods that were manufactured in northeastern China, and later used in a dam that collapses in Equatorial Guinea. As Chinese intelligence officer Haofu Tao, American intermediary Wes Robertson, and Ambassador Maria Braga confront the mounting evidence, the attacks reveal coordination by a strategist operating across various governments and intelligence services. Each disaster is designed to erode trust in Chinese infrastructure projects and provoke geopolitical realignment. The novel tracks the widening investigation as rival powers maneuver behind the scenes to control the narrative and the future balance of global influence. Attacking the Dragon by A. Marc Ross is a pitch-perfect geopolitical thriller where power plays and sabotage are happening at speed. Ross gives readers a series of killer spy montages, with agents racing around scaffolding, wondering if a hidden device is already sitting there. Nobody is having a calm afternoon, including me as a reader, clammy palms and all. Wes is at the center of everything with very steady, very composed energy, but it’s Maria Braga that I love most. She fully owns her diplomatic presence and coordinates sophisticated cross-agency cooperation that could spiral at any second. And then we have Yin Liu Jie, terrifying in a polished, strategic way that makes him feel unsettlingly believable. Ross gives readers an armchair race through a Giant Panda exhibit at the Smithsonian Zoo, a coup in Niger, and the Giant Buddha statue in Leshan. Coincidentally, I have actually been to the Buddha. I was not stabbed with a yellow parasol. Readers who enjoy fast international intrigue and tangled statecraft will love this book. Very highly recommended.
