Set in the years of Mao and prior to the handover, 'The Years of the Hungry Tiger' is the story of McAdam, a Hong Kong policeman who is unhappily married. Then he meets Ying-ling, who is a schoolmistress, and he falls headlong for her. This, however, makes him a security risk as she teaches at a communist school, and to make matters worse her father lives on the mainland and so McAdam becomes immediately vulnerable to Chinese pressure. Ying-ling herself is a 'starry-eyed' Marxist with resulting conflicting loyalties. In a novel which contains more than a smattering of realism, the author thrills with a tale of political intrigue, espionage, riots, sex, and the underworld of the island, along with it surviving typhoons, economic crises, and everything a hostile regime can throw at it.