App Store

Google Play

Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Step into an infinite world of stories

Listen and read

Stephen Becker

Three thrillers set in WWII-era Asia by a New York Times–bestselling author who writes “like a cross between Joseph Conrad and James Clavell” (Houston Chronicle).

 “A master of terse, ironic dialogue,” the author of A Covenant with Death presents a trilogy that journeys from the Gobi Desert to Peking to Burma in the chaotic years following the Second World War (Kirkus Reviews).
 
The Chinese Bandit: An American ex-marine must run for his life in the cutthroat atmosphere of postwar China, pursued by both a dangerous criminal and Chiang Kai-shek’s forces. This one “will keep readers turning pages through the night” (Los Angeles Times).
 
The Last Mandarin: An American mercenary chases a Japanese war criminal through the war-torn streets of Peking in this “fascinating . . . exciting” adventure (ThePhiladelphia Inquirer).
 
The Blue-Eyed Shan: The battle between East and West explodes in a remote corner of Burma, as an anthropologist in an isolated mountain village finds himself fighting to save the people he loves from the Chinese Red Army and a fearsome tribe of headhunters. A thriller “as exciting as Raiders of the Lost Ark” (Publishers Weekly).
 
 Described as “absolutely ripping adventure” by Time and “sublime entertainment” by John Irving, the Far East Trilogy is an unforgettable saga filled with suspense, epic scope, and rich historical atmosphere.

Open Road Media

The Far East Trilogy

The Far East Trilogy: The Chinese Bandit, The Last Mandarin, and The Blue-Eyed Shan

An American soldier of fortune pursues a Japanese war criminal through the streets and alleyways of war-torn Peking in this edge-of-your-seat thrill ride from the author of The Chinese Bandit

 Peking, 1948. In the midst of a brutal winter, the Communists tighten their stranglehold on the ancient capital, preparing to strike. Peasants starve, students riot, police crack down, and an entire city shivers on the edge of revolt.
 
 A decade ago, Maj. Jack Burnham was an American civilian living in China when the Japanese invaded. Now, he has returned on a mission to capture a notorious war criminal before Peking falls to the Red Army. Kanamori Shoichi raped, murdered, and pillaged his way through China during World War II—he also broke Burnham’s nose. If caught, Kanamori will be brought before a tribunal and made to pay for his crimes, large and small. But finding one man in a devastated city of millions is no simple task.

 Luckily, Burnham has the help of a beautiful Chinese doctor eager to help her people find justice, as well as his own expert knowledge of the language and culture. But when he finally locates Kanamori, the showdown Burnham has sought for so long will be far stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined.
 
The Last Mandarin is the 2nd book in the Far East Trilogy, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Last Mandarin

New York Times–bestselling author Stephen Becker’s “breathlessly exciting” (Cosmopolitan) post-WWII adventure about an ex-marine on the run for his life.

That summer they hanged a fat man at the Western gate as a warning and example to all. 
 
 Kao was a traitor, a thief, a pimp, a black marketeer—and Jake Dodds’s partner. So what if he traded stolen military supplies with the Japanese, Jake wants to know. He never cheated me. But 1947 Peking is a savage, cutthroat city, and the United States Marine Corps sergeant is too busy saving his own skin to put up a fight over Kao’s fate.
 
 Jake served his country with honor in World War II, but when he knocks an American brigadier general through a barroom window, no amount of battlefield scars or combat medals will save him from prison. So he sets out across the Gobi Desert with a caravan of Kao’s illicit goods—and plunges into a world of violence and treachery that will take every ounce of his strength and intelligence to survive. Pursued by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army and a bandit chieftain named Tiger’s Assistant Demon, Jake disappears into the mountains—but the chaos of postwar China is inescapable, and “peace” has never been a part of this two-fisted adventurer’s vocabulary.
 
 Gripping and rich with cinematic detail, The Chinese Bandit will please history buffs and thriller fans alike and “keep readers turning pages through the night” (Los Angeles Times).

The Chinese Bandit is the 1st book in the Far East Trilogy, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Chinese Bandit

The battle between East and West explodes in a remote corner of Burma in this electrifying saga from master storyteller Stephen Becker

 In the years before World War II, Harvard-trained anthropologist Greenwood journeyed to the Shan States in eastern Burma to study the people of Pawlu, an isolated mountain village. He fell in love with Loi-mae, a local woman, and fathered a daughter, but when war erupted across the globe, Greenwood left his family behind to fight for the Allied cause.
 
 In 1949, he returns to Pawlu to help an old friend on the run from China’s Red Army—a friend who claims to be in possession of the missing bones of the Peking Man. But Greenwood isn’t welcomed back to Burma with open arms. Loi-mae has a new husband who doesn’t take kindly to the return of her former lover, and the village is preoccupied by attacks from the wild Wa, a fearsome, headhunting tribe. When a band of refugee Chinese soldiers arrives, the stage is set for a dramatic showdown in which Greenwood risks everything to save the people he loves.
 
The Blue-Eyed Shan is the 3rd book in the Far East Trilogy, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.