Is it possible to have a cozy spy novel just like the category in crime fiction? I think it might be and this book would be part of it. Cozy crime novels often take place in a closed society, the crime or its blood and gore do not appear on the pages and often ‘normal’ people are involved in solving the puzzle. This book fits all of these criteria but remains firmly in the present day with China as the evil monster and the guiding hand of the People’s Republic for its citizens abroad.

Li Min is an excellent student at Harvard working on artificial intelligence but is ‘asked’ by her handler Deng to move to Oxford and St Felix College overnight. She knows she has no choice in the matter and is deeply upset by it. When she gets there, Chinese students mostly live in a large house slightly out of town and seem not to mix with others.

After a complaint by a student that someone is going through his room regularly, he then disappears and this brings in special services including the CIA who send Manon Tyler to join the university as an archivist or librarian for the Director of the Chinese department, Abbott.

It takes a long time, most of the book, for Li Min to realise that her research could be used in negative ways but once she does, she understands that she can not betray her friend Sally Washington and so leads her handler on a merry chase after the material he needs. Part of the fear for the Chinese students is Mr Chew a large Chinese Man – six foot six and broad – who does the dirty work that is needed. He is not very subtle and seems modelled on a James Bond baddie, and is the one who finds out where Manon lives, follows people, searches rooms and threatens.

Manon and Abbott finally catch up with Li Min before she is snatched and taken back to China and their budding romance is set to continue. Unusally for a book nowadays, there are quite a few typos in it – I have probably got quite a few in this post as well!

This is most definitely a cozy spy novel. Very readable but not a high-anxiety inducing read that you might expect from a spy story. And, let’s face it, the hand is not that hidden in this story.