LAWRENCE BLOCK - TANNER ON ICE (1998)

 

Synopsis/blurb .....

Cold War superspy Evan Tanner lost the ability to sleep on a battlefield in Korea. So where the heck has he been since the '70s? 

Frozen. Cryogenically. A Tanner-sicle. Which he never thought would happen when he walked into a basement in Union City, New Jersey, more than a quarter century ago. Now he's unthawed and ready to rumble, and his somewhat addled, former super-secret boss, "the Chief", is glad his favorite operative's active again. 

Tanner awoke to a different world, though some bad things have remained the same...or gotten worse. Even before he can fully acclimate himself to this perplexing future, Tanner's off to Burma (which isn't really Burma anymore) to pose as a monk, destabilize the government, dodge a lethal double-cross, and rescue a beautiful prisoner. 

The world's still full of conspiracy, corruption, greed, political chicanery - and beautiful women. So Tanner's back with a vengeance, with a lot of lost time to make up for.

Second time with this one and unlike most of my re-reads there was no massive gap between the two outings, as I only read it for the first time earlier this year.

Still it's Lawrence Block, Evan Tanner and the dulcet tones of Theo Holland narrating.

I liked the set-up with Tanner unfrozen after a quarter century and slowly catching himself up on all he's missed in the meantime. Including the fact that Mina his unofficial daughter/charge is a fully grown woman and uncomfortably closer to his own age, taking into account the fact that he hasn't aged during his time on ice. Unbelievably, the old man, his handler is still around and has a mission for him in Myanmar (Burma).

Great fun, interesting, observational, and a decent adventure, after an arrest an escape and flight from the country disguised as a Buddhist monk with a half-Russian, half-indian widow for company.

4 from 5 and a decent end to the series.

Read - re-read (listened to) - May, 2021

Published - 1998

Page count - 256 (7 hrs 29 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

*February's thoughts below

The eighth and last Evan Tanner mystery, Tanner on Ice was an enjoyable read a few months after the seventh was devoured. Thankfully this time there were none of the irritating and odd troubling episodes from the earlier books where Tanner has inappropriate dalliances with some of the fairer sex. I'm far from a prude, but really? This time the dalliances occur but with an age acceptable companion.

In brief.... Tanner after getting himself defrosted catches up with his old handler, his sort of daughter and a quarter century of political events and upheavals and embarks on a mission to Burma. 

The usual shenanigans occur.... death threats, surveillance, spy stuff, dead bodies, temple visits, drug plants, encounters with the police, imprisonment, escape, romance and a long walk to freedom disguised as a Buddhist monk. 

A good fun read, with humour, snappy dialogue, action, incident, sex, social commentary (albeit a wee bit out of date) in an exotic setting. Top notch entertainment.

I must have read over 50 Lawrence Block books of various types and lengths in every format possible since I started recording my reads back in 2012. With the odd exception, I pretty much love everything of his I've encountered. 

One series - Evan Tanner - has now been conquered. Scudder, Keller, Bernie and Chip await.

4 from 5

The earlier Evan Tanner book enjoyed books were......    

Me Tanner, You Jane,  The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep, The Canceled Czech, Tanner's Twelve Swingers, The Scoreless Thai, Tanner's Tiger and Tanner's Virgin

Read - February, 2021

Published - 1998

Page count - 256

Source - owned copy

Format - paperback