The Scoop
After the success of their first novel, Chris and Steve knuckled down to write its sequel. The pressure was on, as Matchbox Pictures had optioned the rights to both novels so they could be adapted for television. Penny Chapman, one of Australia’s leading producers of quality TV drama, was already assembling teams of scriptwriters and was demanding copy to beef up the “bones” of what would become Secret City.
The plotting and writing of the Mandarin Code took place during 2013. A key moment came in February of that year when American firm, Mandiant, released a landmark report alleging the Chinese Government – through a shadowy PLA unit, 61398 – was responsible for hundreds of cyber-attacks against the US and its allies. Alastair Macgibbon, one of Australia’s leading cyber experts, was in hot demand on local media, seeking to explain the significance of the Mandiant findings. When Chris and Steve reached out to AlMac, he was only too happy to meet in Canberra for coffee and help demystify this strange beast called cyber espionage.
Cyber became a key part of the plot, as did the growing tension between the world’s two superpowers, the US and China, and the increasingly fraught position Australia found itself in. The novel’s opening chapter takes place in the Chinese embassy which, at the time of writing, was being constructed on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin, using Chinese labourers who’d been flown in on diplomatic visas.
Another key moment occurred later that year when Steve was made redundant after thirteen years working for News Corp as a senior political reporter in the Canberra press gallery. While his axing came out of the blue it allowed him and Chris to intensify their writing efforts
The Plot
The body of a Chinese defector pulled from the murky waters of Lake Burley Griffin links Canberra, Beijing and Washington in a titanic struggle where war is just a mouse click away. Veteran reporter Harry Dunkley is chasing the scoop of his career, hunting for his best friend’s killer. Navigating treacherous political waters where a desperate minority government edges ever closer to disaster, he delves into a cyber world where there are no secrets. Friendship and loyalty give way to betrayal and revenge as Dunkley stumbles into the sights of the mandarins who wield real power – and who’ll stop at nothing to retain it.
DETAILS
Title: The Mandarin Code
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Publication Date: 21/07/2014
Pages: 478
ISBN: 9780730499664
BISAC1: Fiction / Political
