Pick Up A Pulp [62]: HONG KONG CAPER by Carter Brown

(first Horwitz edition, 1962)

I've not read any of the Andy Kane books by Carter Brown before as I tend to gravitate to either his Danny Boyd (a personal favorite), Rick Holman, or Al Wheeler series. That said, after reading Hong Kong Caper, I really want to delver deeper into this Parker-like (created by Richard Stark, aka Donald Westlake) character (fingers crossed there's more books). 

Kane, a smuggler and all around go-to bad guy in the underworld for unlawful things finds himself smack bang in the middle in a mission for a million dollars; the bounty long buried in the Kwan Po Bay following a downed pilot in WWII and brought to his attention by the sister of the deceased. If only happenstance wealth could be so simple...

Based on the Carter Brown novelette Blonde, Bad, and Beautiful, Hong Kong Caper is a lot of fun. Kane is an interesting character who doesn't follow the conventional Carter Brown protagonist insofar as his unlawful nature and selfish desire to put cash ahead of wanton women (which are typically stock standard in Carter Brown books), and the plot takes more turns than you'd typically expect from a popcorn pulp. 

I highly recommend Hong Kong Caper for fans of Carter Brown seeking more substance to the standard pulp-hack story.