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CHINA CONNECTION: POLITICAL THRILLER SEEN THROUGH CATHOLIC PRISM

By Diane Levero

What's a nice, not-so-young private investigator from Timonium doing mixed up in the search for a double-dealing Chinese chap on the run from federal authorities and a bunch of folks determined to kill him?

Well, Tony Sacco, a real-life investigator from Towson himself, tells you all about it in The China Connection.

It's a politcal thriller based on the Clinton administration scandal involving illegal campaign contributions from Chinese interests and two American corporations.

Sacco opens the action near his story's end--when investigator Matt Dawson, driving along I-495 to finally deliver his quarry, Johnny Chou, to the FBI, gets ambushed by gun-toting killers.

The rest is told in fast-paced, tightly plotted flashback, starting with a failed satellite launch in Xichang, China. A Chinese booster rocket carrying two American satellites explodes in flames shortly after take-off.

The flaming debris from the failed rocket rains down death on the unfortunate peasants in the village of Serxu, downrange from the launch center.

But Chinese officials are more concerned about the effect on their civilian space program, which they are using to improve their capability to fire intercontinental ballistic missiles at enemy targets.

They must gain access to superior American technology! To do that, they must acquire Most Favared Nation trade status with the U.S., and get waivers from the stringent Tiananmen Square sanctions.

So they hatch a plan to grease some palms with contributions to the American President and his party's national committee.

A similar plan takes place at Lorton Space and Communications and Houghlin Electronics, the two U.S. firms who are using the Chinese launch facilities because they're dirt cheap compared to the U.S. ones.

In the meantime, Matt Dawson, taking an evening course on FBI Crime Lab use at Waterford University (read Loyola College), becomes chummy with the instructor, FBI Deputy Director Jeff Singleton.

Later, when everything hits the fan, Singleton taps Matt to locate Johnny Chou, the conduit through whom much of the illegal contributions have been made, who had fled the country.

As the plot thickens, we learn more about Matt, who is trying to recover from a devastating divorce and his feelings of alienation from his four grown children.

He is dating Karen, an art teacher at Mt. DeSales High School, and at the Towson Diner, talks over the possibility of annulment with Father Flynn, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church.

Sacco has fun with the names of some better-known personages in his tale: the President is named Warren Jenkins Carswell (get it?); his attorney general is Jane Ronto, and his vice-president is Alston Gordon.

More serious is Sacco's perspective. His story is told through Catholic eyes.

Matt is a devout Catholic who often attends daily Mass and tries to live his life according to his faith, which was once knee-jerk but is now strengthened and matured. The villains in the story (and there are many) are seen as exemplars of moral relativism.

Writing a contemporary novel from an unabashedly conservative Catholic viewpoint, as Sacco has done, took courage.

I do have a few bones to pick with him, though. His proclivity for describing the attire of virtually every character, every time they appear, drove me nuts. I don't need to know that the waitress at the Sheraton-Towson wore a burgundy knee-length skirt, a white blouse and black pumps!

And injecting Karen into the flight to Taipei so she could be present during the climactic, bloody gun battles was contrived and unbelievable--no way Matt should have allowed her to go along when he knew full well how dangerous it would be.

Also, readers should be forewarned that they may be uncomfortable with some of the sexual incidents involving supporting characters.

But, these few flaws aside, China Connection is a well-plotted, engrossing and worthwhile read.