Now that best-selling thriller writer "Sam Bourne" has been "outed", the owner of that pen name - Guardian executive editor and JC columnist Jonathan Freedland - is no longer wrapping himself in mystery.
Over the course of five novels since 2006, the kind of mystery Bourne/Freedland has established is a superior version of the popular Dan Brown oeuvre with its biblical or religious undertones.
For Jewish readers, the Chasidic characters (in The Righteous Men), or the Middle East setting (in The Last Testament) have added interest to what were fat and gripping page-turners. The Jewish and Israeli content is ditched in The 3rd Woman, but most of the other successful Bourne trade-marks are present and correct.
It is the near future, when the United States is so in hock to China that it is forced to allow the Chinese to take a percentage of its duty on imported goods as payment on the debt. And to ensure that China gets what is due, it demands the establishment of military bases in ports manned by Chinese troops along the California coast. The People's Liberation Army on American soil? A bowed and cowed US is forced to agree.
Along with the army, come Oriental cultural traditions. One of the less desirable imports is sweat-shops, and that is where we meet Madison Webb, ace reporter for the LA Times who is working under cover to expose exploitative employment practices.
'The Jewish content is ditched but most of the other trade marks are present'
Her investigative powers are soon directed elsewhere after her beautiful younger sister is found dead of a drug overdose. Abigail was a pure-as-the-driven kindergarten teacher so Maddy suspects foul play. Her subsequent inquiries lead all the way to the Chinese base.
Maddy - driven, relentless, a loner ultimately let down by colleagues and lovers - propels The 3rd Woman along. She bears a shed-load of family guilt, ostensibly because she has neglected her sick mother for her career, but is there perhaps a more sinister and traumatic cause? Either way, she can't sleep, and sees the world through the bleary, out-of-focus eyes of the insomniac.
Which is a perfect lens for viewing an LA (not the sanest of cities to begin with) where everything has been turned on its head, from Angelinos swearing in Mandarin, to the army officers from Beijing seeming to hold ultimate power over the city authorities.
In describing Maddy's obsessive quest to uncover the truth about her sister's death, Freedland reveals how journalism is now thoroughly dependent on social media. Vital information and contacts come via Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, which is now the network of choice. Key clues are sought on the dark net, that part of the web where official eyes can't pry.
Her investigation is given resonance by exposing LA police corruption and the cynicism of candidates for state governor who are prepared to use Abigail's death to whip up anti-Chinese feeling among the voters. Freedland's experience covering politics and elections puts the novel on solid ground.
One can talk about Maddy as a strong female protagonist, or about the book touching on American doubts about its continued influence and superpower status. But, really, when you're lying on the beach this summer and what you want is that big, fat, gripping page-turner, this one won't disappoint.
