A review by jdcorley
The Inscrutable Charlie Muffin by Brian Freemantle

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Our man Charlie mopes his way through a Hong Kong adventure that raises some of the racial elements of English domination there, but fully fails to follow through with them, leaving the Chinese characters to be underdeveloped stereotypes - especially damaging given the prevalance of these stereotypes in spy and thriller fiction of the 20th century. It's fine for Charlie to be sad about What Happened (in the last book) but the events of this book don't challenge his sadness or make him change. He's even more sad at the end, which is fine for a Charlie Muffin book, they're not exactly triumphant, exciting adventures, but it means we don't really want to accompany him anymore.