Skinny Chinese taxi-girls dance with off-duty British military personnel at the Yam Yam nightclub to the strains of ‘Rose, Rose, I love you' and ‘Terang Bulan'. Attractively dressed in their long, tight-fitting, slit-sided cheongsams, the girls also listen out for loose talk, which they feed back to their Communist handlers. It is 1950s Malaya and the country is in the throes of the Malayan Emergency. As the British do battle with Communist terrorists hiding deep in the jungle, one British officer, a Communist sympathizer, has come to the attention of the staff at the Yam Yam. When Alan Hinlea, a British Gurkha captain with a hatred of a class system that has always kept him down, deserts to the guerillas and is spirited away to the jungle Communist HQ, Chin Peng, the leader of the Malayan Communist Party gloats at what he hopes will be a major propaganda victory. A fellow British Gurkha officer is despatched with five Gurkhas to hunt Hinlea down and the chase through pathless jungle becomes a race against time and a contest of deadly jungle warfare skills. Operation Janus is the first in a trilogy of books involving Gurkha military units that may be read in any order and is followed by Operation Blind Spot and Operation Four Rings. The author, JP Cross, a retired Gurkha colonel, old ‘jungle hand' and counter-insurgency expert, draws on real events he witnessed during his time fighting in the Malayan Emergency and on true characters, including a British officer of his own battalion who attempted to join the Communist terrorists.

Operation Janus

Literature & Fiction

Cross, JP

Genre Fiction

Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.

After the ceasefire in Laos in February 1973, London forbids Colonel Jason Rance, the British Defence Attaché in Laos, from continuing his search for four Lao 'moles', who work within the Communist Party and wear a dedicated ring as a talisman.Unsanctioned contingency plans are therefore made by others for Rance to continue his work with the moles, the 'Four Rings', in an unattributable Operation Four Rings. But Rance remains ignorant of the plan and does not know he is in imminent danger.The communists now suspect the Four Rings as well as Colonel Rance and they launch their own Operation Four Rings: to kill the four moles and the British Defence Attaché. The tightest of races ensues.Based on historical fact and the author's personal experience, Operation Four Rings is the fifth in a series of books involving Gurkha military units and includes Operation Black Rose, Operation Janus, Operation Blind Spot and Operation Stealth. The author, a retired Gurkha colonel, draws on real characters and events he witnessed across various theatres of war.

Operation Four Rings (Volume 5) (Operation, 5)

Operation Blowpipe (Volume 7) (Operation, 7)

Operation Tipping Point (Operation, 8) (Volume 8)

In 1938 Malaya, a young English boy named Jason Rance rescues Siu Tse, a Chinese girl, from a vicious assault. Their paths diverge before she learns his name, leaving her to idolise the memory of her unknown saviour. Fast forward to 1953, and the height of the Malayan Emergency, where tensions and conflicts engulf the region. Siu Tse discovers she is pregnant by a British officer who is planning to join the Malayan Communist Party. In the process of defecting, he is tracked down and killed by British security forces. Misinformed and believing a 'Jason Rance', an officer in a Gurkha batallion, to be responsible, Siu Tse is consumed by a burning desire for vengeance. Unaware of their past connection, she is prepared to join the communist guerrillas to seek her revenge. In this complex tapestry of loyalty, betrayal and unresolved pasts, the paths of Jason Rance - saviour or foe - and Siu Tse - lover or avenger - are destined to cross again. Operation Hunter is the ninth in a series of books involving Gurkha military units that may be read in any order. The author, JP Cross, a retired Gurkha colonel, old 'jungle hand' and counter-insurgency expert, draws on real events he witnessed during his time fighting in the Malayan Emergency.

Operation Hunter