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Guy Haydon

Kiss Me, Hadley
	by Nick Macfie
	Earnshaw Books
	3 stars
	Guy Haydon
Many authors find success by writing about what they know. British journalist Nick Macfie, who has spent the past 30 years in Asia - much of it in Hong Kong with the Reuters news agency - has has trod the same path.
Macfie's quirky, second Hong Kong-set novel sees the return of British journalist Hadley Arnold, his boozy, cigarette-smoking anti-hero. Arnold, who works in Hong Kong for Shrubs News Agency, has turned undercover reporter: dressed in a tired-looking tuxedo, he is working as a croupier in a London casino in search of a big story.
Croupiers are being hired in Britain to work in illegal casinos in Asia. He hears none of them lasts long; some are never seen again. So he is asked to investigate and "go get the bad guys".
Walking home from the casino in the early hours, he's followed by a car of Chinese gangsters, who warn him against cheating the casino. Later he sees a threatening Chinese man watching him.
A tip-off leads him to befriend Scout, a beautiful Chinese croupier with money troubles, who is heading to Hong Kong to pay off her debts by working in the illegal casinos. The smitten Arnold decides to follow her.
Soon he is mixing with a strange assortment of gangsters, killers, cute women and drunken expats. Will Arnold end up with his big scoop and - more pressingly for him, it seems - Scout?
Macfie, who worked in a London casino as a young man, begins - in what he's intended as a droll, joke-strewn narrative - quite nicely; viewed through the eyes of a cynical, less-than-assured Arnold, Macfie provides some nicely observed passages about working as a croupier and a news agency sub-editor. He also conjures up a few evocative images of Hong Kong; yes, he can write - when he's not trying too hard.
Macfie is less assured at keeping all the parts of his story going; he constantly strives to be funny, but has a frustrating tendency to over-egg the pudding. The first few puns raise a smile, but soon they start to grate and slow the pace, and become a distraction.
Some characters seem to be preposterous, and a few clunky sections of dialogue stop the story's momentum right in its tracks.
By the time Macfie is tying up a few loose ends it all feels a bit flat - a frustrating, near-miss of a novel: it could have been improved - surprisingly for someone who is an editor - with some choice editing.
It does have its moments. Yet sometimes less is more: a little more focus on the "big story", and less on the forced jokes might have ensured Arnold's casino-based journey really hit the jackpot.


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LIFE

Book review: Kiss Me, Hadley, by Nick Macfie

Kiss Me, Hadley

Lifestyle

Culture

Books

Many authors find success by writing about what they know. British journalist Nick Macfie, who has spent the past 30 years in Asia - much of it in Hong Kong with the Reuters news agency - has has trod the same path.
