From BookBrowse:
Let’s consider the requirements for the heroine of a modern day thriller: a painful incident in her recent past, residence in an exotic locale, a heightened ability to talk trash, and a complete inability to recognize danger as she walks right into it. Ellie Cooper has them all… any reader who doesn’t mind the language and some gritty violence would not only be entertained but enlightened about a country that looms so prevalently in our current world.
From The Peking Duck:
Lisa has done the impossible: created a taut, breathless thriller that along the way takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through China, the big cities, the smaller cities, the places tourists go and the country’s underbelly. She manages to weave into the narrative an endless stream of details about life in China, what living there actually feels like, such vibrant images you can touch and taste them. In effect, it’s a kind of primer on life in modern-day China, yet it never feels like we’re being lectured or taught…
…Rock Paper Tiger totally rocks in every way. It is so intense and trippy, so full of exotic images and astonishing characters who aren’t what you first believe, I kept thinking, “This is perfect material for a movie.” I hope all of you get to read it, but I hope more than anything that some producer somewhere hears about this thriller on steroids and puts it on the screen where it ultimately belongs.
From Moonrat:
For enthusiasts of books about China, this is a must-read: Ellie’s voice is that of an American living abroad, but she is edgy and unsarcastic, refreshingly without a trace of the condescending travelogue voice we so often expect from foreigner-abroad novels. Brackmann also has a lot to say about the unfortunate confluence of capitalism and political oppression–and her message does not just implicate China. The book is packed with young, creative people, some of whom are fighting for causes, others of whom are just trying to live their lives, but all of whom are at the mercy of the capricious, occasionally violent, and sometimes meaningless whims of the big guys with money.
From Dirty Sexy Books:
Rock Paper Tiger is a smart, international crime novel that weaves together several disparate topics – the Iraq War, China, online gaming, and art – into a cohesive tale that centers around one compelling heroine. I loved it. I’ll have to make a mental note to remember Lisa Brackmann’s name, because if this is her debut novel, I can’t wait to read what she comes up with next.
From Kingdom Books:
Run-don’t-walk to wherever you get your books, and get two: one to keep, one to give to the person you talk with late at night about big ideas that you’re not sure you’ve got fully fleshed out yet…this isn’t a “typical” mystery or crime book or espionage effort. It’s a compelling and exciting adventure, one that tangles the cyber possibilities of William Gibson’s Neuromancer with the gaming ones of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series, along with a strong female version of what John Le Carré summoned up about the two sides of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, the cost of loyalty. Only this time, the wall is the Great Wall of China, the war is for information, and the cost — oh yes, it’s still the cost of loyalty: to your friends, if you can figure out who they are.
