The Year of the Tiger by Phineas Cricket
🐯 Book Review: The Year of the Tiger by Phineas Cricket — 4.5⭐ Spy Thrills in 1970s Singapore
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
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Violence, including espionage-related killings
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Death of parents
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Child endangerment
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Drug trafficking (mentioned, not graphically depicted)
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Religious themes and proselytizing
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Interrogation scenes
📝 Quick Take
A teen spy thriller set against the backdrop of Singapore in 1974, The Year of the Tiger surprised me. At only 210 pages, I expected a breezy YA adventure—but instead got a surprisingly layered espionage tale involving microfilm, rogue agents, betrayals, and a very beloved stuffed tiger named Charlie. 🐯
The pacing starts slow (almost too slow), but once the spy plot kicks in, the story becomes a wild ride that had me actually surprised by the ending. I docked half a star because character introductions are occasionally… nonexistent. (Seriously, who are some of these people?!)
📖 Full Plot Summary (Spoilers Ahead!)
🚨 Major spoilers below — including the ending.
The year is 1974. Mike Turner, a teenager living at a Christian hostel in Singapore, is dealing with the disappearance of his diplomat parents in South Vietnam. His only comfort? A stuffed tiger named Charlie, a childhood relic that ends up being far more important than anyone could have imagined.
At church one day, Mike spots a man in a Hawaiian shirt who seems to know him. This mysterious figure, Jason Keen, starts appearing in Mike’s life—first buying cheeseburgers for him and his friends, then approaching him privately. Keen claims to have known Mike’s parents and drops a bombshell: their USAID jobs were just a cover. Mike is recruited into a strange “mission” that involves switching his language class to Mandarin, forging signatures, and meeting shadowy martial arts figures like Mr. Wong.
Mike begins training undercover, all under the guise of “Tae Kwon Do classes.” He’s uncomfortable, confused, and in way over his head, but Keen insists “the country needs him.” Meanwhile, Mike befriends Jin Kim, a Mandarin classmate who initially clashes with him (there’s a mop-handle musical number, which is both adorable and weirdly effective as a bonding scene 😆).
As Mike juggles school musicals, spy directives, and his growing friendship with Jin, the story takes a darker turn. Keen pushes Mike to infiltrate journalist Mr. Chen’s briefcase, which leads to Mike stealing Chen’s notebook during a sleepover (Mr. Chen is Jin's father). This theft sets off a domino effect: Chen gets arrested for subversive reporting, Mike feels guilt, and the layers of the espionage plot start peeling back.
The microfilm hidden inside Charlie’s neck reveals information about Operation Phoenix, a CIA pacification program in Vietnam that involved bribes, killings, and drug money routes. Turns out, the drug routes have shifted from Hong Kong to Singapore, and Mike’s mother—yes, his mother, not his father—was actually a spy working to expose it. 😳
Colonel West from the U.S. Embassy warns Mike that Keen is a rogue agent, but Mike’s loyalties are already tangled. Keen tries to spirit Mike away to Oklahoma, but Mike refuses. He’s promptly abducted and wakes up on a sailboat in Malaysia with Keen, surviving a storm together in a tense sequence that finally makes this book feel like the spy thriller it promised to be.
At a Malaysian hotel, Keen reveals the truth about Mike’s parents. Mike storms off, meets a boy named Samsam harvesting coconuts (because why not), then gets pulled back into Keen’s orbit. A woman from earlier—the so-called “Lady of the Night”—reveals she’s actually working for Colonel West and tries to whisk Mike away. He doesn’t trust her either.
Everything culminates when Colonel West himself picks Mike up, seemingly as an ally… only to confess that he murdered Mike’s parents. His mother was about to expose the drug financing that propped up Vietnam, and West couldn’t let that happen. He pulls a gun on Mike—but Mike is wired by local Superintendent Lo. West is killed before he can shoot.
In the end, Mike comes clean to Jin about everything: the stolen notebook, the dead spider (RIP Peter 🕷️). In a touching moment, he gives Jin the tiger to pass on to his father, and says “it’s what’s inside that counts.”
💭 My Thoughts
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✅ The twists were genuinely satisfying. I was worried the short page count meant a shallow plot, but the last third delivers some serious espionage drama.
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🐯 Charlie the tiger ended up being one of the best “spy gadgets” I’ve read in a while. Move over, Aston Martin.
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👥 Character introductions are the book’s weak point. Several people—especially in the first half—pop up like party crashers and leave me going “Wait, who are you again?”
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✍️ The writing itself is clean and accessible, almost like a Cold War spy novel written for teens but not dumbed down.
Overall, The Year of the Tiger is a fun, twisty, surprisingly dark teen spy thriller that rewards patience.
⭐ Rating: 4.5 / 5
📚 If You Liked This Book, Try:
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🕵️♂️ Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews — Authentic, adult spy tradecraft.
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🌏 The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre — Nonfiction that reads like a thriller.
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✈️ I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier — A psychological YA espionage classic.
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