“If there’s a living writer whose work makes me think of the great Raymond Chandler, it’s Jake Needham.” – James David Audlin, author of THE TRAIN
“Jake Needham is Michael Connelly with steamed rice.”- The Bangkok Post
Once a high-flying international lawyer, a member of the innermost circles of government power, Jack Shepherd has abandoned the savage politics of Washington for the lethargic … Jack Shepherd has abandoned the savage politics of Washington for the lethargic backwater of Bangkok, where he is now just an unremarkable professor at an unimportant university in an insignificant city. Or is he?
A secretive Asian bank collapses under dubious circumstances and a former law partner Shepherd thought was dead reveals himself as the force behind the disgraced bank.
Coerced into helping his old partner track the hundreds of millions of dollars that disappeared in the collapse, Shepherd follows a twisting trail of deceit from Manila to Hong Kong to Bangkok and eventually to an isolated villa on the fabled island of Phuket where he confronts the evil at the heart of a monstrous game of international treachery.
A lawyer among people who laugh at the law, a friend in a land where today’s allies are tomorrow’s fugitives, Jack Shepherd battles a global tide of corruption, extortion, and murder that threatens to destroy the new life he has made for himself in Thailand.
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Jake Needham truly knows Asia like the back of his hand, and his Jack Shepherd crime novels leave no doubt about that. These books transport you straight into the murky alleyways and mysterious backstreets of contemporary Asia. You feel them, hear them, and smell them. As the Singapore Straits Times said, “Needham is Asia’s most stylish and …
My first read by Jake Needham, he takes you into to seedy dark side of Thailand. He knows the streets, the food, the dark secrets of the under world of banking. Moving money outside and into legitimate sources, with government agencies, drug kingpins, and arms dealers. Fast paced, intriguing characters, mysterious ladies. Certainly a book that …
I enjoyed protagonist Jack Shepherd’s first-person descriptions of life in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Phuket, all of which were spot on. The author Jake Needham knows international banking well enough to write authoritatively about money laundering. Needham also writes well and the action kept coming. I put the book into the border area of “can’t put …
A little difficult getting into this book to hold my interest but I stuck with it and it turned out to be a decent read
Good plot, enjoyed the book!
I recommend the entire 5 book Jack Sheperd series by Jake Needham. The stories are set in SE Asia, and the author is obviously very familiar with the area.
Why are so many thrillers written about Bangkok? Nothing special.
Like the characters and locations.
The book was okay. I enjoyed it but it just never made the 5 star level.
I liked the Jake Needham character, and the way the author keeps readers on their toes. It was a good read.
Well written novel, a page turner, kept me interested in the exciting plot.
A highly entertaining and suspenseful account set in an interesting setting.
I liked the fact that it was detailed and the reasoning did not seem contrived
good reading
After reading the first ten or twelve chapters, I realized I had no idea what he was talking about. Way too much lawyer/banker speak for me. I think for someone who’s in the legal or banking business it’s probably a very good read.
Fantastic !
Unrealistic story line trying to create relationships between a multitude of government agencies.