amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

DCO Thailand

Kingdom of Make-Believe
A Novel of Thailand
Dean Barrett

A New York publisher who once served in Thailand during the Vietnam War receives a plea for help from his late brother's Thai widow. When he returns to Thailand after 20 years he finds that the nostalgic portrait he carried of Thailand Past bears little resemblance to reality, and he begins to uncover deception, danger and death.

Scenes in the novel range from Manhattan's Greenwich Village to a typhoon-ravaged Hong Kong to Thailand's notorious night life and warlord betrayals in the inside the Golden Triangle. A gripping mystery and exotic thriller, it is also the story of a man coming to terms with reality and himself.

"Kingdom of Make-Believe captures a slice of Thailand as it really is -- and was. The novel could only have been written by one who has experienced the Kingdom -- and felt the pangs of seeing its magic mirrors crack and shatter." Denis Gray, Chief of Bureau, AP, Bangkok

• Click the above link/image for details of this book.
  
• Reply to this topic to add your review.
  
• Use the Rate It! link to submit your rating of this book.
  
• Click here to search other titles by Dean Barrett.

Another American story set back in Thailand in 1988 with all the trimmings - Sex, Drugs, Golden Triangle Warlords and Girly Bars.

Vietnam Veteran Mason gets a letter from a ex-girlfriend, who married his brother before he died. Mason is obviously based on Barrett's own experience as a linguist in the Vietnam War.

He goes to Thailand to help and gets embroiled in the seedy Thai underworld that expats love so much.

Not a bad read, but too American orientated for my taste and panders to all the old stereotypes about Thailand

quote:

Another American story set back in Thailand in 1988 with all the trimmings - Sex, Drugs, Golden Triangle Warlords and Girly Bars.

it certainly is but it's also one of the best of the bunch (in my opinion)

it's also much better than some of dean's other works based on thailand like skytrain to murder.


it's got an interesting ending and the various locations and characters used make it very interesting although it could have been longer and more detailed.

barrett has a habit of small chapters with not much detail in them

a good read, 3 stars ***