No Spoilers, But Here’s Some Teasers:

I am continuing with the third person point of view; I switched from first person after Bangkok Whispers, the second novel in the series.

The NJA Club Gang will be present in full force: the irrepressible Glenn Murray Cohen, sophisticated, brilliant, and affluent American expat and former criminal defense lawyer from San Francisco, will again lead the ensemble.

Glenn’s liberal politics have infuriated Trumpies, but have drawn the far-more-numerous Trump haters into my corner, and every time a Trumpie bashes Glenn or my book, I sell a few more. (Fascinating how no other readers  complain about characters who present conservative or right wing views. Only right wingers get into political arguments with fictional characters.)

Glenn enjoyed successes in the law and finances, but not in love. All his relationships have failed. He’s an unusual foreigner of his age, as he refuses to pay for sex; he finds the commercial sex scene rather revolting, which definitely makes him the odd man out in many situations. However, it allows me to write about the real Thailand, not the few blocks of sex-themed bars where an increasingly smaller sliver of white men visit.

Of course, when writing about the dark underside of Bangkok, it’s impossible to avoid the red light areas completely, but it’s never pleasant for Glenn. 

When I began the series, a few people told me that if I wanted to write a successful novel set in Thailand, I would have to write about evil bar girls ripping off foreigners, or manipulative foreigners trying to take advantage of hookers with golden hearts, or just endless boring monologues and dialogues between sexpats sitting on bar stools.  I don’t believe that is true, as I’ve read many books set in Thailand that were nothing like that, and mine are nothing like that either. Besides, the market is saturated with that stuff, some better than others, so maybe it was time for a different type of Thailand-based protagonist.

Also front and center will be the General, the retired Thai military officer who  served as a military attache in America and speaks perfect English. He loves Glenn and considers him the best possible foreigner friend he could ever want. The General is now in his seventies, still bragging to Glenn about his young mia noi ( “Minor wife” or mistress) and at any moment is willing to strap on an assault rifle and return to chase communists through the jungles of Isan, as he did in the late 1970’s. His adjutant was Wang, now the owner and cook of the mysterious NJA club, and Wang, also in his seventies, can still kill people  and not work up a sweat.

Of course, we’ll be seeing Sleepy Joe, the middle aged man whom looks like when it was in its heyday. Actually, he’s a former member of the Australian Special Forces, a trained killer who works for the General in the latter’s security business. (Specializing in things like recovering kidnap victims, ridding businesses of protection rackets, and otherwise keeping the peace and commerce in his section of Bangkok.)

Joe is Glenn’s very best friend on this earth, and they share passions for classic rock music, good cinema, and smoking weed . (Glenn will drink one martini if  the General insists, and Joe will enjoy the occasional Fosters, but they are ganga men to the bone.)

Sleepy Joe’s countryman, Oliver, will also be back. The six foot plus, well-built, shaved headed Aussie still knows how to find out anything that can be found out and remains invaluable to the General. He’s a supporter of the Australian Conservative Party, but he loves Glenn like a younger brother. (You see, in my books, people of different views can get along an be friends, something that drives the MAGA kooks to become even crazier. They really hate tolerance and acceptance.)

I’m not going through all the secondary characters, but readers of the series can rest assured that sneaky Edward the money launderer plays a role in this book, and the gregarious bartender and raconteur, Red, will be back telling great stories.

What about a Plot? Any Hints?

The plot centers around the distant past when the General and Wang were fighting the communist insurgency in the Northeast (Isan) forty five years ago. They believe the appearance of an old communist nemesis from those days is a sign that China is still meddling in Thailand’s affairs and the nation is in danger. Knowing that members of the Thai government, including military and intelligence, have been compromised or bought off by China, the only people the General and Wang can trust besides their own loyal employees, are Glenn, Oliver and Joe, plus another mysterious Thai, an honest and courageous member of the Royal Thai Police, known only as “The Lieutenant.” 

I can also reveal that I m introducing two new main characters. At the very end of Bangkok Changes there is a reference to a couple who just started coming to the Club: a Frenchman and his Thai girlfriend. In the new book, we learn their names are Michel and Jing, and they have become good friends of Glenn, because they to share his loves of music, film and weed. They enable him to expand his cinematic horizons thought classic French and New Wave cinema. They are also fascinating for other reasons.

(If you aren’t familiar with the series, hopefully by now you’ve figured out Glenn Murray cohen is not the kind of expat to spend an evening in a go-go bar, drinking overpriced and watered down beer while watching hookers gyrate and hang from poles. None of his friends agree with him, except for the General, who is class conscious and would be appalled at the thought of his sophisticated friend stepping into sleaze, but this does not deter him from constantly badgering Glenn to allow the General’s latest mia noi to find a friend for him. You see, in the Generals world, going to a bar is sleazy, but having a high-class mistress is just fine.)