Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye: True Stories from the Case Files of Warren Olson |
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Warren Olson
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Pages: 272 (Paperback)
ISBN: 981054832X
Pub: Monsoon Books
Pub date: 2006-11-30
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 81733
Reader Reviews:
HEY, IDIOT, DON'T FALL FOR A THAI BARGIRL! (6/6 people found this helpful)
"We may not be James Bond ... Our word is our Bond"
Such is the claim on the website for Thai Private Eye, a Bangkok-based private detective agency founded in the 1990s by an ex-horse trainer from New Zealand, Warren Olson. His accumulated case notes have been turned into CONFESSIONS OF A BANGKOK PRIVATE EYE by ghostwriter Stephen Leather, who, in real life, pens noteworthy thrillers out of the UK. Not wishing to make his British publisher cranky, Leather downplays his role in the creation of CONFESSIONS now published by Thailand's Monsoon Books.
Monsoon has previously released another of Leather's novels, PRIVATE DANCER (see my 11/22/05 review "Hey, Joe! Me love you long time."), based on the amorous pitfalls entrapping "farangs" (foreigners) that foolishly fall for the alluring bar girls of Thailand's famous sex-for-money industry. Here, in CONFESSIONS, Leather and Olson expand on that theme inasmuch as the vast majority of the cases involve a farang - usually a lovesick Yank, Brit, Aussie or Northern European - that hires Olson to investigate and confirm the fidelity of his bar girl/mistress, especially after returning home while continuing to send regular funds to his Thai honey as a token of everlasting commitment and in hope of hers.
The human male's biologic, moth-to-flame attraction to the neon-bathed Thai fleshpots being a given, it shouldn't surprise the reader that the vast majority of the individual chapters are repetitive. Only rarely is the mold broken, as when a very proper Thai lady is conned out of her life savings by a Western, bible-toting preacher turned scam artist. Otherwise, the victims are lovesick, middle-aged, white guys thinking with their genitals rather than their heads, and Leather's and Olson's lesson is "Don't let this happen to you, chummy!"
CONFESSIONS could have benefited from some editing. As it was, I didn't have to be reminded by the PI in every chapter that the "customer is always right", and I got the picture after reading for the first time early on that motor scooters aren't allowed on Bangkok's motorways. That said, the volume is both entertaining and illustrative of very basic cultural differences between East and West. Indeed, I'm fairly certain the Thai Tourism Board wouldn't place CONFESSIONS on its recommended book list as the country isn't painted in the best light. Olson himself gamely attempts to restore some balance in an Afterword in which he compliments Thailand as a beautiful and bewitching land that provided him with the loves of his life, his wife and daughter.
CONFESSIONS and PRIVATE DANCER should be required reading for any punter intending to sample the x-rated delights of Patpong, Nana Plaza, and Soi Cowboy.
In a personal email, Leather, evidently a hands-on kind of guy, inferred that he himself modeled for the book's front cover, and that he could personally introduce me to the two girls clinging to him should I ever wish to visit Bangkok. Would my wife let me go, you think, with our retirement savings converted into cash?
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Categories
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Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English