This book is a police thriller, and a bloodthirsty one at
that. Written by Guy Lilburne, this book The Thai Dragon (ISBN
978-616-91211-6-9, 2010, 4th Edition, Dragon House Publishing) embodies the
old adage, “write about what you know”. Author Lilburne was in the police
force for 30 years with 27 of them as a detective, so his hero Sgt Danny
O’Brien is a believable detective.
Lilburne is also a resident of Thailand these days, so his placing of his
characters is also in a believable Thai setting. The attention to detail in
this book is extensive, to maintain the reality. The mark of a good writer.
The book begins after setting the scene, with the murder of a young woman in
Phuket, and hits you in the face by page 27, the start of Chapter 4. A
particularly savage murder, the like of which I have not encountered since
the “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham’s
Magazine in 1841 and recognized as the first detective story, and made into
a movie in 1932). Author Lilburne’s Detective O’Brien is today’s answer to
Poe’s master detective C. Auguste Dupin, both of whom methodically sift
through clues.
Whilst sleuthing, Detective O’Brien finds himself becoming very close to his
Thai counterpart, starting a very complex association, which in turn brings
in Thai superstitions and the ability of monks to foresee the future. Almost
a mini-primer on Thai culture. In addition, Thai thugs with money are
introduced to the plot. Very real parts of life in this country where the
Phu Yai and “dark influences” are a law unto themselves.
The strength in this book lies in the clarity that author Lilburne brings to
the meld of East and West, which he does most successfully. The plot is
suitably convoluted to keep the reader guessing, and the characters can be
related to by anyone with even the slightest knowledge of life in Thailand.
Following a violent death, for Thais there is the problem of the lost
spirits staying around the crime scene. The author deals with these
problems, showing a better than average knowledge of the culture.
There appears to be a dearth of good sub-editors in the Thai publishing
industry, as this book has its fair share of spelling mistakes and poor use
of the English language. “Shoes with a wavy pattern on the soul”, where that
should be “sole” is just one of them, and I should not be finding literals
such as this! Please, can the publishers check before printing to stop my
perennial whinge?
The RRP is B. 395 and bargain priced for such a hard-hitting crime novel.
Despite the literals and typos, this is an excellent thriller, but be ready
for verbal imagery that will shock you! I still found it an easy book to
digest and the thriller not too complex to make it difficult to read. In
common with the better police thrillers, the who-dunnit does not reveal the
perpetrator till the very end. However, the book does not end with the
culprit facing justice, but rather with the reader facing “Thainess”.
