How Not To Get Murdered In Thailand


Book Description

How Not To Get Murdered In Thailand is in it's rawest a shocking expose of Thailand as one of the worlds most deadly tourist destinations. Penned in advance of the much publicized murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in September 2014, the book pairs grisly but altogether overdue research into the countries dark side with fascinating and just as overdue societal insights & observations.




The Curse of the Turtle


Book Description

Koh Tao--a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, surrounded by pristine beaches, swathed in sunshine, and a mecca for tourists, divers and backpackers. But "Turtle Island" has its dark side. In 2014, Koh Tao was the site of the brutal double murders of two British backpackers, but theirs weren't the only suspicious backpacker deaths. My name is Suzanne Buchanan. I am the former owner and editor of the Samui Times, a news publication on Koh Samui, and covered the stories of the so-called "backpacker murders" and other suspicious deaths. Although I am a British citizen, because of my investigation and stories, as well as my support for the two Burmese migrant workers sentenced to death for the murders, I had to flee Thailand for my own safety. There is currently an active warrant for my arrest should I return to Thailand, which had been my home for more than twenty years, and I continue to receive death threats. In "THE CURSE OF THE TURTLE" readers can make up their own minds on who is responsible for the murders that so devastated the victims' families. Were the Burmese migrant workers responsible? Or were the powerful, tribal families who run Koh Tao involved? And if so, were they aided by corrupt law enforcement?




2034


Book Description

2034 is the story of a day in the life of Helen and Bill Maloney, a semi-retired Oxfordshire couple from Headington who are about to have their whole world turned upside down by a chance phone call from their daughter, Katherine. Set in 2034, England is a semi-socialist world of 24/7 security surveillance where everything from the sky to the bees in Bill's garden are patented products of a burgeoning and untouchable genetic modification industry. The only problem is that people like Helen and Bill have so far managed to anaesthetize themselves from the world around them. How long however, will the anaesthesia of their day-to-day lives really last? And what will it take for Bill especially to be able to appreciate just how morally and spiritually wrecked the world around him really is?




Killed at the Whim of a Hat


Book Description

The launch of a brand new series by the internationally bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Coroner's Lunch With worldwide critical acclaim, Colin Cotterill is one of the most highly regarded "cult favorite" crime writers today. Now, with this new series, starting with Killed at the Whim of a Hat, Cotterill is poised to break into the mainstream. Set in present day rural Thailand, Cotterill is as sharp and witty, yet more engaging and charming, than ever before. Jimm Juree was a crime reporter for the Chiang Mai Daily Mail with a somewhat eccentric family—a mother who might be drifting mentally; a grandfather—a retired cop—who rarely talks; a younger brother obsessed with body-building, and a transgendered, former beauty pageant queen, former older brother. When Jimm is forced to follow her family to a rural village on the coast of Southern Thailand, she's convinced her career—maybe her life—is over. So when a van containing the skeletal remains of two hippies, one of them wearing a hat, is inexplicably unearthed in a local farmer's field, Jimm is thrilled. Shortly thereafter an abbot at a local Buddhist temple is viciously murdered, with the temple's monk and nun the only suspects. Suddenly Jimm's new life becomes somewhat more promising—and a lot more deadly. And if Jimm is to make the most of this opportunity, and unravel the mysteries that underlie these inexplicable events, it will take luck, perseverance, and the help of her entire family. One of Library Journal's Best Mystery Books of 2011




Thailand: Deadly Destination


Book Description

The daily robbing, bashing, drugging, extortion and murder of foreign tourists on Thai soil, along with numerous scandals involving unsafe facilities and well established scams, has led to frequent predictions that Thailand's multi-billion dollar tourist industry will self-destruct. Instead tourist numbers more than doubled in the decade to 2014. The world might not have come to the hometowns of the many visitors fascinated by Thailand, but it certainly came to the Land of Smiles. While the Thai media is heavily censored, and bad news stories about tourists suppressed, nonetheless there is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that something has gone seriously awry with the nation's tourist industry. In 2014, just as in the years preceding it, there were train, bus, ferry, speedboat, motorbike and car accidents, murders, knifings, unexplained deaths, numerous suicides, diving accidents, robberies gone wrong, anonymous bodies washing up on the shores and a string of alcohol and drug related incidents. Thailand had a dying king and serious succession problems, weak democratic institutions, an economy slipping into recession, faced issues of corruption across many of its key services and was host to international crime syndicates, awash with despised foreigners and drifting perilously towards civil war. Tourists choose one destination over another for a number of reasons, most of which Thailand scores highly on. But on the core issue of tourist safety, Thailand scores very badly indeed.




Good Luck Frenchy


Book Description

Being mistaken for someone else, being falsely depicted as an important international heroin importer and trafficker, and being made an unwilling accessory to murder aren’t everyday occurrences. Surely this is not how the police behave to get their man? But...what if they go further? What if, with the aid of a thuggish civil agent, the RCMP implement a buy and bust operation, a Final Solution to get rid of you? And what if a Mountie is killed in the process under very nebulous circumstances? A chilling scenario that becomes even more disconcerting when members of the RCMP commit perjury to insure your conviction and cover up the true circumstances surrounding their colleague’s death. But, what about you being sentenced to death as a result of this and a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that sends you on a path meant to shatter your already broken life? And...what if, in the end, Canadian legal institutions and ministries opt to defend the undefendable in order to protect the RCMP’s integrity and the image of Canada? Known as Bang Kwang prison inmate 482/33, my name is Alain Olivier. I learned first-hand what it means to be treated as expendable when the RCMP screws things up during a sketchy buy & bust operation oversea. This was my struggle against all odds to survive in the jungle of Bang Kwang prison, a true story that has something for everyone—drugs, murder, threats, violence, conflict of interest, political corruption, coverups, and my faint hope that the Canadian government would come to its senses and bring me home.




Erased


Book Description

Based on five years of investigative reporting and research into forensic psychology and criminology, Erased presents an original profile of a widespread and previously unrecognized type of murder: not a “hot-blooded,” spur-of-the-moment crime of passion, as domestic homicide is commonly viewed, but a cold-blooded, carefully planned and methodically executed form of “erasure.” These crimes are often committed by men with no criminal record or history of violence whatsoever, men leading functional and often successful lives until the moment they kill the women, and sometimes children, they claimed to love. A surprising number go on to kill a second or even third wife or girlfriend, often in exactly the same way. In more than fifty chilling case studies, Marilee Strong examines the strange and complex psychology that drives these killers—from the murder a century ago that inspired the novel An American Tragedy to Scott Peterson, Mark Hacking, Jeffrey MacDonald, Ira Einhorn, Charles Stuart, Robert Durst, Michael White, Barton Corbin, and many others. Erased also looks at how these men manipulate the legal system and exploit loopholes in missing persons procedures and death investigation, exposing how easy it can be to get away with murder.




Red Light Murder


Book Description

First in a series of mysteries featuring Florida-based private detective Ric Rivera.




In Search of Shipki La


Book Description

When a young American draft dodger from the Vietnam War disappears, his anxious parents seek the help of a Buffalo NY investigation company. The last coded postcard they received from their son indicated that he was hiding out in Afghanistan. The investigator photographs two bearded American young men camped in Kabul arguing with a better dressed Englishman, but neither is the missing son. The trail goes cold. Thirty-five years later a Western Australian friend of the widowed mother uncovers the names of an Australian couple who were camped in Kabul at the time and might be able to provide clues to the young mans disappearance. The search is renewed, taking the investigators to Pakistan, the Indian Himalayas, the red-light area of Bangkok, and to neighbouring Laos.




Buddhist Fury


Book Description

Buddhist violence is not a well-known concept. In fact, it is generally considered an oxymoron. An image of a Buddhist monk holding a handgun or the idea of a militarized Buddhist monastery tends to stretch the imagination; yet these sights exist throughout southern Thailand. Michael Jerryson offers an extensive examination of one of the least known but longest-running conflicts of Southeast Asia. Part of this conflict, based primarily in Thailand's southernmost provinces, is fueled by religious divisions. Thailand's total population is over 92 percent Buddhist, but over 85 percent of the people in the southernmost provinces are Muslim. Since 2004, the Thai government has imposed martial law over the territory and combatted a grass-roots militant Malay Muslim insurgency. Buddhist Fury reveals the Buddhist parameters of the conflict within a global context. Through fieldwork in the conflict area, Jerryson chronicles the habits of Buddhist monks in the militarized zone. Many Buddhist practices remain unchanged. Buddhist monks continue to chant, counsel the laity, and accrue merit. Yet at the same time, monks zealously advocate Buddhist nationalism, act as covert military officers, and equip themselves with guns. Buddhist Fury displays the methods by which religion alters the nature of the conflict and shows the dangers of this transformation.