Confessions of a Bangkok Pi

I commend the previous reviewers, and in particular Joseph Haschka's review, but want to add that the reason the book is "repetitive" is that the short chapters (around 23 in all) are clearly meant to be read by themselves, so some repetition is necessary. Also, as confirmed by Haschka, I felt the book was ghostwritten, by a good ghostwriter, in that the ghostwriter 'stepped into the shoes' of the apparent author, a private eye. A PI is not expected to write like Hemmingway, though he is expected to talk and think like Hemmingway's characters, and in this respect the ghostwriter of this book did a commendable job, writing in first person and making it seem like the apparent author, PI Warren Olson, was sitting across the table from you in a pub. Well done. Oh yeah, do watch out for the Thai girls, especially if they are impossibly good looking and speak good English. But, as implied by Olson, there is a duality at work: Olson married a Thai, so not all Thai girls are scamming, unless, and this is food for thought, marriage itself is a scam. Highly entertaining, even if slightly fictionalized (I find it hard to believe, as in one story, that an attractive Thai student was blackmailed into being a sex slave, but I guess it's possible).

I really liked this book. Having felt the power of Thai women, I consider this a must read for anyone who dares to expose his heart to a Thai working girl. I found it informative and interesting. It's a fast read and completely enjoyable.

This book needed some proofreading, because there were spelling mistakes all over the place. There was also a lot of repetition of certain things-- which may have been deliberate. Because the author wanted the reader to remember these things, he repeated them enough times so that they were emblazoned into our memories. There were also a fair number of witty quotes throughout the book that could come in useful for everyday life. One thing that I didn't know was the rampant corruption that seems prevalent in Thailand. (It is interesting that they have so many coups and stay so poor year after year-- in spite of having a country where the population is homogeneous and hard working.) Some things in the book stretched the limits of credulity. For example: The author claims to have spoken Thai like a native and that the natives couldn't tell the difference between him and a native speak. Oh, and he happens to speak Laotian and the Isaan language, plus at least two others. (He may have spoken a fifth language-- "Isarn," but I can't tell if this language is not the same as "Isaan," only misspelled.) The author also seems to have something of an ego, and it comes through in the tales in very subtle ways. ("I'm a pretty good looking guy," etc.) Overall, this is worth the purchase price if you can get it second hand. I'm glad that I didn't pay more for it than I did.

"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 "client 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 prurient delights of Patpong, Nana Plaza, and Soi Cowboy. In a personal email, Leather, evidently a hands-on kind of guy, implied 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, w