Anther fantastic Jake Needham book. This one takes place in Phuket and Bangkok. If you like government conspiracies and are open to books that take place somewhere other than America, Jake Needham's books are fantastic. These books are hard to find in paperback here in the USA, I bought 4 of them when I was in Hong Kong, but they are all now available on Kindle.
The general story concerns the sale of Iraqi oil during the embargo and where the oil was going and what the money was used for. Lots of well thought out twists and counter twists and the story, unlike many in this genre, is quite believable. Like a Tom Clancy book you wonder how much of this really did take place, probably a lot more than we wish.
This is the second book in the Jack Shepard series, the first was Laundry Man, and while I recommend all of his books you don't need to read them in order, if you don't want to. ( )

Anther fantastic Jake Needham book. This one takes place in Phuket and Bangkok. If you like government conspiracies and are open to books that take place somewhere other than America, Jake Needham's books are fantastic. These books are hard to find in paperback here in the USA, I bought 4 of them when I was in Hong Kong, but they are all now available on Kindle.
The general story concerns the sale of Iraqi oil during the embargo and where the oil was going and what the money was used for. Lots of well thought out twists and counter twists and the story, unlike many in this genre, is quite believable. Like a Tom Clancy book you wonder how much of this really did take place, probably a lot more than we wish.
This is the second book in the Jack Shepard series, the first was Laundry Man, and while I recommend all of his books you don't need to read them in order, if you don't want to. ( )

I have read and enjoyed Jake Needham’s two Thai Inspector Tay novels, The Umbrella Man and The Ambassador’s Wife and look forward to reading the next novel in the series. I was reluctant to begin reading his other series featuring Jack Shepherd because, judging from the cover art of the novels, the main character seemed to be a civilian with unbelievable fighting skills and spy connections. It turns out, Jack is a lawyer with international connections in financial/political affairs whose legal talents get him tangled up in situations where wise men fear to go, not a gun toting super-spy.

In this novel, Plato Karsarkis is a fugitive from US justice residing in Phuket, a resort island off the eastern coast of Thailand, charged with obtaining embargoed oil from Iraq and reselling it to Thai companies. Also, Plato may have been involved in the murder of his associate who was a potential whistle blower to US authorities. Jack Shepherd is approached by the fugitive and is offered a large sum of money to protect Plato from legal action aimed at him from the highest level of the US government. The Thai government so far had refused to extradite the rogue businessman from his lavish home on the resort island/peninsula of Phuket, but the US feds were closing in.

Against his better judgment, Jack risks the serenity of his professor job in Bangkok by getting involved in Plato’s situation (without any promises) and gains the unwanted attention of the US Marshal’s service, the CIA, and the Thailand Intelligence community. Jack can’t help himself, he just likes to immerse himself in risky financial business. In this case, the risks are life-threatening and Jack has to make important decisions and has to take high stake chances once he is caught up in Karsarkis’ affairs.

This is the second novel in the now four volume Jack Shepherd series. Killing Plato is a good story with lots of local color, and Jack Shepherd has a unique personality. Mr. Needham writes fast paced novels in both of his series, and the books can be read quickly. I recommend Killing Plato to readers who like to learn about southeast Asian culture and enjoy an exciting story. ( )