Bangkok express

Joe Dylan #1

by James A. Newman

Gantira didn't plan for her lover to die on the Island of Ko Samui that day. Nor did she plan for the backpacker to drown. She didn't plan to be trapped in a gilded cage by her narcissistic millionaire husband neither. Or maybe she planned it all?

Fraud expert Joe Dylan is back in the land of sin investigating the death of two backpackers on the island of Ko Samui. He's working the steps and trying to delay gratification. Trying to stay on the straight and narrow is easier said than done in the big mango.

Burnt out expat James Hale can't play poker for love nor money. He needs to escape the city before the mob catch up with him and collect what's owed. They accept cash or body parts.

These three colouful lives come together in this an exotic action-packed thriller set in the worlds most colorful and exciting city

ebook

First published August 23, 2010

About the author

JAMES A. NEWMAN, born in London 1977. He studied Media Arts, Advanced Skateboard Technology and Fretboard Logisics. Newman has sold Pulp Fiction stories and novels to publications in Arizona, Mumbai, Johannesburg, London, Ontario and Bangkok. Newman has worked as a litigation insurance broker, a copy-writer, an English teacher, a movie extra in Bollywood, a rare book dealer, a rainforest tour guide, and an importer of cheese and wine. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his family, is kind to certain animals and is very much involved with the local art scene, writing books, reviewing plays, hosting literary events and supporting writers and artists. His novel the White Flamingo has been optioned for adaptation into a motion picture. Newman is busy writing the screenplay and working with authors as content editor of Spanking Pulp Press.

Visit the author at www.jamesnewmanfiction.blogspot.com


SHORT STORIES

MEAT– September 2009- 69 Flavors of Paranoia
CARMEN– March 13th 2010– Freedom Fiction Anthology Vol: 1
KIM– April 2010– Scalped Magazine
RAVANA– February 2011 – Freedom fiction journal
CLEAR– March 2011– Freedom fiction Anthology Vol: 2
THAILAND AFTER DARK– Bangkok Book House– August 2011
TWO LUMPS AND A PAIR OF GLASSES- Big Pulp Magazine- March 2013
THE COLD SUN- March 2014- Twisted Tales
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY- Exiles Anthology-2014- Blackwitch Press
THE FAST RATS- 2014- Strange Story Saturday
GHOST HIT - 2014 -Freedom Fiction
UNDEAD CARGO - 2014 - Spanking Pulp Press.

NOVELS

BANGKOK EXPRESS– August 2010- Bangkok Book House
THE BOY THAT PLAYED CHEQUERS- August 2011- Fried Fiction. Serial.
BANGKOK EXPRESS- Revised 2012 edition. Books Mango.
RED NIGHT ZONE- BANGKOK CITY- 2012 - Books Mango.
LIZARD CITY- 2012- Books Mango / Spanking Pulp
THE WHITE FLAMINGO- Spanking Pulp Press 2013
THE BLACK ROSE- Spanking Pulp 2014
ITCHY PARK- 2014- Double Dragon. Blood Moon Publishing.
THE PENNY BLACK HOTEL - WIP.

NON FICTION

Thai Meditations (As James Alexander) – September 2010– Bangkok Book House
FROM SUB TO SCRIBE- AUG 2014- Spanking Pulp Press

FILM SCREENPLAYS

The White Flamingo

STAGE PLAYS

The Natives

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. This is a pretty good piece of expat fiction. The story was compelling, and the author made some keen observations about the seedy side of life in Bangkok, including one spot-on passage describing the Nana sexpat/bar girl scene (see pp. 106-107). Well done!

Like other simliar works of SE Asia expat fiction the author doesn't stray far from the "on-the-edge foreigner who is in over his head" theme. You could finish the book thinking everyone in Bangkok is a murdering, scheming alcoholic womanizer. But hey...even if the setting isn't unique, the story line was, and as I said above, I found it compelling.

The author wrote in a fast-paced noir style, and that added to the vibe of the novel.

[Simon Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review by Jai Roon

Flow. That's the word that kept popping up in my head as I read BANGKOK EXPRESS by James A. Newman. The book flows, nicely. It's a page turner. Good writing in it abounds. Does it cover familiar territory at times? Yes. So what? So does the roller coaster ride in my home town in California but it's still fun to buy a ticket from time to time. Better than saying, "Oh, I rode that, once." The novel, QUEEN OF PATPONG was nominated for The Edgar Award and deservedly so. That book has Bangkok, bars and bar girls too. But good writing is good writing. I don't care if it takes place at The Oriental Hotel dinner table or the toilet of a German Beer Bar.

Quick witted and tough London insurance investigator Joe Dylan has been sent to Thailand to look into the rapid fire deaths of two scuba divers covered for big bucks by a 5 star hotel's insurance policy. Corruption is suspected and Joe's job is to find it. Dylan reminded me of a young Jim Rockford from The Rockford Files T.V. show of the 1970s only with a bit more angst. In the course of his investigation he has to deal with the temptations of Bangkok, successfully for the most part and then get to Koh Samui. Newman has come up with a couple of good bad guys in Thai brothers, Shogun who has brains, property and money and resentful cop brother, Rang. Other characters include a Muay Thai boxer who doubles as bi-sexual Shogun's love interest, James Hale who has gotten himself into debt with the wrong crowd and Gantira the prerequisite Thai beauty, which I never tire of reading about. I like a book that balances narrative and dialogue and BANGKOK EXPRESS does that. Examples of Dylan's dialogue when he's asked how he likes Bangkok?: "I like the way it surprises me. I like the way that the women are only after my money. I like the heat and I love the pollution. I like the darkness. I like the whiteness. I like the contrasts and the contradictions. I like the way a guy fires a gun at me and another smacks me in the face. The bodybuilders. The whores. I like lizard-skin shoes. What's not to like?" Equally good is the narrative voice as Newman writes in the Dylan voice as he ponders about Nana Plaza - a subject that has been done a lot, but this still reads well: It was the last cigarette saloon. The wild east. The last frontier. A debauched utopia. Tourists flocked from all over the world to worship this. Arabs periodically lost their faith for brown thighs and whisky. Japanese lost count of their yen. It was either the best or the worst place on earth - Joe couldn't decide.

This book has good writing all the way through, with some nice surprises at the end. Do I wish it was better edited? Yes, but I feel that way about a lot of the books that come out of Asia. I assume the next one will be. Joe Dylan is working his 12 step program throughout the book and I was OK with that - that's real life. I worked for a non-drinking AA attending attorney for many years. Once a year he took us for Christmas dinner. Every year he asked to look at the wine list. The third year he did this I asked him, why? "I like to know how much money I'm saving", he replied. So now I know, once a year I will have to look at the book list at Asia Books for James A. Newman books. Because I will want to know how much that next book is going to cost me.

[Guillermo Galvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indie pulp writer James A. Newman gives us a guided tour into the criminal underground of Bangkok, Thailand in Bangkok Express. It’s a tropical pulp fiction with an international cast of characters caught in a spider web of corruption, with coldblooded murder for cash at the center. Newman’s depiction of Bangkok makes the city come alive in all its beautiful savagery. It is strange place that is both burning with poverty and drowning with dirty money. There’s no such thing as corruption in Bangkok. You either swim with the sharks or get eaten by piranhas. If you got no money, you’ll get no mercy. Bangkok, baby, hope you’re ready.

The book opens up with one of the most uniquely depicted murder scenes I’ve ever read. Newman portrays the act of murder in way that I can only refer to as a work of art. It’s a style in which panic, adrenaline, fear, and confusion exist in a vacuum. From the first chapter I knew I was hooked on this savage tale. This book is definitely a fast paced thriller, and the only time you ever get to relax is in some sleazy sex mall with Thai ladyboys offering a cheap walk on the wild side. Or perhaps you would care for a comfy couch a little heroine? Fear in Loathing in Bangkok, why not? This book definitely has that Hunter Thompson “gonzo” quality.

I especially enjoyed the brand of characters that were caught up in the mix. Together they formed just the right formula for everything to go to hell in a hand basket. Put up a couple million British pounds up for grabs, and let the backstabbing begin. In some ways Bangkok Express is a bit of a demented comedy. There’s some character dialogue that really captures the essence of dark humor that pulp fiction is loved for. How Newman’s characters manage a good laugh with a gun shoved in their face is commendable. Although the plot can get a little tricky with so many players off completing their piece of the puzzle, the story stays tight and never becomes messy (that is until somebody’s brain gets a bullet massage).

I’d recommend this book to all you crime lovers out there. All the sick minds that can appreciate murder with a little bit of irony sprinkled over it and a splash of tropical paradise. The book does push the cheese factor on a few occasions, but I guess things just have their own way of unfolding in Bangkok. Newman lives in Thailand; he’s seen (and done) some stuff that we can only guess. It’s that firsthand experience that gives Bangkok Express that genuine gritty authenticity. Sniff hard enough and you can suck in the smells of diesel fumes and fresh mangos, and have the pink glare of neon lights softly stinging your eyes. According to his bio on bangkokbooks.com, he’s currently working on another book while awaiting the apocalypse. Now that’s the kind of attitude that produces books worth reading.

Bangkok Express can be found at bangkokbooks.com and amazon.com. His books are available in paperback and for e-format. He has also written other pulp works Bangkok City, Lizard City, and his short story collection Thailand After Dark.

[James Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review from Thailand Writing and Book Reviews by John Daysh...

There is no doubt in my mind that James Newman is the next big thing in the genre of Bangkok-Thailand Literature. He is the real deal. Newman's first novel, Bangkok Express, is compelling proof of this, despite its flaws. It is now available to the public as an e-book having been previously rejected by print publishers when Newman refused, on artistic grounds, to re-write or edit it. That may appear indulgent and naïve and it probably was given that Newman was just twenty-four and full of youthful naivety when he wrote it. But a good writer, which James Newman undoubtedly is, should not be eternally condemned by a first novel.

Given that some years later Newman has given the go ahead to have his un-edited manuscript published as an e-book, I get the impression that despite its structural and editorial deficiencies he is confident that it stands as proof that he is a very good writer; confident that the uncritical reader would either not recognize or easily overlook the defects, and that the critical reader would forgive the flaws in light of the evidence of literary excellence and promise. He must have done this knowing he has much more up his sleeve. Having read Bangkok Express I can easily forgive this naivety knowing he has gone on to write much better. Newman himself now admits that he would tear Bangkok Express apart if asked to edit it. It stands as it is or will be destroyed. When I finished reading it I was glad I had the opportunity, as behind this story lies an excellent writer and this is apparent at every turn of the page.

[Tom Vater · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Newman’s Bangkok Express is a wild and uneven ride through Thailand’s seedy underbelly, a well-stocked quarry of misery, often mined for crime fiction outings which fall short of the real thing, if only because the culture of impunity in Thailand’s underworld is simply so far out that writers have to go to spectacular lengths to match the real tales of depravity that percolate from the kingdom’s criminals. Just open the local papers and you’ll find a breath-taking litany of often hair-raising and sometimes amusing misdeeds committed by locals and foreign visitors alike.

Mr. Newman’s story of British insurance broker Joe Dylan (incidentally the name of the writer’s offspring, a nice touch) who’s on the trail of Thai gangsters and femmes fatales to figure out whether his clients back home in Blighty have been conned into paying out several life insurance claims resulting from suspicious scuba diving accidents, leads, as one would hope, nowhere good.

Bangkok Express stretches from the capital down to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, in this case Ko Samui, a vulgar, corrupt and sometimes deadly tourist haven, and the fiefdom of Shogun, the most powerful and ruthless man on the island.

On the way, Mr. Newman abuses eternal truths, clichés and painful realities in equal measure and serves up a good beach read. He joins more established writers such as Christopher G. Moore and John Burdett in an exploration of Thailand’s garish netherworld of private eyes, prostitutes, pimps, gangsters, cops and dirty tricks.

[Alasdair Mcleod · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tropical insurance adventure with memorable characters who are forced to make tough choices.

Bangkok Express is an action-packed journey through the ins and outs of international insurance and the tropical scammers gaming the system from the islands of Thailand. It's a richly layered story with a treasure trove of observational detail which will delight seasoned veterans of Thai culture and new visitors alike.

This is the definitive work for the character of Joe Dylan. This is Joe Dylan Begins..... Seemingly tempted at every turn, we share in his strength as he battles addiction with all the tools in the kit. Circumstances conspire and bring Joe Dylan to a point where the only way he can survive is by passing through the needle's eye of his own darkness.

The characters in the story are tough and ruthless, and each has been on a path that has given them a unique world-view. As I finished the book I was curious to know what happens to them next. I wanted to know them more. The story is so well crafted that not only do we perceive what each character sees and does, but we understand why they see and act as they do.

[Sean Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Check out Mose Conway's World of Books for a review

[Gary Rutland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cracking debut novel that races along at a breakneck speed and left me wanting to read more. Full of sly, dry humour and local knowledge this is a book promising even better things to come.

[Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idea was good but found the book a bit flighty

[Garry Henwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this, The first of James books I believe and very knowledgeable about Thailand, I look forward to finding more of his books I'm sure they can only get better.