The Big Mango by Jake Needham

First line in the book:  On April 21, 1975, sometime late in the afternoon, Nguyen Van Thieu abruptly resigned as president of the Republic of South Vietnam and abandoned to the North Vietnamese what little was left of his weary and wasted country.

Backcover blurb:  Four hundred million dollars is in the wind, the result of a bungled CIA operation to grab the bank of Vietnam's currency reserves when the Americans fled Saigon in 1975.  Two decades later, the word on the street is that all that money somehow ended up in Bangkok and a downwardly mobile lawyer from San Francisco named Eddie Dare is the only guy who has a real shot at finding it.

But first Eddie has to survive the jagged netherworld of modern-day Thailand - a corkscrewed realm where big-time drug dealers tango with small-time hustlers, criminals on the lam mingle with bureaucrats on the take, and the merely raffish jostle with the downright scary for center stage in the big leagues of weird.  If Eddie can weather all that, maybe he really can find out what happened back in Saigon so long ago, and where those ten tons of money are.

My thoughts:  This is a carry-on read from last year so it is not my first read of 2011 even though I would love to put it out there.  Between Laundry Man and The Big Mango, I personally think that the latter is the better read.  Having read two of Needham's book, I can attest to the fact that the author uncannily always keeps the mystery center stage until the very end where he then unleashes the answers only in the last few pages.  Then, you go 'Aah'.  If any reader could make a go at guessing the endings in the middle of the book or at any point before the conclusion, do by all means drop me a line.

Another area where Needham excels is in its evocation of place namely Thailand through the eyes of foreigners and its cultural nuances and social commentary.  Having never set foot in Thailand, it is wonderful to read about it in such an entertaining form.  As far as I know, apart from Shamini Flint, Jake Needham is the only other author who writes crime novels in Southeast Asia (covering Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines and Singapore) although having said that, I have recently discovered other authors during my recent travels and will be posting them at some point.

I think The Big Mango is well worth a read in terms of its plot, its culture and pure entertainment.  Don't you just love the cover?!

Here is how you can locate Jake Needham's books and other important information.

The author is on Twitter.

Rating:  4/5