“The gritty and taut KILLING PLATO is 100% unadulterated attitude. Needham’s provocative views about Asian culture jump at you from every page.” —Singapore Straits Times Jack Shepherd was a politically connected American lawyer until he traded the fierce intrigues of Washington for the quiet life of a college professor in Thailand. Everything had been going pretty well for him there, too, at least it had until the day he walked into a bar on the jet-set island of Phuket and found the world’s most famous fugitive waiting for him. Plato Karsarkis was an international celebrity straight out of Vanity Fair until a New York grand jury indicted him for smuggling Iraqi oil and charged him with racketeering and money laundering. There’s also the matter of a woman he may or may not have murdered to cover it all up. When Karsarkis fled the United States and disappeared, the world’s media whipped itself into a frenzy searching for him. Karsarkis is waiting for Shepherd in that Phuket bar because he wants to hire him. He figures a presidential pardon would be his ticket back to America, and he thinks Shepherd’s connections to the White House just might get it for him. But the U.S. Marshals are in Phuket, too, and they need Shepherd’s help as well. The marshals want Shepherd to set a trap for Karsarkis so they can grab him and drag him back to New York. All Shepherd wants is for everybody to go away and leave him alone. At least he does until he learns a chilling secret that plunges him a violent spiral of friendship and betrayal and pulls him straight back into the life he thought he had left behind in Washington. The marshals aren’t really in Phuket to arrest Plato Karsarkis. They’re there to kill him. **

Review

"Jake Needham is Asia's most stylish and atmospheric writer of crime fiction." - The Singapore Straits Times  "In the genre of crime fiction set in Asia, Jake Needham is in a class of his own." --The Bangkok Post "Jack Shepherd is a delight, a sharp-witted lawyer with a drive for justice, forced to reside in a world of hard men who don't believe in the rule of law. Needham is a man who knows Asia like the back of his hand."  - The Malaysian Star  "What you will not get is pseudo-intellectual new-wave Asian literature, sappy relationship writing, or Bangkok bargirl sensationalism. This is top class fiction that just happens to be set in an Asian context. As you turn the pages and follow Jack Shepherd in his quest for the truth, you can smell the roadside food stalls and hear the longtail boats roar up and down the Chao Praya River."  -- Singapore Airlines SilverKris Magazine "Needham certainly knows where a few bodies are buried." - Asia Inc

About the Author

JAKE NEEDHAM is an American screen and television writer who began writing crime and spy novels set mostly in contemporary Asia when he realized how little he actually liked movies and television. Mr. Needham has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand for nearly thirty years. He is a lawyer by education and has held a number of significant positions in both the pubic and private sectors where he took part in a lengthy list of international operations he has absolutely no intention of telling you anything about. He, his wife, and their two sons now divide their time between homes in Bangkok and New York.