THE MILITARY HAS SNATCHED UP THAILAND'S PRIME MINISTER, A WOMAN WITH WHOM SHEPHERD ONCE HAD A RELATIONSHIP. WELL...SORT OF.
CAN HE GRAB HER AND GET THEM BOTH OUT OF THE COUNTRY RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THE ENTIRE THAI ARMY? HE'S PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY PERSON WHO THINKS SO.
Jack Shepherd is a lawyer, but he doesn't much like to admit it. He works quietly out of a one-man office over a Hong Kong noodle shop discreetly solving problems that his clients don't want anyone to know they have.
Shepherd is tiptoeing around Hong Kong's financial back alleys looking for a billion dollars or so that went missing in Malaysia when an old friend from Bangkok turns up and dumps a much bigger problem in his lap. A military coup has swept over Thailand and the Thai army is holding Thailand's first female prime minister under house arrest.
Her popularity is a major threat to army rule so the army is going to stage a show trial, convict her of corruption, and send her to prison. That's when things get messy. After she's behind bars, they'll arrange to have her killed. The only way to save her life is for her friends to get her out of Thailand before the trial starts, but they'll need some heavy help to pull that off.
Shepherd once lived in Thailand. There was a time when he loved the place, then things went sour and he's sworn he'll never go back. But the former prime minister whose life is in danger is a woman with whom Shepherd once had a relationship of a sort and Shepherd is loyal to his friends. He's also a sucker for a woman who is smart and beautiful, but of course that has nothing at all to do with it.
Whatever the reason, Shepherd can feel it happening. Thailand is reeling him right back in no matter how hard he struggles to stay away.
Okay, he decides, how hard can it be? Track down the missing Malaysian money, then sneak into Thailand, grab his old friend right out from under the nose of the entire Thai army, and keep her alive long enough to get them both out of Thailand.
Ought to be a piece of cake, huh?
"JACK SHEPHERD IS A DELIGHT, A SHARP-WITTED LAWYER WITH A DRIVE FOR JUSTICE FORCED TO LIVE IN A WORLD OF HARD MEN WHO DON'T BELIEVE IN THE RULE OF LAW" — The Malaysia Star