"This is a big brave eye-opener of a book that quickly drew me in and kept me turning the pages. Three days through a book is fast for me.

"I'm glad I read this before I've been to Bangkok, the book's main port of call, and the gateway to Thailand and all of its natural beauties and manmade sins. It may have just saved me from being fleeced in more ways than one.

"The book flows fluidly, narrated by five main characters. First up are Roland, Gus and Herby, three dodgy Brits, who have each been on the wrong side of the law. Then there’s Sa, an eighteen year-old hill-tribe hooker, sold as a minor into forced prostitution, and Kim, a Danish Journalist on his search for stories. Put this lot in a hot pot and you’ve got yourself one hell of a great novel, indeed education. Well worth the read and reflection.

"Mainly set amidst the harsh realities of a hot humid Bangkok, home to twelve million people we are brought into the red light centre of Asia. Here via sex bars, booze, drugs, smokes, short-stay hotels and moneymaking scams our Brits carve out their paths and deals. Roland, the old hand of the three has plenty of illicit ways of making a buck. He's a man of few morals and Gus and Herby are skint.

"Up north through Thailand within The Golden Triangle is the notorious home of opium and heroin production. Here too within a lesser-known Akha hill-tribe, underage virgin daughters are sold by their families into the sex industry to feed local addictions and the Bangkok demand, fuelled by the so-called 'farangs', i.e. Western clients. Sa, our Thai hooker protagonist has a younger sister and she, is in danger.

"The novel has got me thinking on the sex market, human trafficking, drugs, tourists, scams, HIV, condoms, mosquitoes, noodles, prisons, journalists and what Ian Devey's next book is going to be. Thanks to Ian for getting me thinking. It's been a pleasure to read and review such a whopper of a powerful book."

- Phillip Hayden, Former ESTEC scientist