''Two-timing bargirls, suspicious spouses, and lesbian lovers''—it was all in a day''s work for Bangkok Private Eye Warren Olson.” Fluent in Thai and Khmer, Olson walked the mean streets of Bangkok and was able to go where other Private Eyes feared to tread. The stories are based on Olson''s case files, fictionalized (to protect the innocent, and the guilty) by bestselling author Stephen Leather.

This volume - the follow-up to Olson’s bestselling "Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye" - serves up more juicy portions of what goes on under the veneer in Thailand and includes stories deemed too hot to include in the first book for fear of repercussions. It also includes recent cases, where state-of-the-art surveillance devices and other advances in the dark arts of private investigation have made it easier to uncover dirt deep below the surface. This is a book that reads like exciting fiction, with one big difference: every story is true. Only the names and related identifying details have been changed to protect the innocent along with the guilty. These chronicles of a decade lived dangerously in the Land of Crooked Smiles will, by turns, entertain, shock, inflame and inform you.

From an expat hotel manager to a respected drug baron, a sadistic triad boss to a Thai transvestite, this action-packed novel set in Thailand has them all. At about the same time a Filipino maid is murdered on the enclave of Macau, a cleaning lady at a small resort on the Thai island of Koh Samui discovers that the excitement of a night spent with a friendly transvestite has been too much for the heart of an elderly Chinese guest. A quick trip through Malaysia to Singapore by the resort manager follows, leading to more nighttime escapades. From there it’s to the bars of Bangkok, and a gristly murder in Lumpini Park. Follow the trials, tribulations and loves of an easygoing Australian resort manager’s Southeast Asian adventure. The novel is based loosely on many of the places and people met by the author as he roamed Southeast Asia whilst carrying out investigations as the region’s best-known ‘real life’ Private Eye.

Cold-blooded Thai bargirls, naïve tourists and sordid scams – it was all in a night's work for Pattaya bar manager Simon Los. Pouring their hearts out at the bar are a tourist who reclaims his masculinity with the help of a ladyboy, a retired financier who invests thousands in a business with a woman he meets on the streets of Pattaya, a desperate Irishman who breaks the law in his pursuit of love, a high-net-worth visitor who is traded between bargirls, and many others whose heart strings are pulled to the point of breaking. For years, British expat Simon Los worked the bars of Pattaya. Befriending Thai staff as well as western and local customers, he was privy to the dating despair – and occasional joy – of countless couples. That bargirls would go to such lengths to deceive their farang boyfriends, out of poverty or greed, was not unexpected, but Simon was also surprised to see some of his customers find true love in the Land of Smiles.

Pete, a young travel writer, wanders into a Bangkok bar and meets the love of his life. Joy is the girl of his dreams: young, stunningly pretty, and one of Zombie Bar's top-earning pole dancers. What follows is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs, lies and deception, as Pete discovers that his very own private dancer is not all that she claims to be. And that far from being the girl of his dreams, Joy is his own personal nightmare.

For more than a decade, intrepid Kiwi Warren Olson trawled the mean streets of Bangkok and the lesser-known corners of the Land of Smiles. His brief? To uncover unsavoury truths about Thai bargirl lovers, philandering spouses, insurance fraud and scam artists of various stripes. He was a private eye prying into nooks and crannies few dared to explore and, along the way, he uncovered fascinating secrets of Thais and foreigners engaged in no good.This volume - the follow-up to Olson's bestselling Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye - serves up more juicy portions of what goes on under the veneer in Thailand and includes stories deemed too hot to include in the first book for fear of repercussions. It also includes recent cases, where state-of-the-art surveillance devices and other advances in the dark arts of private investigation have made it easier to uncover dirt deep below the surface. This is a book that reads like exciting fiction, with one big difference: every story is true. Only the names and related identifying details have been changed to protect the innocent along with the guilty. These chronicles of a decade lived dangerously in the Land of Crooked Smiles will, by turns, entertain, shock, inflame and inform you.

The development of the Thai-American alliance from 1947 to 1958 dramatically transformed both countries' involvement in Southeast Asia. Bounded by two important political events in Thailand, an army coup in 1947 and the military's assumption of complete control of government in 1958, the period witnessed both the entrenchment of authoritarian military government in Thailand and a revolution in U.S.-Thai relations. During these years the modern Thai political system emerged, and the United States established its interest and influence in mainland Southeast Asian affairs. The developments of the period made possible American's later, more extensive, involvement in Indochina. A Special Relationship provides the most comprehensive analysis of this critical founding period of the Thai-American alliance. It reveals surprising new information on joint covert operations in Indochina, American support for suppression of government opponents, and CIA involvement in Thai domestic politics.