Book Review: Bangkok Tattoo

I first learnt about the author from a magazine. He is a British but had worked in Asia most of his life as a lawyer and then took a career switch to become a writer. Since then, my curiosity was aroused. Not really by the content of his book but more about his career switch. How can one take such a drastic change? So I hunted his book down at a rental book shop.

This is a thriller about murders with severed penises, prostitution, political scenes. As the title suggests, the story is set in Bangkok and about tattoos. I enjoyed the twist of the story as I never expected the ending to involve a Japanese tattooist who enjoyed gambling. He knew his works were well- soughted after and therefore, he placed tattoos of his clients as bets to yazukas. When he had lost his bet, his client would be hunted down... the yazukas will carefully peel off the skin of the client bearing the tattoo. The skin would then be carefully preserved.

Bloody. But thrilling and some parts, sexy.