Thailand is terrified. A sadistic serial killer has been abducting young innocents for his ritual horror and the authorities are clueless. Carl Engel is an enigma. The blunt Londoner has forged a thirty-year career as a private investigator amid the chaos of Thailand\’s political history. Struggling with advancing years and a decreasing workload he is approached by an elderly American with a lucrative missing persons case.

The case descends into the sordid world of the elusive serial killer and a menacing web of political intrigue dating back to the Vietnam War. Carl must use his guile and experience to stay alive, find the killer and negotiate the dangerous military interests that lurk behind the scenes. Based on a real character Carl Engel lives in a world rarely seen by outsiders and hauls the reader on a pulsating ride to the explosive conclusion.

Bangkok Rules is available now in Kindle download and paperback. Now you can follow Bangkok private eye Carl Engel on his cynical journey of eccentric clients, colourful associates, a serial killer, corruption Thai style, poker games and seedy bars, CIA operatives past and present, and results the Carl Engel way. After reading Bangkok Rules the city won\’t have changed but maybe it will have changed you.

Excerpt from the kindle version:

The doors flew open and Bart Barrows made his less than sober entrance. Soaked through from the rain he trudged to the bar in his baggy shorts and squelching training shoes that could only be bought from the bottom shelf at Wal-Mart.

“Beer!” he demanded loudly.

He didn’t have to name the brand. The bartender knew what he drank. Heineken bottle in hand, he sat opposite Carl at the round table. Bart Barrows was rotund, unkempt and always angry. He had come from Arkansas to Thailand via the war in Vietnam. A grunt that thought he should have ruled the world, a confrontational American in a non-confrontational Thai world.

“Carl, I have been looking for you everywhere,” he half-shouted across the big table as he dripped water into puddles on the floor.

He looked even more dishevelled than usual. Carl guessed he was wearing his gardening clothes. It appeared he had put them on to wade through the floodwater in the rain. This told Carl that Bart had left his house in the morning and had not been out all night. But why would he have left home in the rain when everybody else would have been running for shelter?

“You look like shit,” Carl told him.

“Haven’t slept at all. It’s my daughter, god dammit!”

“Explain,” Carl told him sharply, expecting this was going to be pro bono as people that knew him assumed that all assistance should be free. It made him want to send them copies of his alimony bills.

“She has this boyfriend, Thai boy. She is very secretive and I have no idea who he is, or what they get up to. She didn’t come home last night. These student murders, I mean, it could be him. He could be the killer. The boyfriend dammit! I need you to find her.”

“I am sure she is fine and will be home soon.”

“There, look there.”

He had thrown the newspaper across the table. He was an angry bully. The newspaper ran a story of yet another young female victim of murder, torture, and sexual violence.

Bangkok was not famous for serial killers but they finally had one. They called him The Bangkok Angel Killer and the authorities were said to be clueless. The victims were young and female. They had all suffered hours or days of torture prior to death. Their mutilated young bodies had often been found burned beside rice fields a long way from Bangkok. The paper described sadistic rituals involving missing ears, knife cuts and trauma to joints. It also alluded to the possible involvement of local black magic. Thailand had never had such a case as far as Carl knew, not since he had been reading the local newspapers anyway.

“Did your daughter go out with her boyfriend last night?” Carl asked him.

“Yes,” he replied, “About eight o’clock.”

“Then go home and get some sleep. I’m certain she’ll come home sooner or later.”

“How the hell can you know that? What, you think I can’t pay you?” He was spluttering and getting angry.

“Not that. I’m just certain that her boyfriend’s not the serial killer.”

“How the hell can you know that?” He was starting to get loud.

“Because this devil is definitely an older man, probably foreign. The FBI would classify him as a type IV killer, the worst kind and difficult to catch. A type IV serial killer has no remorse, doesn’t understand the concept. He has what they call an anger-excitation profile. The whole process he performs is his own way to sexual gratification. This man kills for sport. He’s not out of control, quite the opposite in fact. Most importantly, in regard to your daughter’s safety, the rules of his game are that he must murder strangers. He doesn’t kill people he knows. So if your daughter’s with people she knows then she cannot be with the killer.”

He looked at Carl as if the detective were completely mad. It was something Carl had long grown used to.

You can follow the author on Twitter @HarlanWolffBKK

Bangkok Rules is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bangkok-Rules-ebook/dp/B00BB2RLPI/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_Q3P6

British author Harlan Wolff has been a Bangkok private detective for more than twenty years and knows the streets. Bangkok Rules is available in Kindle download and paperback. Now you can follow Bangkok private eye Carl Engel on his cynical journey into the world of a serial killer. http://www.amazon.com/Bangkok-Rules-ebook/dp/B00BB2RLPI/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_GEA3

British author Harlan Wolff has been a Bangkok private detective for more than twenty years and knows the streets. Bangkok Rules is available in Kindle download and paperback. Now you can follow Bangkok private eye Carl Engel on his cynical journey into the world of a serial killer. http://www.amazon.com/Bangkok-Rules-ebook/dp/B00BB2RLPI/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_GEA3

Author Bio: British author Harlan Wolff has been a Bangkok private detective for more than twenty years and knows the streets. Bangkok Rules is available in Kindle download and paperback. Now you can follow Bangkok private eye Carl Engel on his cynical journey into the world of a serial killer. http://www.amazon.com/Bangkok-Rules-ebook/dp/B00BB2RLPI/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_GEA3

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: bangkok, thailand, patpong, soi cowboy, crime, murder, detective, private,