What I’m Reading: Laundry Man by Jake Needham

I recently turned to a Kindle book that was offered as a free download via Bookbub: Laundry Man by Jake Needham. I’ve had it for over a month, but since the Kindle app on my phone kept downloading it (multiple times) every time I opened the app, I figured I might as well read it so that the downloads would stop. 😀

 

 

 

It’s interesting so far, but I’m not even 1/4 of the way through. The book is about an expatriate named Jack Shepherd, an international finance guru who has left the stress of Corporate America in the United States behind,  to live in Thailand and teach at a university there.  He gets a phone call from Buddy, a former friend and colleague whom he’d long thought of as dead–only to find out that this friend faked his own death to take advantage of a lucrative, yet unsavory, financial opportunity. When Buddy’s opportunity is in jeopardy of going south due to missing funds–and the possibility of his real death looms–he turns to Jack and his financial expertise to get him out of the jam.

The book is set in Thailand, and so far Needham does a good job providing local color, as well as the perspective of an ex-pat. I am drawn into the story because I want to see how/if Jack can pull this off (even though his reluctance to get involved is clear), and also because I sense a double-cross or three on the horizon (I have my suspicious eye on three characters). The characters themselves are, thankfully, three-dimensional. The fact that the book is set in the financial world (albeit one primarily overseas, and specifically in Asia) is very interesting; I’ve grown weary of all of the Wall Street-oriented novels out there.  Still, though Needham doesn’t bombard readers with financial terms, the ones he does include can make your eyes cross if you’re not used to the world of international banking and finance. Anyway, though I got the book free, it’s worth giving it a try  so far.

Thanks for stopping by.