Books published by Monsoon Books

In the fourth and final volume of the The Straits Quartet, Charlotte Macleod is the English concubine. Her love affair with Zhen, wealthy Chinese merchant, is an open scandal to both the English and the Chinese communities. Singapore in 1860 is a vice-ridden town filled 'with the dregs of humanity from two continents.'

In Volume 3 of The Straits Quartet, young, beautiful and wealthy widow Charlotte Macleod leaves Batavia in the 1850s and returns to Singapore for the English education of her two young sons. She is determined not to be drawn back into a secret affair with Zhen, the married Chinese merchant, triad-member and man she loves.

In Volume 2 of The Straits Quartet, Charlotte Macleod is nineteen, pregnant, and alone in 1842. Through loss and pain, Charlotte will find a way to make a life with a man she does not love.

Set against the backdrop of 1830s Singapore where piracy, crime, triads and tigers are commonplace, this cultural romance follows the struggle of two lovers: Zhen, once the lowliest of Chinese coolies and triad member, later chosen to marry into a Peranakan family of Baba Chinese merchants; and Charlotte, an 18-year-old Scots girl and sister of Singapore's Chief of Police.

In 1985, Dr. Nigel Barley, senior anthropologist at The British Museum, set off for the relatively unknown Indonesian island of Sulawesi in search of the Toraja, a people whose culture includes headhunting, transvestite priests and the massacre of buffalo. In witty and finely crafted prose, Barley offers fascinating insight into the people of Sulawesi and he recounts the tale of the four Torajan woodcarvers he invites back to London to construct an Indonesian rice barn in The British Museum. Previously published as "Not a Hazardous Sport."

The Flame Tree offers a vivid snapshot of a fast-developing Malaysia on the cusp of the new millennium, of moral choices and a womans search for her cultural identity.

As heady as a game of underground poker, and as racy as a night of debauchery in the city, this work of pulp-fiction packs pedal-to-the-floor action from start to finish.

Set in 1950s Sumatra, this is a story of lost innocence and complex moral dilemmas. It follows the journey of Yahyu, a young Javanese dancer, who runs away from a forced marriage and becomes unwittingly involved in the violent struggle for Sumatra s independence from Jakarta. On her long passage from fame to degradation Yahyu experiences love, hate, sexual slavery and the horror of the rebels last bloody battle deep in the Barisan Mountains"

When New York chef Frank Visakay moved to Thailand, he quickly attracted the attention of beautiful Thai women. Or so he thought. In Jasmine Fever, Visakay offers hilarious revelations about his and his friends relationships with Thai bargirls. As we learn from one of the eponymously named stories, perhaps he is 'looking for love in all the wrong places ."

Indiscreet Memories is one Englishman s true account of life in Singapore from 1901 to 1904. We learn about balls at Government House, rickshaw strikes, and tigers causing havoc in Chinatown; and how historical events such as the death of Queen Victoria and the decision by Straits-born Chinese to discard their towchang (queues) affected the society of the day."

It is 1967 Bangkok and teenager Jon Cole, son of a US Green Beret colonel serving in Vietnam, is coming of age in Thailand. Drawn to the underbelly of Bangkok by GIs on R&R from Vietnam, the army brat soon discovers ganja and opium, which leads to a career as an international drug smuggler and jail time inside Bangkok's notorious prison, the "Bangkok Hilton." A memoir of an American smuggler spanning four decades

In 1942 Japanese-occupied Singapore, where violence and starvation stalk the streets, a bizarre tranquillity reigns between warring nations in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This sensitive and humorous work of historical fiction explores a real, and complicated, chapter of Singapore's history in which British scientists avoided jail during WWII and worked with their Japanese counterparts in the pursuit of science, only to be accused of collaboration following the War.

Acknowledged as one of the most memorable novels about Thailand, "A Woman of Bangkok" was first published to critical acclaim in London and New York in the 1950s and is a classic of Bangkok fiction. Set in 1950s Thailand, this is the story of an Englishman's infatuation with a dance-hall hostess named Vilai. No ordinary prostitute, Vilai is one of the most memorable in literature's long line of brazen working girls