Dear expats and readers,
Right off the bat — I’m in touch with one person who banked at the Pattaya branch turned crime scene featured in the last long-form story I put out this week: The Swindling Frog of Pattaya.
Feedback on the story has ranged anywhere from:
“Fantastic read! What a wild story! I'll have to read it back a few times to digest all the details” on the flattering end of the spectrum, to “he mentions desk #12 one hundred times… long-winded and that’s putting it mildly” on the end that makes me push up my sleeves for some keyboard warrior action — in fact, I went back to look at how many times I mentioned desk #12, and it was only eleven times.
This rando-commenter was wrong by a factor of 10x. Ouch.
The flattering comment came from a True Crime Thailand reader in my Telegram chat group (click if you want in).
The critical one from a random person on the infamous Pattaya Addicts forum, known as the premier place to share insider secret tips on mongering, a hobby known for its difficulty and need for precision — I mean, you just don’t learn the secrets of how to effectively bag your next Isaan bar-girl by reading the label of the Chang Yai you’re nursing on Soi 6.
No, don’t read me wrong — one of my good friends met his wife on Soi 6. I don’t judge.
Moving on then.
True Crime Thailand is putting out a novel.
It’s already written, and has gone through several drafts with beta readers and the whole bit.
I’m giving it one final revision and edit, then I’m packaging it up and will put it out on Amazon Kindle for international readers. For readers in Thailand, I will have print copies available that I can send to you.
The title?
Yikes — I’m still working on that. I have some ideas, of course.
I don’t want to prematurely splurt it on the page and lock myself into a title I don’t like, but I’m gonna have to take a stab at one and make it a keeper here soon enough.
Never one to follow my own advice, here’s a tentative blurb:
One autumn night, James Stout came home to find that he lost it all — his wife and daughter sliced up to bits on the kitchen floor. Investigators were stymied by the case. The perps left no forensics to latch on to except one cryptic message scrawled on the wall in his daughter's blood: death's dolls 8.
Seven years later and James hasn't settled the score. But he's on the hunt for the killer. His next destination? The jungles of northern Thailand, where a young girl was murdered and the same bloody message left behind: death's dolls 23.
James catches the first jet out of Chicago and lands in Bangkok's tropical heat with one thing on his mind: revenge.
Death's Dolls is a tightly paced murder-revenge thriller set in Thailand. It incorporates elements of Thai black magic, organized crime, and sweet sweet revenge at all costs — even if that means losing it all.
I had a lot of fun writing this, and you can expect Death’s Dolls to be published by July 2021.
But wait, there’s more
I’m putting together a non-fiction true crime title, which will be a compilation of the long-form articles I’ve put out on this newsletter, but with additional content and commentary.
This will be an on-going series that I’m set on calling, Thailand Crime Chronicles.
I’ll be covering historical true crime in Thailand, along with contemporary issues, especially around drug trafficking as it’s of special interest to me and was actually the first thing I wrote about on this newsletter here: Myanmar's Apocalyptic Bust: The Story of Asia’s Biggest Drug Seizure that You Never Heard About.
Next story I’m doing
I did a straw poll on my Telegram group to see what readers wanted for the next story from True Crime Thailand.
The three options were:
The Cold Deep Sleep, part 2 of the Chuck Ditlefsen murder (received 38% of votes)
The story of Yi Ko Hong, early 1900’s Chinese-Thai triad mafia boss (received 31% of votes)
The 2008 Chiang Mai murder of Gary Poretsky by William Thomas Douglas (received 31% of votes)
So, take a lucky guess at what will be in your inboxes next week.
Well, that’s just about all I’ve got.
If you need anything, you can get in touch most directly at truecrimethailand@gmail.com.
Until next time,
True Crime Thailand
P.S. I’ve recently launched a Patreon, where you can support the work I do here at True Crime Thailand. Supporters get an exclusive True Crime Thailand mug among other benefits. You can find the Patreon by clicking here.