Sleepless In Bangkok2

REVIEW: ‘SLEEPLESS IN BANGKOK 2’ – Return to the Triangle Never predictable, this sequel is even better than its best-selling forerunner, ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’. It is difficult if not next to impossible, for an author to surpass a classic book in its genre, but the reclusive Ian Quartermaine has accomplished it in his next action-packed novel. For a start, the writing is simply superb with every word having been weighed and measured, then ruthlessly edited, to make it into what reviewers of the five previous Ian Quartermaine opuses have described as, “a cross between traditional novel and screenplay”. This ground-breaking writing style makes it seem like you are watching a movie rather than reading a book due to the pace of the narrative. A simple device but extremely effective, each chapter covers just one location. When the action and dialogue in each location ends, the next location becomes a new chapter, replicating a movie-style cut, from one scene to the next. The mind is coerced into the pace, a style other authors may try to emulate. They would be hard pressed to match Quartermaines’ literate, writing style. The story is again unique like its forerunner ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’. Both are based in South East Asia, and clearly the author has spent much of his life in the region, and writes with intimate knowledge. When that intimacy ‘extends’, (no pun intended) to the sex scenes in this sequel, it precedes the original novel making the protagonist a man to be greatly ‘envied’. Simultaneously, such in-depth knowledge of the region causes the reader to become an experienced traveller rather than a tourist. The author subtly weaves anecdotal experiences of idiosyncrasies of South East Asian cultures, which very often, brings a chuckle as well as some very serious factual backdrops to the cruelty and exploitation that occurs, unpunished, combining entertainment with the most unobtrusive social education, into a totally unique work.