novel synopsis

TABOO PAST
by
Tiago Tillin














TABOO PAST - by Tiago Tillin


Determined to atone for his past , Matt Calvert decides he will spend the rest of his life doing some good in the world. He travels to the Orient where he is horrified to find child trafficking and that there is a slave trade in the present century.

The temptations of the fleshpots are offered to him there for the picking and so he is determined to put an end to this abomination. He meets an old Thai, Tung, one of the richest men in Thailand who introduces him to a Chiang Mai widow, Sanuk, with whom he forms a business partnership. He offers to help find who is fleecing her company of millions of baht in return for her help in rescuing a group of boat people, living in squalor on one of the Hong Kong islands - but things go drastically wrong.

Calvert finds that this Sanuk takes more than a business interest in him, whlst he, in turn, embarks upon a relationship of his own which is not without its problems. After discovering the source of Sanuk's problem, Calvert finds that he gets involved with a far more dangerous element than he had bargained for, which he could not deal with alone, so he enlists the help of Tung's team who had already managed to break out a group of Vietnamese from a refugee 'prison' camp and thus a new adventure begins. The released refugees are given a better life in Sanuk's Palace in Chiang Mai.

Written in lyrical English, the book demands compulsive reading to the last page, enlightening those who have never experienced the life-style of the Orient and also the British introverts who refuse to accept their innermost feelings, lest they fear oppression of the media or the hypocrisy of their friends and neighbours.