Sonchai is now an expectant father eagerly awaiting the birth of his first child when a video is delivered to the police station. It is a snuff film of the worst kind and he recognizes the victim as a former lover! He calls in a friend and FBI agent who helped him on a previous case and they begin to track down the film’s origins. As they locate the actors, director and producers they learn of a vindictive plot extending back for decades all culminating in the death of one hauntingly beautiful woman.

Her brother is a Buddhist monk who is torn between devotion to his faith and loyalty to his sibling. Damrong, the murder victim plays a central role in the story refusing to be relegated to the sidelines despite her demise within the first few pages. Her presence permeates the investigation demanding justice. Sonchai is frustrated by the corruption rampant throughout the entire society; the police, businessmen, the military and even the lowest ranking Khmer border guard. Justice takes a back seat to the ambitions and greed of many who could solve the murder but prefer to line their pockets and improve their social status instead. Several innocents die because of the veniality of more prominent citizens.

The Buddhist Way is full of suffering and so are the lives of so many of these tormented souls who have barely enough to eat each day and long for release from this life. Sonchai, who tries to live according to the Path of Enlightenment, is repulsed by the conclusion to the case scarcely believing the violence that stretches beyond this physical realm into that of spirits.

These pages teem with corruption, sex, violence and profanity but provide a vividly accurate picture of life in the oldest monarchy on earth. It is peopled with those whose souls seek Truth and those who have chosen Evil instead. Damrong’s soul haunts them all, crying for justice. But how will it be served is the ultimate question. This is not a light hearted read but one that is both disturbing and poignant as it reveals the depths of Evil and depravity to which some choose to descend and even more frightening- those who are coerced into it and aware of it even as they are consumed by it.

--Jane Davis