"From the author of the best seller Bangkok 8, a new novel that puts us back in the company of the inimitable Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep." "We return to District 8 - the underbelly of Bangkok's underworld - where a dramatically mutilated dead body is found. It's bad: he was CIA. It gets worse: the murderer appears to be Chanya - a tough, sweet working girl who's the highest earner at The Old Man's Club, jointly owned by Sonchai's mother and his boss, Police Colonel Vikorn." "Alerted by Sonchai, Vikorn quickly concocts a cover-up that involves Al Qaeda and Thailand's porous southern border, where, since 9/11, the CIA has been an obviously covert presence. But the truth will be harder to come by, and it will require Sonchai to find an ever-more-delicate balance between his ambition and his Buddhism, while running the gamut of Bangkok's drug dealers, prostitutes, bad cops, worse military, and the pitfalls of his own melting heart (Chanya!) - most of which he can handle. But even Sonchai is not prepared for what he discovers at the end of his investigation."--BOOK JACKET