Chasing the Dragon: a story of love, redemption and the Chinese triads (Opium Book 2)

Hong Kong, in the last days before the British handover. Sian Lacey is one of the few young women working in the Serious Crime Squad in Wanchai. She has enough to handle without the interference of an arrogant American DEA agent haunted by a terrible secret in his past. But as all of Hong Kong counts down to the takeover, they are forced to work together to unravel the truth about the mysterious Ruby Wen. Ruby owes money all over town to the worst kind of people, including the enforcer of one of Hong Kong's most notorious triads. Will she help Sian and Keelan take down one of South East Asia’s biggest drug rings? Or is she playing them, like she plays everyone else? Evocative, brilliantly researched and emotionally complex, Chasing the Dragon is the sequel to the best-selling OPIUM, an unforgettable romantic thriller about loss, love and redemption. Haunting, moving and beautifully written, The Secret Wife effortlessly crosses centuries, as past merges with present in an unforgettable story of love, loss and resilience. COLIN FALCONER is the internationally bestselling author of over two dozen novels of romance and adventure that have been translated into 23 languages. Book III €in the Opium Series by International Bestselling Author Colin Falconer € € The pavilion had been built right into the water, a sala of filigree wood on a pillared platform of semi precious stone.' She was already there early the next morning when Michael arrived from Ajodhya in a tuk-tuk. She was gazing out across the water, at the finger of mist clinging to the lake. She did not look up. He wondered if she had heard him arrive. Then she blew a bubble of gum and it spattered across his nose. He laughed and she turned around. 'You teach me this trick.' 'Ly May, ' he said.' € € 1978. Ly May survives the fall of Saigon, living on the street and in communist camps; she survives pirates and the sinking of her flimsy rate to escape to a new life in Thailand. a flimsy raft. She is introduced to life as a bar girl in Bangkok. But Ly May is a survivor and what gets her through is the memory the pilot who befriended her in the Long Tieng air base and tried to save her life. Finally she ends up on the arm of Douglas Ho, one of the major players in the international heroin trade and number two in a Hong Kong triad. And that's when she meets her saviour again; but now he is with an American drug enforcement agency. € € The stakes are excruciatingly high; the Chinese are expanding onto the U.S. western seaboard and the potential profits are breathtaking. Douglas Ho will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Does Ly May stay with the rich life she has been so lucky to find or stay true to the man who helped her as a child and risk everything, her millionaire life and even her life? From the heroin factories of the Golden Triangle to the drug banks of California and Bangkok, from bloody gun battles in San Francisco's Chinatown to the palaces of the super rich in Hong Kong, this is a roller coaster journey that will leave you breathless to the last page "He who will fight the Devil with his own weapons must not wonder if he finds him an overmatch. Noi put her arms around her and stroked her hair. 'You're all right now, ' she said. 'We're your friends here. I'm going to take good care of you.' Ly May closed her eyes. It had been so long since anyone had been kind to her. She wished they wouldn't. It only made it worse when life returned to normal. 1978. Ly May survives the fall of Saigon and the communist camps; she survives pirates and the sinking of her flimsy raft to escape to a new life in Thailand. What gets her through is the memory of the American pilot who once saved her life. In Bangkok she finds herself on the arm of Douglas Ho, a major player in the international heroin trade. That's when she meets her savior again; but now he is with an American drug enforcement agency. The chiu-chau Chinese are expanding onto the US western seaboard and the potential profits are breathtaking. Douglas Ho will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Does Ly May help the man who once saved her life or risk it all to repay her debt? From the heroin factories of the Golden Triangle to bloody gun battles in San Francisco's Chinatown to the palaces of the super rich in Hong Kong, this is a rollercoaster journey that will leave you breathless to the last page. This is the third book in The Opium series, described by one critic as 'James Clavell meets The Godfather', charting the story of the drug trade in Indochina, from sacks thrown in the back of tiny planes in the nineteen sixties to the multimillion dollar international industry that soon became the plague of the western world."