The Noble Path - Hardcover

May, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312088647 ISBN 13: 9780312088644

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Discredited British Army officer Jack Elliot is a man with nothing left to lose - or to live for. For him, life is cheap and death expensive: He kills now for money. So when Ang Yuon, a wealthy Cambodian refugee, asks him to cross Thailand to rescue his wife and children from the Khmer Rouge, Elliot demands a large price. This time he expects, even hopes, to die. But two things curse him with a reason to live - the enormous suffering of the Cambodian people and the appearance of his estranged daughter, Lisa.
On the day of her mother's death, Lisa learns that there is more to her father's past than the picture of the heroic soldier killed in battle her mother had painted for her. So Lisa sets out in search of Elliot and follows him as far as Bangkok, where she falls foul of his Thai associates, Tuk Than and "La Mere Grace," ruthless people whose business interests encompass girls as well as guns.
From the fetid jungles of Cambodia to the sleazy back streets of Bangkok, The Noble Path is a hard-hitting tale of suspense and intrigue.

About this title

Reviews

British journalist May tells a brutal story with an unflinching eye. Former army officer Jack Elliott has hacked out a life as a soldier of fortune since he was court-martialed for a WW II massacre. Offered a huge sum of money in 1978 to rescue the family of a Cambodian refugee from the Khmer Rouge, he accepts, although it seems a certain suicide mission. Accompanying him into Cambodia are a former Australian comrade dying of cancer and a bitter American Vietnam veteran who had withdrawn into a Bangkok hovel but now wants to bring his wife and young son out of Cambodia to America. The Vietnamese army attacks Cambodia just as Elliot and his cohorts cross the border, considerably affecting their chances of success. Told against the sordid background of a nation destroyed by war, this initially straightforward adventure story becomes somewhat improbable when Elliot's naive young daughter flies to Bangkok to find her father, whom she had long believed to be dead. She becomes the unwitting hostage of an evil man who has double-crossed Elliot and fears his return. In fact, since she is white, pretty and a virgin, she is potentially "the most sought-after property in Bangkok." May depicts the dehumanizing consequences of political greed and warfare with accuracy and authority, though the hint of redemption at the end seems sentimental.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312088647
• ISBN 13: 9780312088644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 340