Laundry Man (The Jack Shepherd Novels)

Laundry Man (The Jack Shepherd Novels)

Over a hundred million dollars vanishes in the collapse of a dodgy Asian bank, and a bunch of dangerous people think Jack Shepherd knows exactly where it went. The problem is, he doesn't have a clue. Shepherd was once a high-flying Washington lawyer, a man famed for his ability to sniff out even the best hidden financial schemes. But he suddenly realized he was sick of it all, took himself halfway around the world, and became a business school professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. The quiet life in his new tropical paradise is going pretty well for him, too, until one sunny day the past shows up. A secretive Asian bank run by Shepherd's former law partner collapses under murky circumstances and a lot of money disappears. The bank's depositors aren't the sort of people you want to cross, and Shepherd's old partner says he's a dead man if he doesn't get their money back. Shepherd agrees to poke around the boardrooms and back alleys of Asia to find out where all that money went, but it doesn't take him long to see that he's in trouble. His former partner has painted a big target on his back, and a lot of people seem to think Shepherd is the guy who made the money disappear in the first place. Now they'll cheerfully kill him to get it back. If Shepherd isn't going to be the patsy for the bank's collapse, he needs a plan. He's got one, but there's just one thing wrong with it. It's downright crazy. “MR. NEEDHAM SEEMS TO KNOW RATHER MORE THAN ONE OUGHT ABOUT THESE THINGS.” - The Wall Street Journal "Mr. Needham seems to know rather more than one ought about these things." - The Wall Street Journal "Jake Needham is Michael Connelly with steamed rice." - The Bangkok Post "Jake Needham has a knack for bringing intricate plots to life. His stories blur the line between fact and fiction and have a ripped from the headlines feel." - CNN "Jake Needham is Asia's most stylish and atmospheric writer of crime fiction." - The Singapore Straits Times "Needham writes so you can smell the spicy street food mingling with the traffic jams, the sweat, and the garbage." - Libris Reviews "Tight and atmospheric, Needham's novels are thrillers of the highest caliber, a perfect combination of suspense and wit." - The Malaysia Star "I love Jake's writing and I love Sam Tay. The Sam Tay novels transcend most police procedurals and espionage thrillers and leave them in the dust." - James Lawler, former member of CIA's Senior Intelligence Service, and author of LIVING LIES "When it comes to atmosphere, character and slow-burning suspense, few do it better than Jake Needham. The smells, tastes, and sounds of Asia fly out of every page. Needham knows his stuff and gives it to us with great style." - Humphrey Hawksley, former BBC Beijing Bureau Chief and author of The Dragon Strike series "Jake Needham is an author we should all treasure, a classic master of suspense who makes readers hunger for more." - James Grady, international bestselling author of SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR JAKE NEEDHAM received the Barry Award at Bouchercon 2024, the world's largest convention of mystery readers, for BEST PAPERBACK MYSTERY OF 2024.     He is a three-time Barry Award nominee, as well as a nominee for the International Thriller Writers' award for BEST PAPERBACK THRILLER OF THE YEAR .   Needham is an American screen and television writer who has lived in Thailand for over thirty years. He started writing crime novels when he realized he really didn't like movies and television all that much.    Since then, he has published sixteen popular mysteries and thrillers in two different series — The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels, and the Jack Shepherd Novels — as well as the international bestseller, THE BIG MANGO.