Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Land of Smiles or Trials?, 14 Feb 2006
This book is a bit of a belter, I had previously read The Damage Done, at least you could say Warren Fellows deserved to be there. This book highlights the sort of trouble you can end up in when overseas, it is both well written and hard to stop reading. I would argue that Thailand is in fact a wonderful country and the people can in most cases be trusted, the legal system is a real problem though.Read this book it has something for everyone and is more than just another prison nightmare.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Whole Story???, 6 Jan 2006
I bought this book whilst on vacation in Thailand, and found it to be an engaging, lightweight holiday read, but was left feeling that only a part of the story had been told. Martin was without doubt the victim of a major, complex fraud and found the police less than helpful at best. There was a very strong sense however that he underplayed the vigor with which he carried out his own inquiries, both with and without the assistance of four of his Thai brothers-in-law.
That he head-butted Hayes in a bar without any physical provocation demonstrates a propensity for violence. The book acknowledges that the body of Holdsworth had suffered several stab wounds; but makes no effort to discuss this in spite of the fact that during the course of their fight, Holdsworth injured Martin with a knife. Martin's account of the circumstances both during and after the fight is curious at best, and the book assumes that the reader will accept it on face value.
Interestingly Martin emerged as something of a "hardman" whilst in prison, which no doubt assisted him to survive the experience. Is this a veneer that one could assume, were it totally out of character? Probably not.
Martin's assertion that "foreigners" were all at risk of being the victim of the thoroughly rotten, corrupt and highly manipulative tourist police is not consistent with the experience of millions of people who visit Thailand each year. It woud be a very difficult secret to keep, even on a minor scale, it was as if by comprehensively trashing the entire Thai criminal-justice system he could in some way justify and explain his own position.
Martin's experience has no doubt been traumatic and damaging, and his desire to protect his young children from the horrific details laudable. This may have been easier to achieve however, had he not published this book less than a month after his release from custody. An entertaining read, but left many questions unanswered. Make up your own mind!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Harsh, but a little confusing., 20 Sep 2007
I have no doubt that the state of Thai prisons is as harsh as made out in this book.
Having lived in Thailand for months at a time, I would suggest that the corruption, and violence that stems from that rotten core, as described in this book is perfectly accurate. To say that Police, prison guards and other Thai's treat farang with utter distain I would suggest, is also highly likely. They don't like us much as it is when we're out on the streets, let alone convicted of a serious crime and awaiting sentance.
The thing that had me raising an eyebrow was the inconsistancy of Colin Martin's character.
A family man to start. Kids, wife, good business acumen. Conned out of some serious cash by hard hitting and large scale fraudsters. Ok. So far so good. It happens.
But then we see a darker side to Martin. Maybe its in the way he chose to write the book, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but a man goes from placid businessman, to someone who stalks and hunts the men who ripped him off. Still feasable. For 3 years? Benefit of the doubt.
But the moment comes when he meets one of the fellons and he smashes his face in with a headbutt?! No pre banterr, no real conversing or at least threatening... Just Bang !!! Headbutt and assault. From here on in I was just not taking to Martin's pitiful story probably as much as I should have been.
The fight by the road puzzled me greatly too. And the "evidence" brought against him at a later date. The fight itself seemed to be described in a disjointed fashion. Then later in the book we hear that the dead man had been stabbed more than once. Martin himself describes the police report. But he doesn't try to ask for answers. Or if he did, he didn't write it down in the book? If I had been sent to prison for murdering a man who's body went missing, then turned up, but was never physically seen by anyone, I'd demand to ask for photos, fingerprints. My lawyer to see the corpse... anything. But he doesn't. Its all just too weird.
As for his treatment by the police, the prison system and the general population of Lard Yao prison, among others, that part of the book I have no doubt is as accurate as you can get, and I feel desperately sorry for Colin Martin during that hellish plight.
I love Thailand to bits,and my thai friends, but I can see why after reading this you may never want to go there.
A book that is disjointed in its construction, but thoroughly frightening in its content. For a completely differing point of view, read "The last executioner" by Chavoret Jaruboon. This book will help you see that nothing is what it seems, and that no one is completely objective with the facts, in this case about criminality and punishment in Bangkok, be it Colin Martin or Mr Jaruboon.
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