Kicking Dogs
(about 78,000 words)

Boom-time Bangkok. Greed and corruption grip the city, and Jack Shackaway, freelance journalist and author of such literary masterpieces as A Dick for Dorothy, is succumbing to a bad case of culture shock—even though he thinks he’s adjusting nicely to the Thai Way.

Jack has no idea who’s trying to kill him, but given his talent for annoying the wrong people, it could be just about anybody. Every time he turns around he gets into hassles with the locals. Not only that, if he isn’t careful he’s going to wind up married to Mu,which might be better than being dead, but not necessarily a lot better.

Shortly after somebody takes potshots at Jack in a taxi, Mu’s sister Bia is kidnapped. Then Jack himself gets snatched, and is introduced to local godfather Mr. Hung Fat, often referred to as “Fat Fat,” but not to his face. Fat Fat’s men have mistaken Bia for Mu, and their boss will do unpleasant things to her unless Jack provides compensatory literary services for Fat Fat’s public loss of face at the hands of intrepid investigative journalist “Izzy Scoop.” But this is a double case of mistaken identity—Fat Fat believes that Jack is the face behind Izzy. If Fat Fat finds out that he isn’t, then Jack’s a dead man for sure.

As Mu keeps telling Jack, it’s time he learned to maintain his jai yen yen—to keep his cool under all circumstances.

A fast and funny novel from the author of
Bangkok Knights and Yawn (A Thriller)

“The market sated with farang-written books about Thai prostitutes, it was a pleasant surprise to read Collin Piprell’s Kicking Dogs… The author has a light touch. Even detailed descriptions of murders, real and attempted, will keep you smiling. … Collin Piprell is clearly a resident. His insights re. the local population pretty much hit the mark.

Bernard Trink (Bangkok Post)

Asia Books edition published 2000.
First published 1989, 1991 by Editions Duang Kamol; published 1995 by bookSiam.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher and the author.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and other elements of the stories are either the product of the author’s imagination or else are used only fictitiously. Any resemblance to real characters, living or dead or to real incidents is entirely coincidental.

Read the first 2 chapters