Jake Needham

Jake Needham's novel, The Ambassador's Wife (2011) featuring Inspector Samuel Tay sets the stage for a great international law enforcement series. Tay is introduced on page one as he reluctantly answers his cell phone one morning in his home city, Singapore. Approaching 50, the son of a Singaporean-born Chinese mother and an American-born Chinese accountant father, the police inspector appears to be a character on the downward slope of a burnout trajectory. He has a sour outlook on show more Singapore, its citizens, and the American Embassy that is revealed in most of his conversations and interactions with others. Tay does not really need his inspector job because his deceased father left him a small fortune in real estate. His boss has noticed the personality decline and, aware of Tay's financial situation, has suggested retirement before self-destruction can occur. However, the reader is given access to Tay's continuous internal monologue and sees an interesting complex and mostly hidden personality containing quick emotions and strong motivations. Tay's cynical outlook consistently conceals a sensitive, hesitant, self-doubting, but caring person.

A challenging criminal case gets Tay's juices going in more ways than one, and he starts to work his way out of his current depression. A particularly gruesome murder in the Singapore American Marriott hotel puts the police in the limelight and they must solve the crime as quickly as possible. The police Officer in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Division, the elite Special Investigations Section, doubts whether his 20 year tenured Inspector Tay can successfully handle the case because of his age and attitude. But, Inspector Tay convinces his boss that he is willing and capable of performing his duties.

The mystery story is interesting, exciting, and challenging without being overly convolued. Tay investigates the murder as the reader learns more about the inner life of the character. His brash exterior is contrasted with his internal thoughts establishing a character that is enjoyable to follow in this novel and will be great to follow in subsequent Inspector Tay novels. Mr. Needham published book two of the Tay series this year and will publish book three in 2014. I recognize even this early in the series that Tay is the Singaporean equivalent of John D. MacDonald's character Travis McGee in Florida and Robert B. Parker's character Spenser in Boston. I highly recommend The Ambassador's Wife to readers who enjoy novel series, with the suggestion of allowing Inspector Tay to grow on them. The character's cynical demeanor, like that of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, is a test of readers' persistence and intelligence that will pay off with additional insightful action for years to come in Mr. Needham's series. show less

Anther fantastic Jake Needham book. This one takes place in Phuket and Bangkok. If you like government conspiracies and are open to books that take place somewhere other than America, Jake Needham's books are fantastic. These books are hard to find in paperback here in the USA, I bought 4 of them when I was in Hong Kong, but they are all now available on Kindle.
The general story concerns the sale of Iraqi oil during the embargo and where the oil was going and what the money was used for. show more Lots of well thought out twists and counter twists and the story, unlike many in this genre, is quite believable. Like a Tom Clancy book you wonder how much of this really did take place, probably a lot more than we wish.
This is the second book in the Jack Shepard series, the first was Laundry Man, and while I recommend all of his books you don't need to read them in order, if you don't want to. show less

If Larry David and Richard Lewis were to have a child together, and yes, that's a bizarre thought, but if they could, the result would be someone like the police detective, Samuel Tay, in Jake Needham's book, The Ambassador's Wife. Tay is someone who always seems to see his cup as half empty; he's a loner, age is creeping up on him, and at no time does he suffer fools gladly. And yet, for me, he is one of the more interesting characters in this genre of mystery story. He's a twenty year show more veteran of the Special Investigations Section of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Singapore Police Department. When the wife of the American Ambassador to Singapore is found tortured and murdered at the local Marriott Hotel in Singapore, Tay is immediately called in to investigate. The crime is puzzling because no one was registered in the room where the murder was committed, and there is no evidence of the ambassador's wife even being in the Hotel on the day she died. At first the identity of the body is unknown, so it is up to Tay to figure out who the woman is and how she came to be found in those circumstances. When it becomes clear to Tay that the FBI will also be investigating the crime, and the CIA is probably involved in some way, things become complicated.


There were several reasons why I liked this book so much. One was the location. I knew nothing about Singapore before I read this mystery, so I found Needham's descriptions of the city as seen through the eyes of Sam Tay to be informative and often funny. One of the best observations from Tay was his description of the heat and humidity. He reflects that if he owned Singapore and Hell, he would "rent out Singapore and live in Hell."

Another reason I liked the book was because Needham took his time in revealing plot developments. Along with moving the plot forward, he also continued to fill me in on the kind of man Sam Tay is. One of the best sections on that was when right in the midst of the murder investigation, which at that point needs Tay's full concentration, he suffers a personal crisis that momentarily stymies him. He seems so sure about his views on everything around him, but he discovers he too has vulnerable moments when he hasn't a clue how he feels or what he should do. It doesn't seem to have occurred to him that he too can be human and at the mercy of every day life.

After reading about half of The Ambassador's Wife, I bought Jake Needham's next book in the Samuel Tay series, The Umbrella Man. Now that I've met Sam Tay, I look forward to reading more about him, and how he tackles his next case. I encourage anyone who likes good mysteries with well fleshed out investigators to do the same. show less

I have read and enjoyed Jake Needham’s two Thai Inspector Tay novels, The Umbrella Man and The Ambassador’s Wife and look forward to reading the next novel in the series. I was reluctant to begin reading his other series featuring Jack Shepherd because, judging from the cover art of the novels, the main character seemed to be a civilian with unbelievable fighting skills and spy connections. It turns out, Jack is a lawyer with international connections in financial/political affairs whose show more legal talents get him tangled up in situations where wise men fear to go, not a gun toting super-spy.

In this novel, Plato Karsarkis is a fugitive from US justice residing in Phuket, a resort island off the eastern coast of Thailand, charged with obtaining embargoed oil from Iraq and reselling it to Thai companies. Also, Plato may have been involved in the murder of his associate who was a potential whistle blower to US authorities. Jack Shepherd is approached by the fugitive and is offered a large sum of money to protect Plato from legal action aimed at him from the highest level of the US government. The Thai government so far had refused to extradite the rogue businessman from his lavish home on the resort island/peninsula of Phuket, but the US feds were closing in.

Against his better judgment, Jack risks the serenity of his professor job in Bangkok by getting involved in Plato’s situation (without any promises) and gains the unwanted attention of the US Marshal’s service, the CIA, and the Thailand Intelligence community. Jack can’t help himself, he just likes to immerse himself in risky financial business. In this case, the risks are life-threatening and Jack has to make important decisions and has to take high stake chances once he is caught up in Karsarkis’ affairs.

This is the second novel in the now four volume Jack Shepherd series. Killing Plato is a good story with lots of local color, and Jack Shepherd has a unique personality. Mr. Needham writes fast paced novels in both of his series, and the books can be read quickly. I recommend Killing Plato to readers who like to learn about southeast Asian culture and enjoy an exciting story. show less