The Ming Inheritance
(Murder Mystery)
By T. Hunt Locke
Independent Publishing
Platform
ISBN #978-1482680638
358 Pages
Price $12.99 (paperback)
Price $3.99 (Kindle)
Rating 3-Stars
Sam Collins, a former Boston City police detective, is
happily retired in Chiang Mai, Thailand when his world is turned upside down.
Innocently helping a friend track down a colleague Sam suddenly finds himself
entangled in a mystery over 600 hundred years old. From the picturesque
mountains of Mae Hong Song to the seedy go-go bars of Pattaya, Sam is lured
into a race against time and history
When a drug lord murders
Detective Collins’ family, Sam Collins kills him vigilante-style, and is forced
to retire from the Boston Police Department where he worked undercover to stop
drug trafficking. Instead of retiring to Florida, where 99% of these retired
police detectives seem to go, Sam goes to Thailand, and that caught my interest
in the story, as I was tired of all the retired detectives in Florida and
wanted to see if Thailand would work out. New York city attorney, Jon
Brochstein also retires and moves to Thailand where he opens a private
detective agency. He and Sam Collins are old friends. One of Jon’s local
detectives is missing and Jon asks Sam to look into the case. Oddly there seems
to be a buried treasure involved and people are being killed to protect the
secret.
The novel is well
written, but could have used an editor. The author turns this little mystery
into a travelogue and history lesson of Thailand, which made me want to go back
to the Florida detectives. I’m not sure how old Collins is supposed to be, but
remember he’s retired from the Boston Police Department, plus he goes through
several colleges for diplomas, so I’m thinking he’s no youngster; yet his
description and actions make him sound young and vibrant. Big, tough, and
handsome of course: all the girls want to make love to him. So there is lots of
descriptive sex added to the story, giving even less space for the mystery. Plus
his desire for messages throws the mystery even more into the background. Another
point that upset me the author gives special names to the villains. The
villains are Wayne Travers and William Attenborn; their special names are Tun
Perak and Iskandar. So now we have to remember who’s who when these four names
pop up. If that wasn’t bad enough we have Professor Jiriporn Chaisaen who is
given the name of Ajarn Lak. Personally, I wasn’t impressed with this first Sam
Collins mystery set in Thailand. I’m hoping the sequels are better. However, if
you want to learn about Thailand and it’s ancient history, then I highly
recommend this as a travelogue and history of the country, with a little murder
on the side.
Tom Johnson
Author of THE MAN IN THE
BLACK FEDORA
