Permanent Damage

By Dean Barrett

Scott Sterling, 45, is an American detective, ex-CIA Beijing and Bangkok, and now lives over one of the bars in Bangkok frequented by American vets of various wars.

An American woman shows up at the bar; a woman who believes her father, a special forces team leader on highly classified missions into Laos, was murdered by a Thai woman in the early 70’s, and she wishes to clear his name and bring the Thai woman to justice. Scott reluctantly takes on the case and agrees to search for the woman not knowing he is being set up.

He tracks down and interviews surviving members of her father's special forces team. The special forces team members have their own reasons for stopping Scott's investigation, and once he ignores warnings from friends and strangers as well as ex-CIA colleagues, he understands the very real danger he is in. And the more he digs the more he realizes nothing is what it seems; then or now.

The special forces team members are themselves being hunted by the Vietnamese sons of the man they betrayed during the war. The Vietnamese sons are also hunting for the same mysterious Thai woman who, along with the American woman's father and his team members, betrayed their father during the Vietnam War; yet she seems to have vanished. When Scott gets too close to the truth, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a decades-old vendetta, unable to trust anyone, and in the sights of a highly trained hunter-killer.

While working on this case, Scott receives a mysterious note from a Chinese woman he had fallen in love with in Beijing; until he learned that she worked for the Chinese government’s version of the CIA. His mistake caused him a great deal of anguish emotionally and much of what he had achieved professionally. Under very different and extremely dangerous circumstances, they will meet again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dean Barrett
• Release date: Aug 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466122567

Dean Barrett

Dean Barrett first arrived in Asia as a Chinese linguist with the Army Security Agency during the Vietnam War. He returned to the United States and received his Masters Degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii. He has lived in Asia for over 30 years, 17 of those years in Hong Kong. His writing on Asian themes has won several awards including the PATA Grand Prize for Excellence and the BBC Overseas Playwright Award for South Asia.. Barrett is the author of several novels set in Asia, including Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior; Hangman’s Point – A novel of Hong Kong; Thieves Hamlet, the sequel to Hangman's Point, Kingdom of Make-Believe: A novel of Thailand; Permanent Damage - three novellas with Chinese themes; Don Quixote in China: The Search for Peach Blossom Spring; and A Love Story: The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley, an erotic manuscript set in 1862 China. His New York novel, Murder in China Red, is set in Manhattan starring a Chinese detective from Beijing. Other novels include detective novels set in Thailand: Skytrain to Murder and Permanent Damage. His latest is Pop Darrell's Last Case, a detective novel set in NYC but with a Chinese theme. He first became interested in China’s boat people in the 1970’s and wrote the text for a photo book on them entitled Aberdeen: Catching the Last Rays and also a children's book: The Boat Girl and the Magic Fish.. Several of his plays have been staged in New York City and elsewhere and his musical set in Hong Kong, Fragrant Harbour, was selected by the National Alliance for Musical Theater to be staged on 42nd Street. Before returning to live in Thailand Barrett was a member of: Mystery Writers of America; Dramatists Guild; Private Eye Writers of America, BMI - librettist/lyricist.

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