A Thousand Drops of Rain (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781956904109)

A professional adventurer sits down to write his memoirs but is plagued by distraction; the result is a collection of fantastic stories filled with high diversion, amusement, and amazement. In southern Thailand, an unorthodox hotel is perched upon a jungled cliff overlooking the Andaman Sea. Bungalows located at various levels up and down the cliff are connected by decks and ladders to a large traditional Thai dwelling up on stilts. On the upper deck is a colonial style bar, a relic from a bygone era, where hotel keeper Mike holds court with fellow soldiers-of-fortune, explorers, and comrades from his previous life. One by one they come to the bar and share their yarns, each one outdoing the other with tales of extraordinary misadventure, brushes with fate, irony, and dilemma. An unorthodox businessman is contracted by the CIA to fly a lighter-than-air stealth airship down to Antarctica, which he crews with his personal team of Cambodian duck farmers. An ex-soldier seeks business opportunities in Africa, becomes an ordained voodoo priest and discovers his animal totem. A traditional Chinese eye medication provides Mike a strange kind of double vision that makes him an expert at cards and very nearly gets him killed in an illegal Triad casino. In a tale of karma and contrition, a down-on-his-luck ex-pat is hired to smuggle a Buddha image that pulses a powerful energy. A mysterious blonde security contractor comes and goes, her presence somehow intertwined with the appearance and disappearance of an enormous serpent. The resulting collection of tales combine elements of comedy and horror, set in the tropics with surreal intrusions from the spirit realm. Seeking only peace to write, something always happens, which leads to something else, which leads to something unbelievable that leads Mike to at times question his own sanity. It never ends. Written in an inviting prose style by a retired Green Beret who has worked as a security consultant and problem solver on six continents, A Thousand Drops of Rain is not just for fans of the action-adventure genre, but for anyone who appreciates a good tall tale.