The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781512260670)

James McKenzie was born in Newport, Fife, Scotland. During the 1980s he worked in the Philippines, where he had a very prolific career in B-movie actioners, many of them made for Silver Star Film Co. (called Kinavesa in the Philippines), produced by K.Y. Lim. He had small parts in a few Hollywood movies with such stars as Chuck Norris, Linda Blair, Chris Penn, George Takei and Jackie Chan. The Philippines was a popular location for low-budget films because the costs of production were lower than in many surrounding countries. It was especially attractive to producers of war pictures because of its similarity to Vietnam. For action pictures, Manila Bay often would stand in for Miami, having a similar look. Over the decade McKenzie appeared in countless Filipino features and some Italian productions that were shot in the country. His clean-cut looks meant he was often cast as a pilot, doctor or policeman. He moved to Hong Kong in 1990, where he worked in many local productions before moving to Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1997. The idea for his book, "The Mystery of Yamashita's Map", was conceived while working in the Far East. The novel was launched at the London Book Fair and went on to enjoy considerable success, especially in Japan where George Takei (Star Trek (1966), Heroes (2006)) featured it on his fan website.