Review & Critique of APSARAS

Title: Apsaras
Author: Kevill Davies
Pages: 390 Hardback
Publisher: Eloquent Books, New York
Price: $31.50

It is always a pleasant surprise when an author springs up close to home. Kevill Davies is a well-known contributor to The Reader and local resident who has achieved a great deal in writing this book.
A cocktail of drugs, prostitution, blackmail and corruption, it is an action thriller set in Thailand against a background of the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami. The plot develops in a lively and fast-moving manner. The central character, Jack Benson, is a wealthy ex-banker who tires of life in the City after the unexpected death of his wife whom he loved. He travels to Bangkok in search of a business opportunity and there he meets his Apsaras – two beautiful young Thai sisters - who become his muses and inspiration. Then drifting into his life comes Peaches, an enchanting half-Thai doctor locked in an unhappy marriage ..............
His original intention is to invest in a casino, but following a visit to Cambodia Jack decides instead to set up a refuge for mistreated women who have nowhere else to go. The victims arrive - each with her own history of beatings, drunkenness, poverty and cruelty. Jack feels himself drawn close to them and aspires to be another King of Siam, surrounded by a harem of lovely girls. However, affairs of the heart are rarely straightforward as he soon discovers. This paradise cannot last forever and there are evil forces at work which seek its destruction. The mounting tension is skilfully built towards the final showdown.
The writer has clearly done a great deal of research in Thailand. The text deserves some stricter editing plus greater attention to punctuation, which is sometimes haphazard. One suspects that the human stories he recounts are, in fact, not far from the brutish reality many impoverished people in difficult circumstances endure.


Reviewed by Christine Price
Christine was born in Cornwall. She graduated from the University of London with Honours in Geography and Social Anthropology. She spent 12 years as an expat in Nigeria, Malawi, Qatar and Hong Kong before returning to the UK to work in the financial sector. At present she and her husband, Len, divide their time between a cave in Galera, Granada and their flat in Mojacar.