Review: A man's man's adventure in southeast Asia
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2011
One of the other reviews that I read used the term escapist "lad-lit". I love it! If the ladies can use the genre term "chick lit", then "lad-lit" for this type of novel seems entirely appropriate. COME HERE AND I'LL SHOW YOU is enjoyable, adventure based novel in the pulp style of Ian Fleming's JAMES BOND, Mickey Spillane's MIKE HAMMER or Edgar Rice Burroughs' TARZAN and JOHN CARTER OF MARS. It's an easy reading novel loaded to the gunwales with action, intrigue, fisticuffs, gunplay, dirty deals and double crosses,  sticky situations, survival and narrow escapes, and, of course, a bevy of bountiful and willing beauties with lustful libidos and round heels! It is definitely in-your-face and entirely politically incorrect but don't hold your breath waiting for any apologies or excuses.Edwards, a former commando and survivor of the southeast Asia theatre of never-ending guerrilla war, is approached by a nubile young woman named Daniella Stevens, ostensibly the daughter of a courageous man who fought and died beside Edwards many years earlier. She wants to hire Edwards to return to Laos and Cambodia via Thailand to recover her father's personal effects. Edwards is no chump and it seems abundantly clear that Daniella Stevens is an impostor but $200K plus expenses is one helluvan incentive to jump into the game just to see where it's headed. He doesn't know what it is, but obviously there is something in those personal effects that is VERY valuable. Edwards agrees and, as Sherlock would have said, the game is afoot!Derek Lantin's portrayal of modern southeast Asia is intriguing - the graft and corruption; the ongoing quasi-military action; the burgeoning tourism trade; the outrageous difficulties of internal travel on an infrastructure that has yet to enter the modern age; and, of course, the easygoing attitudes to sex, gambling and drinking. Similarly his portrayal of wilderness survival in a jungle setting rings true with a note of realism based on experience. But the fact is that the novel considered as a whole suffers from the extended use of the tough guy street dialect because the entire novel is written in a first person narrative. If I had been reading this novel as an unpublished manuscript, I would have been asking the author if it was possible to convert it to a third-person narrative portraying Edwards' personality and tough-guy speaking style strictly through dialogue.Lantin clearly has some writing chops but he also has some rough edges that need a little sanding with experience. I'll look forward to seeing where his next novel takes us.Paul Weiss