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So where are all the young writers muscling in on the thriller and crime fiction market? Will Rhode is one of the backpacker generation where apparently his previous book PAPERBACK RAITA (groan . . .) gathered a cult following. WHITE GHOSTS has the feel of a book which will appeal to those who enjoyed Alex Garland's THE BEACH. The characters aren't backpackers on a gap year, though. On the contrary, they're some of the privileged classes working in pre-handover Hong Kong. And here we have a potential 'do we care' problem. The characters are called things like Jules, Sluffy, Muffy, Bee-bee, Munkie, Loo-loo and Fi Fi. And almost without exception they are spoiled brats or losers. I'm not overly keen on Rhode's portrayal of his women characters -- they're either sluts or non-entities. Mind you, the lads aren't much better . . . they're either public school gits, drug dealers, or both. It's in this not terribly charming world of superficial glamour that Michael finds himself. He's received a distress call from his old school mate Sean, and drops everything to get himself to Hong Kong. There's nothing happening for him in the UK, so he reckons he can make a fresh start in the Far East. Sean, though, has a rocky love life with his Eurasian girlfriend Candy. Just to complicate things, Michael fancies her like crazy. And he's ended up in a world of excess where the Westerners are taking drugs like there's no tomorrow. WHITE GHOSTS cuts between scenes set in an English public school and in Hong Kong where the incomers are trying not to think about the impending Chinese takeover. It's not giving anything away to say you won't have an awful lot of difficulty linking the two as a guilty secret from the past impacts on the present. It's not an easy book to categorise, mainly due to a fairly lightweight plot where the deaths seem almost incidental and there's actually not a great deal of tension. It's sort of a thriller. And the book is sort of OK. Next . . .
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, July 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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