The rain tree

It's a novel by Sylvie Phillips, a book I bought during this year's Big Bad Wolf. The cover synopsis says "Murder and deceit in Thailand; everyone has something to hide". I was sort of in the mood for a short retreat by the sea when I decided to pick up the book. Just te last three days were spent quite satisfactorily spent at Pangkor Beach resort. That is I think, the main reason why that book became a sensible companion. The cover picture is also quite alluring, two girls in swim suit seeming to have a sweet time on the beach in a tropical island. The main set is Koh Keo Island, whether this place actually exists, I dont know. The story is about a few people; Tom and Fiona who later found that they really belong to each other, Sally and Delphine, two sometimes awkward friends with a nice to contemplate love-hate friendship, Keng the slightly muscular nice to look at Thai guy who first enjoys the company of Sally but later fell in simple love with Delphine, Clive a good looking but rather shallow husband of Fiona who funnily thought he cannot do his wife because he carries an image of a goddess, and several others. Not bad really, I think the pace is actually just great. The way Phillips develops the storyline, the characters, how their paths of life entwined or crisscross and the suspense leading to quite an unexpected "what actually happened" is quite a thrill. I enjoy reading this book. Must say one of the expressions I truly can agree with is spelled out very clearly by Sally, "Danny, a craggy, blue-eyed Australian instructor .....had a scap of a Thai girl for a girlfriend...she simply refused to compete with a Thai girl. As far as she was concerned, they were mostly gold-digging bimbos and any man who actually wanted a Thai girl was simply ...."