Behind the Scenes Book 3

Behindthe Scenes: Rich and Poor is the third of a four-book fact-based suspense novelseries which exposes the criminal exploitation of the people behind the façadeof many of the tourist paradises in Southeast Asia.Thebooks describe how the poor of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos do their best tosurvive, often growing opium, smuggling weapons and selling their daughters,sometimes before they are even born.Theplight of these people is made more complicated because this criminality isoften sanctioned by official organisations in existence to protect them, not totake advantage of them.Initially, Rich and Poor focuseson the plight of a small group of Cambodian beggar children; the feisty Samnangand his friends. The children become pawns in the plans of their owners to sellchildren like them into illegal activities of other Southeast Asian countries.The book continues telling the story of the poor family from asmall village in Laos, featured in books 1 and 2. In book 3, the family becomesinvolved with the beggar children:– Fong, husband of Lu andfather of Prim, is released from prison and finds himself made responsible for thegroup. He makes a decision which will have serious consequences for him.- Ignorant of his son’s new path, Grandfather Songchai, Fong’sfather, decides to find him. His trip will seek retribution and closure,utilising some extreme methods from his past.- Bee, kidnapped in book 2 alongside Prim, Songchai’sgranddaughter, now extricated from the sex trade, looks to create a new lifefor herself as nurse and carer. This leads her to meeting Samnang and animportant relationship begins.The characters’ fates are interwoven in a colourful and harshnarrative that moves towards its resolution as relentlessly as the mightyMekong River flows forth.Theseries is inspired by real people and based on real life stories.