Publisher's Synopsis
From Publishers Weekly Haunted by childhood memories of Saigon during the 1968 Tet Offensive, Frederick "Cork" Graham hatches a harebrained scheme in the spring of 1983. He withdraws from his first year in college and uses his school funds to purchase photography equipment and a plane ticket for Thailand. After harrowing events in search of a first big story along the Laotian border, Graham takes to sea and is imprisoned by the Vietnamese. He answers his interrogators accusations of spying by telling them he arrived in Bangkok to start a career as foreign correspondent, and that Richard Knight, a British comedy actor, invited him on the voyage to report on the expedition in search of Captain Kidd's treasure. The Vietnamese can't believe such a farfetched story, and threaten him with a firing squad if he doesn't admit the truth. In a gripping narrative offering a clear sense of time and place using chapters peppered with quotes from media and embassy communications, Graham tells an enriching coming-of-age tale, probes the mysteries of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and digs deep into the secrets, political intrigue, and blunders of what was an international incident recorded on the front-page of newspapers around the world. 45,000 first printing; author tour. 10-city author tour. (Sept) Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition "stranger than fiction" - The Guardian "masterful job of keeping the reader's attention" - New York Times "electrifying" - The Sunday Times From The Bamboo Chest July 29, 1983 US Embassy telex to the Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.: O 290834Z JUL 83 FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK TO SECSTATE WASHDC "Meanwhile, a consular officer in Singapore spoke with Mr. Grimley on July 28 about this treasure hunt in which he was to take part. Grimley, in a detailed story that can shiver timbers, identified the treasure island as the largest and northern-most in an archipelago appropriately named Iles des Pirates, 18 miles east of the large island of Phu-Quoc, just off the Kampuchean/Vietnamese border. Luckily, Grimley did not know or chose not to reveal the exact locations of treasure on the island, else the vice consul in Singapore may have set her jib by now."
