When Kingmakers Speak

WKS is a well written thriller that builds up gripping suspense yet reveals enough to keep us deeply engaged and anxious to know what is going to happen next. Set in the early sixties the novel reflects some of the fundamental but hidden issues besetting Singapore. Not yet fully independent not yet a nation it was a period when the island was caught between a British colonial world not quite withdrawn and a national one not quite born when the Communists remained a serious urban threat and gangsters had considerable influence. The main plot turns around a planned assasination and is linked to a sub-plot involving Sato a Japanese soldier-samurai who had remained in hiding after Japan surrendered and whose values and actions are guided by a combination of Bushido and Christianty.Edwin Thumboo Professor Emeritus National University of Singapore