Book excerpt: For decades, Thailand has been a hub for firms selling bogus shares to US and European nationals through high-pressure overseas telesales. Hundreds of foreigners, including cash-strapped backpackers and sexpats, work in Bangkok ‘boiler rooms’ cold-calling fellow westerners and defrauding them out of tens of millions of dollars a year. When Tony, a former US Army interrogator, travels to Thailand to track down those responsible for ripping off his father in a boiler room telesales scam, he soon finds himself embroiled in the murky underworld of illegal kickboxing gambling, money laundering, sex work and digital crime. The Second Poison explores hatred, revenge and redemption in Bangkok, Pattaya and Udon Thani from a number of perspectives: the hardened farang (Caucasian) army veteran; the compassionate Thai girl born a boy, who once murdered her sister’s rapists; the godfather of a Hong Kong gambling syndicate and the Thai cop who turns a blind eye to crimes of passion ... their stories intertwining throughout the book. In Buddhism greed, hatred and delusion are known as The Three Poisons. The most destructive of these three is hatred: The Second Poison.