Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

Opium Dreams by Tom Crowley is a crime thriller set in the opium triangle of Northern Thailand and Myanmar. Matt Chance is a retired American special forces soldier who, after numerous deployments in the Middle East and elsewhere, has retired to Thailand, his mother’s home country, to relax and decompress along with his Thai girlfriend Noi. Wan Jo is a retired Chinese police officer from Hong Kong. Together, they are tasked by Matt’s good friend and former colleague, a Thai drug enforcement operator, to infiltrate and eradicate a Chinese Triad gang that has entered Northern Thailand during the COVID epidemic and is now responsible for the increase and organization of the trafficking of both old and new manufactured drugs from Myanmar, through Thailand and onward to the West. When Matt realizes that Wan Jo is unusual in that she prefers to work independently and eschews the carrying of weapons, he understands his task will be severely impacted. Wan Jo and Matt, along with Thailand’s elite drug squad, are about to undertake an incredibly dangerous and intricate operation fraught with uncertainty.

Opium Dreams is an exciting, non-stop thriller that will keep readers glued to the book and relentlessly turning pages. Tom Crowley has magnificently captured both the feel, smell, and atmosphere of urban and rural Thailand. His wonderfully descriptive style will have readers transported to that hot, humid, and exotic locale. The contrast in characters between Matt, with his Western upbringing tempered by his mother’s Thai disposition, and Wan Jo’s professional detachment and seething sense of justice and retribution makes for an intriguing clash of characters and styles. I really appreciated how the author explains both the social side of Thai culture, as well as the background to the Chinese Triad system and how they commonly operated. There is no shortage of action and adventure for the adrenaline-seeking reader, but what underpins the narrative, for me, is the slowly developing professional relationship between Matt and Wan Jo and tacit respect for each other’s styles. The author’s short, staccato writing style is perfectly suited to a fast-paced thriller, and it captures readers’ attention quickly and keeps it. Although this is part of the larger Matt Chance series, it is a standalone novel that reaches a definite conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend it.