I’ve really no idea how I came across Jake Needham but I bought the first of his books in 2014. I imagine the route was through a search of ‘if you like books by…try this’ but I’m afraid I just can’t remember. He spends a lot of his time in Asia and his stories are set there, principally in Thailand and Singapore, and I have spent a fair bit of time in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, so that might have had something to do with it, who knows? Anyway, it doesn’t matter because I’m glad I found him and that I can now introduce him to you along with his two principal characters, Jack Shepherd and Samuel Tay. There are five books featuring Shepherd and six with Sam Tay and the two most recent Sam Tay ones have only come out in the last couple of years. As it happens, I have just discovered them so I’m really looking forward to reading them!
A little about Jake Needham first and I would just say at the outset, I can’t help feeling that he should be the character in the books and Jack Shepherd should be the author. It almost seems as if they’ve got their names mixed up! Despite that, Jake is a very interesting character who was described in the Hong Kong Magazine as ‘probably the best-known American writer almost no one has ever heard of’! He is a well-educated man (a lawyer) who began as a screen and television writer and then moved on to crime novels, becoming very successful on a world-wide basis although none of his novels have ever been published in USA. I’m not sure I’ve really got to the bottom of why that is the case although there is some sort of explanation on his Wikipedia page. So, that’s Jake, what about his books?
First of all, can I say that I think his books are terrific and I can recommend them to you strongly. If you are a fan of all, or even some, of the other authors I feature in this blog, I think I can guarantee that you will enjoy Jake Needham’s collection. However, as with many books I have found across this wide-ranging genre, please don’t expect classic stories which will stay with you for many years to come. They are, without exception, exciting, enjoyable, often unpredictable and really good reads, but I am afraid I don’t find them memorable. However, as I keep saying in my posts, for me, it’s the characters who are important and here we have two who are good enough to stand alongside all the others I have referred to so far and will write about in future. It is Jack Shepherd and Sam Tay who make these books special and who make them enjoyable for me and, I hope, for you. Shepherd is a lawyer/private eye/detective so he fits the genre of detective fiction very well and Sam Tay is an unorthodox and somewhat quirky homicide detective in the Singapore CID. They are very well described in Jake Needham’s website and you will also find a list of all the books there so I won’t go into them in detail. However, it is well worth having a look at the site before embarking on the books.
Finally, there is one stand alone novel in the Needham collection which is well worth a read. Of course, because it is stand alone, it can be read at any time. To be honest, that’s also the case with the Jack Shepherd and Sam Tay series although, as always, I would recommend reading them in order as I think that helps you to get to know them well. I would suggest that there could be merit in reading the stand alone one first. It’s called ‘The Big Mango’, it starts off in the States but then moves over to Bangkok and It was Jake Needham’s first novel. Consequently, it’s a good introduction into him and his style. In my view it and all his other books are well worth a read so please have a go with them. I think you’ll like them but, whether you do or not, as ever, I would be interested in what you think!