The Motion Picture Teller

CWA Dagger winner Colin Cotterill returns with an enchanting new standalone novel set in Bangkok: a mystery without a crime, where the line between fact and fiction blurs, and nothing is as simple as it appears.

Thailand, 1996: Supot, a postman with the Royal Thai Postal Service, hates his job. The only bright light in his life is watching classic movies with his best friend, Ali, the owner of a video store. These cinephiles adore the charisma of the old Western stars, particularly the actresses, and bemoan the state of modern Thai cinemauntil a mysterious cassette, unmarked save for the title Bangkok 2010 written in felt tip pen on the spine, arrives at Alis store.
 
Bangkok 2010 is a dystopian film set in a Thailand run by chauvinistic Security Council officersand Supot and Ali, immediately obsessed, agree its the most brilliant Thai movie theyve ever seen. Siriluk, the female star, is everything they could ever dream of in a Thai actress, and Supot falls in love at first sight. But nobody else has ever heard of the movie, the director, the actors, or any of the crew. Who would make a movie like this and not release it, and why?
 
Supot feels a powerful calling to solve the mystery of Bangkok 2010. With skills as sharp as any detectives, Supot manages to contact Sirilukbut she writes back only to beg him not to show the film to anyone else, and soon she stops responding to his letters altogether. On Supots quest to find answers about this incredible film, he journeys deep into the Thai countryside and discovers a curse around the motion picture, one that keeps Bangkok 2010 from ever being viewed. But does that mean its story can never be told? 
 
Colin Cotterill, author of the award-winning Dr. Siri Paiboun series, presents a complex, captivating narrative, interposed with fascinating flashes of Bangkok 2010s gritty screenplay, as the two intertwined tales of a Thailand in deep conflict begin to meet in the middle.