Dean Barrett

Biography

Dean Barrett first arrived in Asia as a Chinese linguist with the Army Security Agency during the Vietnam War. He returned to the United States and received his Masters Degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii. He has lived in Asia for over 30 years, 17 of those years in Hong Kong. His writing on Asian themes has won several awards including the PATA Grand Prize for Excellence and the BBC Overseas Playwright Award for South Asia..

Barrett is the author of several novels set in Asia, including Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior; Hangman’s Point – A novel of Hong Kong; Thieves Hamlet, the sequel to Hangman's Point, Kingdom of Make-Believe: A novel of Thailand; Permanent Damage - three novellas with Chinese themes; Don Quixote in China: The Search for Peach Blossom Spring; and A Love Story: The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley, an erotic manuscript set in 1862 China. His New York novel, Murder in China Red, is set in Manhattan starring a Chinese detective from Beijing. Other novels include detective novels set in Thailand: Skytrain to Murder and Permanent Damage. His latest is Pop Darrell's Last Case, a detective novel set in NYC but with a Chinese theme.

He first became interested in China’s boat people in the 1970’s and wrote the text for a photo book on them entitled Aberdeen: Catching the Last Rays and also a children's book: The Boat Girl and the Magic Fish.. Several of his plays have been staged in New York City and elsewhere and his musical set in Hong Kong, Fragrant Harbour, was selected by the National Alliance for Musical Theater to be staged on 42nd Street.

Before returning to live in Thailand Barrett was a member of: Mystery Writers of America; Dramatists Guild; Private Eye Writers of America, BMI - librettist/lyricist.

Where to find Dean Barrett online

Where to buy in print

Videos

Hong Kong Poisoning!
in 1857 Chinese bakers placed ten pounds of arsenic in the bed, poisoning the vast majority of all foreigners living in Hong Kong.

Books

Dragon Slayer
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 96,050. Language: English. Published: September 4, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » General
The three short novels in this volume are related not simply by their milieu of Chinese culture but also by how the supernatural world or our fears of it can dramatically shape events in our daily lives. "Individually, each of these novellas is a stunning read. Together, they're a treatise on the author's limitless imagination, unbridled passion for his subject matter, and unerring instincts."
Don Quixote in China: The Search for Peach Blossom Spring
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 83,130. Language: English. Published: September 2, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Travel » By region » Asia
T’ao Yuan Ming, a 4th century Chinese poet, wrote of a mysterious utopia in the remote mountains of China, where generations of Chinese had isolated themselves from China’s wars and rebellions and knew nothing of the outside world. Sixteen centuries later, after sifting through clues leading him to believe it actually exists, Dean Barrett journeyed into China in search of this utopia.
A Love Story: The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 64,250. Language: English. Published: September 2, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Erotica » Action/Adventure
The recently discovered manuscript of an American soldier kidnapped by Chinese female warriors known as the ‘Silken Army.’ One man’s account of his sexual slavery which segues into a love story. "A Love Story: The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley" is written with impressive sensitivity and attention to detail....A story of doomed love that is both erotic and touching." - Quality SM Books
Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 78,270. Language: English. Published: September 2, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary
DECLASSIFIED! Yes, Americans did fight another secret war in Asia! Now, at last, the long-suppressed details of that controversial war can be told. The setting is Bangkok, Thailand. The time is the mid-sixties. And the events are incredible. Join Whore House Charlie, Sgt. Jigaboo, Bumbles, Blinky, Agent Orange, Corporal Napalm, Hogbody, Butterball, Good Pork Betty, the Betel Nut Queen.
Hangman's Point
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 175,240. Language: English. Published: September 1, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Historical » General
Hong Kong and southern China in 1857. An action-filled exotic world of crinolines and top hats; opium dens and clipper ships; betrayal and sudden death. Rich in detail, Hangman's Point brings to life a shocking murder, a sensational trial, a mass poisoning, a cruel slave trade and the desperate schemes of Chinese trying to the hated "foreign devils."
Identity Theft: Alzheimer's in America, Sex in Thailand, Tangles of the Mind
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 87,340. Language: English. Published: September 1, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary
Identity Theft has several erotic scenes but deals with the horrors of Alzheimer’s,segueing from the lyrical to the offensive, from erotica to scenes of humor, from the logical to the bizarre, all the while weaving in and out of the minds of characters any of whom might be the author of the novel or simply one of the characters inside the hallucinations of the author.
Kingdom of Make-Believe
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 77,300. Language: English. Published: September 1, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » General
A New York publisher who once served in Thailand during the Vietnam War receives a plea for help from his late brother’s Thai widow. When he returns to Thailand after 20 years he finds that the nostalgic portrait he carried of Thailand Past bears little resemblance to reality, and he begins to uncover deception, danger and death.
Murder in China Red
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 74,160. Language: English. Published: September 1, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » Hard-Boiled
His name is Liu Chiang-hsin: "a mind as sharp as a sword." But "Chinaman" is the name his friends and contacts use. Chinaman grew up in Beijing during the Mao era and was traumatized by seeing Red Guards beat his scholar-father and drag him off; never to return. Three decades later, the one woman who managed to penetrate his emotional defenses has been found murdered in a New York Hotel.
Permanent Damage
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 119,840. Language: English. Published: August 31, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » Hard-Boiled
Scott Sterling is an American detective, ex-CIA Beijing and Bangkok, living over one of the bars in Bangkok frequented by American vets of various wars. An American woman shows up at the bar; a woman who believes her father, a special forces team leader on highly classified missions into Laos, was murdered by a Thai woman in the early 70’s, and she wishes to clear his name.
Skytrain to Murder
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 78,590. Language: English. Published: August 29, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » Hard-Boiled
Running low on funds, ex-CIA agent Scott Sterling moves into an apartment over a Bangkok bar. He teaches scuba diving and does occasional investigative work usually involving missing bargirls or wayward spouses. But he is soon involved in tracking a murderer through Bangkok’s little known world of upper-class gentlemen’s clubs, houses of domination and kinky expatriate orgies.
The Boat Girl and the Magic Fish
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,010. Language: English. Published: March 2, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Fairy tales & fables
The Boat Girl and the Magic Fish is a tender introduction to one of the lifestyles that has long identified Hong Kong as a place unique in the world. Khu-choi, a boat girl who has grown up on a Chinese junk at sea, must join in the progress and go ashore to school. There she experiences the shock of seagoing fisherfolk as they resettle on shore and she is mocked by her schoolmates.

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