Gerald Posner's Warlords of Crime - the Chinese New Zealand connection

Found this treasure in my library. Warlords of Crime by Gerald Posner.

I just gave away 700 books. But Warlords of Crime I am keeping because it is so relevant to what I am editing right now: The Jaded Kiwi, a novel about the start of the War on Drugs in New Zealand. In the novel, there is a Chinese family that is growing 4 greenhouses of genetically manipulated sensimilla. Its the start of their bloody dynasty growing marijuana, even though things do not go as planned.

A few years ago New Zealand, with the advice of their Police, legalized prostitution. Last time I was there you could run a brothel with 4 women as a legitimate business. There were brothels everywhere. 4 women could gross over $1.5 million a year. Cash. Chinese businessmen were running these houses, importing young Asian women under student visas and rotating them through different houses around the country. These businessmen controlled the advertising, labor, reinvestment of cash profits, any possible money laundering, in fact they were handed a fully integrated monopoly by the NZ Government. The impenetrable mix of legitimate and illegitimate operations seems right out of Gerald Posner's book about Chinese Secret Societies.

Similar unintended consequences happen in my novel set in New Zealand in 1976. The Jaded Kiwi is coming out in March 2016.

Meanwhile I could not resist posting Gerald's mustache! He is a great writer - and if you haven't read his latest wunderbook: God's Bankers - you should.

Remembrance of George Spill Regimental Quartermaster, Royal Artillery

In honor of my father, the veteran from Burma. One of the few of the original Forgotten Fourteenth Army to walk out of Burma at the end of World War II. He felt guilty about killing so many people and seeing so many men and civilians die. 

He wrote a book about his experiences, some are hilarious, others tragic. I published the book in paperback and e-book versions: Reluctant Q.


Above are the four medals he received in a small cardboard box. To the left was one of the last photos that was sent to his wife, from near Quetta, before the long journey to Burma, where most of his possessions, equipment and war buddies were lost. On the right George salutes when I took to the War Memorial in Auckland, New Zealand. This was one of the few times I had seen him stand tall and proud.