Book 8, Waiting in Infinity — Richard Jan

Richard Jan's eighth novel, WAITING IN INFINITY, in his dramatic and engaging series, DYING TO SUCCEED, once again brings the reader face-to-face with life and death choices, played out in the arena of international intrigue. Jan is a master at building a taut tension between Western values, customs, beliefs, and traditions versus those in the Asian country of Thailand. This novel pivots around the struggle of what family, honor, and allegiance to the political and business interests of Thailand mean in the context of an entrepreneurial American business sensitive to foreign needs and customs. The clash between two countries and two very different cultures is credible, as are the characters that are caught up in this clash. The results are deadly, tragic, sad, and powerfully painful. The main character, John Van Laan, the American businessman, is the central figure in all of these novels. The author successfully describes the struggles, loves, passions, desires, drive for success, sensitivity, and quest for meaning, while attempting to cope with guilt, of this character. As a first-person narrator for most of each novel, we come to identify with John, and we admire him. We appreciate his drive to do what is right and just and fair. This novel also more fully develops the engaging and attractive Sandy, John's love and lover. Her insights, courage, strength, and beauty help make this novel come alive. The Thai characters also give credence and life to this novel. We come to know and trust the young Sophon, the struggles of Bahn, and his wife Khae. These characters add to the intrigue of the novel. Mostly set on the shores of Lake Michigan, an area the novelist obviously knows intimately, we are caught up in the action of the plot set against this beautiful landscape. For eight novels, Richard Jan successfully holds this reader's interest. These adventures are well told tales, filled with dramatic action, balanced by fundamental human questions about meaning and love and death, and peopled by real people we care about. Robert J. Van Dellen, Ph.D.