The Bangkok police have a confession from a nineteen-year-old drug addict admitting to the murder of the British computer geek (though judging from the bruises on the suspect's face at the press conference, it appears they may have used more than a little gentle persuasion to get it). Case closed? Apparently so: only there are some loose ends that the police and just about everyone else is happy to overlook. Everyone except Vincent Calvino.

Calvino's investigations into Hoadly's murder pitch him into Bangkok's darkest heart. From the red-light district of Patpong to the slums of Klong Toey, Vincent must navigate a world of gangsters, godfathers and crooked police, and try to outwit - and outrun - the professional hit men who have orders to stop him. It seems that this former public schoolboy kept some very dubious company. Featuring drug addicts, dope dealers, fortune tellers, and high-class call girls, The Spirit House is a hard-boiled page-turner that brings the contradictions of Bangkok to disturbing, exhilarating, life.