Siam Streetfighter - Ian Quartermaine

The Story: A tale of one man’s journey from the depths of despair in an American penitentiary at the start of the twentieth century, to life as a bare-knuckle streetfighter on the docks of Old Siam.
Offered the chance of a high-risk escape through snake infested swamp and jungle, whence if caught a flogging maybe to death could be the punishment, James Johnson’s luck is in and he manages to break free. But after further brushes with the law, he is forced to flee the country. He hires on as a crew member on a cargo boat heading out from San Francisco.
His ship is bound for Siam, and on his journey half way round the world, James Johnson, a muscular white man brought up by Native American Indians, finds friendship, a new family, and himself.
He discovers that the harshness of the life he has left behind in America, is equally present at sea, and in trying to protect a young cabin boy from the sadistic ship’s captain, retribution is promised.
Retribution is executed as soon as the ship docks in old Bangkok, when a gang of European and Asian thugs in the pay of the ship’s master, beat him almost to death.
Bleeding badly, barely conscious, and about to be savaged by a pack of feral dogs, his life is saved by a young Siamese boy armed only with his courage and a stick.
Although culturally frowned upon for a Siamese woman to consort with a farang (white foreigner), the boy’s mother nurses him back to health. In the process, a relationship develops between the farang (white foreigner) and the young Siamese boy - who looks upon him as a surrogate father. Soon after, he is drawn into the brutal world of streetfighting.
An odyssey of one man’s retreat from his past and the moral decisions that face us all, and which determine our destiny in this life and any future incarnations; the love of a young boy who comes to regards him as his surrogate father; the culturally forbidden but gently growing love with a Siamese girl; plus brutal fights and the inscrutable and sometimes harsh aspects of life in old Siam, create an original and powerful story.
Drawing on the works of Dickens (Charles) and Conrad (Joseph) to some degree, combine with an action adventure based in an exotic location and a picturesque time period.