Michael E. Rose certainly has the bona fides to write about a globe-hopping journalist who does a little intelligence work on the side. Rose is a Canadian journalist whose work has taken him around the world. He is presently the chief of communications and publications for Interpol.

Frank Delaney, The Burma Effect’s main character, is a Montreal-based investigative journalist and former war correspondent who has travelled the world and who does a little spy work for CSIS. Rose introduced Delaney in his first novel, The Mazovia Legacy. That novel ended badly for Frank, but CSIS was there for him at the end and helped keep him out of jail.

The Burma Effect begins some five years later, and Delaney has been helping CSIS occasionally during that period. Jon Rawson, his CSIS spymaster, wants him to travel to Thailand and locate Nathan Kellner, another journalist from Montreal, now operating out of Bangkok and also spying part-time for CSIS, who has dropped out of sight. Delaney’s investigation lands him smack in the middle of what turns out to be a fantastic plot, concocted by Kellner, to overthrow neighbouring Burma’s military government.

Rose showed in his first book that he’s not afraid to let major characters die. Though Delaney still feels guilty about at least one of those deaths, the book made it clear there was little he could have done to prevent it. In The Burma Effect, another person close to Delaney dies, and he seriously endangers the life of his girlfriend as well. Rose is walking a thin line here between crafting a realistic storyline (good people do die, after all) and portraying the usually competent Delaney as simply irresponsible.

It is a treat to read a good suspense novel and have the settings described so well you feel as though you’ve spent time there. Rose fills our senses with the heat, the noise, and the smells of Thailand. Add strong writing and a compelling plot, and you have a thriller that truly lives up to the name.