Western collusion in Thai misery - Rated 
The author develops his story with litery skill,a real page turner.Smuggling is one of the Worlds oldest proffession,where there is a demand there is always someone ready to fill it,no matter what the risk.The chances of getting caught are minimal.David manages to stay objective,the horror he witnesses would traumatise most people.The Thai junkie who gets beaten half to death by the guards,then left to die in agony and then his murderer makes a joke at the victims sisters expense truly exposes the brutilising underbelly of Klon Prem.The collusion of Western Embessies and Police agencies is appalling and needs to be exposed for what it is,a blind eye to murder,all in the name of this barbaric 'War on Drugs'.This book should be required reading in all schools and included in the National Curiculum and a copy in every library.Well done David,good luck for the futore and if you manage another smuggle send something my way.
A must read! best book I've read in a long time - Rated
This book was truly an amazing read; it really leaves the reader wanting more. The tension and excitement throughout the book makes the reader feel like he/she is there the night he escaped and during the days before the escape. I feel the story has come from the heart; there are no exaggerations just a story of a real life experience. That determined life or death. David McMillan deserves credit for his writing it's a must read! For any age and gender.
Grittier, wittier and more endearing than Howard Marks........... - Rated
When you first pick up Escape you know that you are going to be in for a literary treat. David McMillan skilfully guides his reader through the arduous realities of a pan-continent drug smuggler who suddenly finds himself looking at a death sentence in Thailand's notorious Klong Prem prison.
Escape is, refreshingly, not a diatribe against the harsh Thai justice system. Instead the author offers an incomparable insight into the relationships, wit and fights for survival that occurs day in, day out in such hell holes. The truly amazing thing however is that amongst all of the hopelessness, despair and madness going on within the prison walls, McMillan manages to prepare, plan and execute an audacious escape which, against all odds, he gets away with.
Having read many other books in this genre I have no hesitation in recommending Escape to other readers who will find this authors style to be both hugely amusing and non-egocentric. The only criticism that I have of David McMillan is that he hasn't published a sequel yet!
Prison Break Autobiography without Exaggeration - Rated
Thailand's Klong Prem prison has become a byword for Asian hell-holes, a reputation not reduced by the large numbers of jail tourists who schedule a visit in their itineraries to their imprisoned countrymen and women between shopping at the floating market and swilling Singha beer in a Patpong girlie bar.
David McMillan was held in the `Bangkok Hilton' awaiting trial on drug charges in the mid-`90s for almost two years. If his trial had ended the way most local trials do, he might still be there today, for sentences range between thirty and ninety-nine years. Before his trial ended, McMillan escaped, becoming the first Westerner to successfully break out of Klong Prem, a feat no one has yet repeated.
ESCAPE is not the usual, crying my-life-in-hell story. Firstly, the author makes no excuses for his life as a drug smuggler. Emotional responses to the good, the bad and the ugly in the 12,000-strong prison complex are reported through the reactions of the forty-odd fellow inmates who McMillan describes as he relentlessly pursues his search for the perfect escape plan.
Secondly, the circumstances of how McMillan came to be arrested in China town and why so many agencies are set against him are revealed in the style of a thriller. Despite the author appearing often cold and ruthless, this reader could not help being alongside him as both accomplices and plans fall away. I felt kind of guilty almost supporting this apparent drug-dealer, but it is hard not to be swept along.
Supporting characters are surprisingly varied for the closed environment: there are Eddie the junkie-courier from Switzerland, Chang the Taiwanese cook, Kelvin the sorrowful Hawaiian, Rick the conniving English bar owner, yet also Germans pretending to be barons, Nigerians actually princes, young clubbers, jaded Americans, mysterious Chinese and an anarchist-scientist serving fifty years' for being the translator on a Canadian drug deal. As well, a motley collection of languishing Australians, surreally presented at a real embassy Christmas party inside the prison grounds.
Throughout escape plans A-to-Z (including one, a comic attempt to brazen through the corridors dressed as UN medics pretending to evacuate prisoners during an epidemic), McMillan is supported or hindered by those closest to him, including his girlfriend, a part-time jazz singer from New Zealand.
Despite the hard-boiled waterfront-reporter voice of the author, I couldn't help wondering if the true McMillan began as something fractured not fearless, before changing into the one who got away. This new edition includes a couple of detailed sketches for those who want details of the dangerous contraptions in a book that never laments, apologises or preaches, yet tells more in fewer words about people facing death or oblivion than books twice as thick.
Break Out from a Nightmare - Rated
Most of us might pass by gut-wrenching stories of prison escapes, but this true prison break story breaks the mould. It is really a story of loyalty and friendship.
Without the jazz-club chanteuse who flew to Bangkok the moment she saw his arrest flashed on the nightly news, the tireless supporters and his enduring friends David would have never managed the near-impossible jailbreak. Every chapter left me wanting more, and as ever, the truth is stranger than fiction. This book deserves to be moved from the airport racks to the libraries.
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