Jack Reacher, PG Wodehouse, and Mumbai slums: an interview with Ajay Chowdhury

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the 240th instalment of author interview series, 9mm. Thanks for reading and sharing the 9mm series, and Crime Watch in general (and my work elsewhere) over many years. I've had a lot of fun talking to lots of amazing crime and thriller writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you.

You can check out the full list of of past 9mm interviewees here. What a line-up! With lots more fun to come. Thanks everyone. If you've got a favourite crime or thriller writer who hasn't yet been part of the 9mm series, please let me know, and now I'm back on deck more fully, I'll look to make that happen for you. We've got several interviews with cool crime and thriller writers from several different countries 'already in the can' that will be published soon, so lots to look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome to 9mm an exciting newer voice in crime writing, Ajay Chowdhury, a tech entrepreneur and theatre director who was born in India and now lives in London where he builds digital businesses, cooks experimental dishes for his wife and daughters and writes through the night.

Chowdhury won the first Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize (effectively a search for new, underrepresented voices in British crime writing), for the beginnings of what became The Waiter. Disgraced former Kolkata detective Kamil Rahman is waiting tables at a Brick Lane restaurant owned by family friends. When a birthday party for his boss’s friend ends in murder, Kamil is arm-twisted into an unofficial investigation alongside Anjoli, his boss’s precocious daughter. 

The series, which is in development for television, continued with The Cook, which delved into homelessness, The Detective, entwined with government surveillance and AI, and most recently The Spy. But for now, Ajay Chowdhury becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH AJAY CHOWDHURY

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Probably Bernie Gunther, from the Philip Kerr series. I just think following his life from mid 1930s Germany to the 1950s how he changes, everything he's been through, it's absolutely fantastic. And that was kind of my inspiration for when I knew I was going to get to do a second or third Kamil Rahman book, is, you know, I'd love to be able to follow the guy's life. 

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

I read a huge amount when I was a kid, and certainly the Enid Blyton books are the ones that absolutely grabbed me, the Famous Five. But the one that really showed me good writing was PG Woodhouse. I mean his language, I'd read nothing like it. Anyone who can write a line like "he wasn't disgruntled, but neither was he gruntled", that is really good, right?

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

I was very lucky to have written a children's novel which got published in 2016, Ayesha and the Firefish. I'd been telling my kids that little story at bedtime, and I wrote it, then a friend of mine said, I know a publisher, an editor at Penguin. I just got lucky there as well. They sent it, and this was Penguin India, and they said, Yeah, we'll publish it. Then later it got adapted to become a musical in LA and San Francisco - though I didn't write the musical. 

Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I'm a huge bridge player. So I play bridge three times a week online. Weekends I'm normally playing a competition online. So I absolutely love playing bridge and then the usual other stuff, you know, travel, eating, cooking. 

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

I would count Calcutta [now Kolkata] and Bombay [Mumbai] as my hometowns, as I lived in both places. But if I take Bombay, where I have some great memories, this is going to sound a weird thing to say, but visit Dharavi, the biggest slum in the world. My next book is about it, but I went for the first time in January with my wife, and it's an extraordinary place. It's a million people, in pretty much one square mile. And it's factories, it's people living there. It's a complete ecosystem. And it's an extraordinary place to visit, and they do tours of it, which make me feel a little bit bad, because it feels slightly like poverty tourism, but it's an extraordinary place. And the tour guide we took, all the money goes back into the community. 

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

I'm a five foot, two inch Indian guy from Mumbai, so I think it would have to be the guy who plays Jack Reacher in the Netflix show [Alan Ritchson]. It'd be pure wish fulfilment. Not Tom Cruise though, that'd be too easy for him to do. But it would be cool to be played by someone six foot six with arms like potato sacks. That's my dream.

Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

Well, it would have to be The Waiter, because it's completely changed the direction of my life. So,  winning the competition and then having them say that, listen, we want more of these books, completely changed my life. I mean, I would not be sitting here next to you at this crime writing festival, Chiltern Kills, if I hadn't won that competition. So yeah, it would have to be that. 

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

So, seeing in a bookshop for the first time. We didn't celebrate it as such, but my wife and I were in Daunt Books in Hampstead, and The Waiter was sitting not on the shelf, they actually had it displayed on a table. And so my wife photographed me in front of it, and then she sneakily took it to the window and put it in the window, photographed me in front of the window, then put it back. So that was very special. The one thing that's never happened so far, and hopefully will sometime, is I have seen someone reading any of my books in the wild, yeah, that would be cool, I'm still waiting for that.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

Well, I mean, a guy came up to me today in the book signing after our panel saying he just finished reading The Detective and how much he absolutely hated the female character [ed note: Kamil's ex-fiancé Maliha, not Anjoli] ... he told me how much he hated her, how he felt she was completely unnecessary, and didn't understand why I put her in the book. So that was a bit controversial, and a story that quickly comes to mind! 

Kia ora, Ajay, we appreciate you having a chat with Crime Watch. 

"Dark issues and delicious writing" - review of THE SPY

THE SPY by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Kamil Rahman is working for the Metropolitan Police when he gets the call from MI5. They've received intelligence of a terrorist plot, and it's Kamil they need. Posing as a disaffected cop, and working once again in Anjoli's beloved restaurant, Kamil infiltrates the cell. From London he is sent to Kashmir, a place he visited with his parents when he was younger. But his allegiance becomes blurred when he finds himself face to face with an old nemesis... 

I’ve been an unabashed fan of tech founder and CEO turned crime writer Ajay Chowdhury’s moreish mystery series starring disgraced Kolkata detective Kamil Rahman since the first outing, The Waiter (2021), which as an unpublished novel won the Bloody Scotland-Harvill Secker Prize for new voices. In that first book, Kamil was eking out a new life as a waiter at Tandoori Knights, a friend’s Indian restaurant in London’s Brick Lane, before murder intervened, and he was arm-twisted into undertaking an unofficial investigation alongside Anjoli, his new boss’s precocious daughter.

My only trouble with Chowdhury’s books is that, in among the dark deeds leavened with plenty of humour and heart, every time I read one I’d become so damned hungry, due to the food references!

As the more-ish series has grown, Kamil has returned to official policing with London’s famed Met Police. Although he perhaps got more respect even as berated waiter in Tandoori Knights. In The Spy he’s recruited by MI5 to try to infiltrate a dangerous terrorist cell. Playing the role of a disenchanted copper, exiled back to the Indian restaurant. Meanwhile some things haven’t changed, including Kamil’s complicated, stuttering, friends or maybe more relationship Anjoli, who once again gets drawn into amateur sleuthing as she starts to investigate the kidnapping of a teenage boy. 

As Kamil’s discoveries lead abroad, into the brutality and suffering of the long-running Kashmir conflict, he and Anjoli both face grave danger. Stakes are high, personally and politically. 

Once again, Chowdhury deftly crafts an engrossing, highly readable tale that delves into some of the darkest issues facing society, while providing plenty of light through the humour and heart of the characters, and some of the events. It's a tricky balance, but Chowdhury deftly pulls it off, delivering another cracking tale in what's become a really wonderful series, and a great addition to the genre. 

The Spy is delicious crime and thriller fiction, on all fronts. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Guest Review: MAMI SUZUKI: PRIVATE EYE

MAMI SUZUKI: PRIVATE EYE by Simon Rowe (Penguin, 2023)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Beneath the sheen of its orderly streets and obedient populace, all is not well in the port city of Kobe. Business is as brisk as the Haru-ichiban spring breeze for Mami Suzuki, hotel clerk by day, private investigator by night.

Who’s stealing from Japan’s biggest pearl trader? Where’s the master sushi chef and why are his knives missing? How did the tea ceremony teacher’s brother really die? And what does an island of cats have to do with a pregnant Shinto shrine maiden?

From the Kobe wharfs to the rugged Japan Sea coast, the subtropics of Okinawa, and a remote island community in the Seto Inland Sea, each new adventure ends with a universal truth – that there are two sides to every story of misfortune.

Mami Suzuki is moonlighting as a private eye in Kobe, Japan. She is doing so unbeknownst to the management of the Orient Hotel where she works – she needs the money to support herself, her mother, and her daughter. Four stories, each linked by the word of mouth of a client, present Mami Suzuki as shrewd, empathetic, and sensible – although possibly with a bit of a drinking problem.

Suzuki’s four cases take us to wonderfully described destinations; you can smell hear and taste the locations. One story is set in Kobe, with the president of a major pearl business concerned about theft in the organisation. The second takes us to the small port town of Mihonoseki near Matsue, with Suzuki trying to locate a sushi master who has left his family. Suzuki then takes her mum and daughter to Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, to determine the truth behind the death of a retired executive. Finally, we start a mystery at the Ikuta Shrine in Kobe and end up on the island of Manabeshima, populated by 83 people and 166 cats.

A common thread in each story is the charming and handsome fisherman, Teizo, whose backstory equips him with knowledge of the sea, and connections in various places, which help Suzuki with her cases. The stories are in a minor key – Suzuki gently piecing together the stories of desperation, heartbreak, superstition, longing, and human frailty. They are compelling stories, and Suzuki is quite funny, gets angry, has a strong sense of justice that doesn’t always agree with the law, and finds the “greatest unsolved mystery” to be how she is managing to hold down a day job while working as a private investigator.

Mami Suzuki: Private Eye, written by an outsider who has spent a lot of time in Japan, gives a tantalising look at another way of thinking about things, while always keeping the distance of an onlooker; the result is atmospheric and beguiling. I really look forward to reading more of Mami Suzuki’s adventures..

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

George Clooney lookalikes and Mumbai eunuchs: an interview with Vaseem Khan

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest weekly instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021. This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, and today marks the 221st overall edition. 

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome cricket-loving crime writer Vaseem Khan to Crime Watch. Vas is the author of two crime series set in India. The Baby Ganesh Agency series (five novels and two novellas) brings classic crime stylings to modern-day Mumbai. The 'cosy' series stars retired Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra and his sidekick, a baby elephant named Ganesha. While the series has struck a chord with critics and readers, hit the bestseller list, been translated into 15 languages, won a Shamus Award, and seen Vas appear on BBC television, as Vas notes in our interview below, it was a long road to his breakout debut, THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA. 

Most recently Vas published an historical mystery that introduced a new hero, Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police, India’s first female police detective. Set in 1950, "just after Indian Independence, the horrors of Partition and the assassination of Gandhi", MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE got great reviews and is set to kickstart a new series. 

But for now, Vaseem Khan becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH VASEEM KHAN

 

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly. Bosch is an LAPD detective with an unerring sense of mission. I call him the last gunslinger in Hollywood. Connelly creates great plots, but it’s the character of Harry Bosch that draws me back. Lean, mean, and answerable only to his own sense of justice. 

One of my author highlights was meeting Connelly at a book signing in London. He and I shared a publicity agent and she introduced me to him so we could have a chat. And by chat, I mean so I could mumble inane superfan ramblings about how incredible his books were, how amazing the buttons on his shirt were, etc etc. You know the drill. He was kind enough to sign a book for me, made out to the lead character of my own Baby Ganesh Agency series, Inspector Chopra of the Mumbai police. 

I told Connelly that Chopra is driven by the same relentless sense of justice that drives Bosch, in a country where if you have money, power or fame you can often escape the consequences of your actions. Mumbai, as the home of Bollywood, has that in common with LA.

 

I think Connelly liked the comparison.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams. I read this as a kid and was hooked on the story of Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, and the other rabbits, forced to leave their warren and travel across the English countryside to find a new home, encountering every conceivable danger on their epic journey. I especially loved the villain of the piece, General Woundwort, a huge, terrifying, murderous rabbit dictator who didn’t give a rat’s arse what anyone thought and wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything: “Dogs aren’t dangerous!” 

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

Have you got a box of tissues handy? I wrote seven novels over 23 years, the first when I was 17, a comic fantasy in the Terry Pratchett mould (I’m a huge fan of the Discworld novels). All sent to agents, all rejected. I’ve got over 200 rejection letters. Literary novels, historical, sci fi, fantasy, even a dodgy contemporary romance (where contemporary means ‘erotic’ – only mine was fifty shades of shit). The one thing I learned: when you start off writing you think you’re Hemingway, but you’re actually closer to that guy who writes crap Christmas cracker jokes. The good news? The more you write, the better you get. Write a million words, complete half-a-dozen (unpublished) novels, and you’ll surely reach a standard good enough to publish. All you need now is a big idea and some luck. 

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

Cricket. The greatest sport ever invented. What other game can last five days and you still might not get a result! I play all summer, usually get injured halfway through, then sulk and sit on the sidelines writing and yelling snide remarks about my friends’ on-field performances. I watch a lot of film and like reading about film. I’m a bit of a movie buff. I love SF, but I also love old black and white films – I’m told this is unusual for a person of my heritage. ie. Brown people aren’t supposed to like Casablanca or Citizen Kane!

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

Well, I grew up in east London, a tough neighbourhood, so visitors should buy a stab vest – they don’t tell you that in the tourist brochures when they’re going on about pie and mash in good old east London. But if you do come to Forest Gate, eat at one of the authentic curry houses on Green Street. The food is soooo good. 

I also lived in Bombay for a decade, so it’s a sort of second home for me. If you go there, don’t be frightened of the eunuchs at the traffic lights. They can seem intimidating at first but they’re just earning a crust in a society that hates them, fears them, humiliates them, and marginalises them. Also, don’t mess with cows. Never mess with cows. They’re holy to Hindus and you’ll cause a riot. Go to the Taj Palace Hotel even if you’re not staying there and have a mooch around. There’s some great history there, including a hundred years of signed celebrity pictures on the walls. 

Both my crime series are set in Bombay, one in modern Mumbai (as it’s now called) and one in 1950s Bombay. Bringing the city to life in my books has given me endless pleasure. Read the books and you’ll see that joy translated onto the page, in between the darker descriptions of the city.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

Only George Clooney. If they put some makeup on him to make him less attractive and sawed off his legs to make him shorter. But I feel he’s generally a good egg, and I think I am too. At least, I’ve tried to go through life with a sense of humour and perspective and a minimum of ego. So, if Mr Clooney is too damned busy to play me, then someone like that, I guess…. Oh. You have a suggestion?... Who?... No. Not Danny DeVito.  

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

My first series, the Baby Ganesh series (five books and two novellas, beginning with THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA) is sold around the world and gave me a great career. But when I wanted to branch out and do something new I really had to wrack my brain. My first few ideas were summarily thrown out by my publisher. I felt like a schoolboy who’d failed his exams. Or a puppy that had just shat the bed. But then Persis Wadia, the heroine of MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE, came to me, almost fully formed. 

Persis is India’s first female police Inspector and finds herself tasked to solve the politically-charged murder of a senior British diplomat living in Bombay in 1950. Persis is ambitious, smart, tough, and not prone to social niceties. A woman in an intensely patriarchal society. Writing her wasn’t easy, but the reception the book has received from national critics and readers has left me feeling it was the right thing to do. It’s a story for our times, even though it’s set seventy years in the past.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I was at work. My agent called me to tell me I had a four-book deal with Hodder for the Baby Ganesh Agency series. I let out a little shriek, the sort of sound you make when your bits get caught in your pant zipper. A couple of months later I was shoved onto the BBC Breakfast sofa with six million people watching to launch THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA. Now that was an incredible feeling!

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

I went to a book festival in Newcastle from London on crutches. I’d broken my ankle playing cricket but had committed to speak and I NEVER pull out of an event even if I have to crawl over broken glass to get there (it’s disrespectful to both organisers and readers to advertise that you’re coming and then not show up).

Other unusual happenings: a very elderly man napping in a wheelchair at an event I was speaking at woke up and told me to be quiet as I was disturbing his sleep; Mick Herron, the brilliant spy thriller writer, bought me an ice cream at Harrogate after we were on a panel together; I’ve been mistaken multiple times for the only other brown writer at an event; I once broke down with fellow crime author Abir Mukherjee, and we had to juggle tennis balls on the side of the road to earn money for petrol. (OK. That last one is a lie, but we did break down, and a kindly passing motorist who knew about cars told us we were out of oil.) 

Thank you Vas, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can read more about Vaseem Khan and his writing here, and follow him on Twitter. 

Review: THE AOSAWA MURDERS

THE AOSAWA MURDERS by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts (Bitter Lemon, 2020)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

On a stormy summer day the Aosawas, owners of a prominent local hospital, host a large birthday party. The occasion turns into tragedy when 17 people die from cyanide in their drinks. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. But the youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery. 

The police are convinced that Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako’ and witness to the discovery of the murders.

Could a beautiful blind teenager really have killed her whole family? Thirty years after a horrifying 1973 gathering where 17 people died from poison-laced drinks during a party at the home of a prominent local family, Makiko Saiga is interviewed. An author and childhood neighbour of the Aosawa family, her book that she wrote as a university student a decade after that fateful day left open the implication that someone other than the prime suspect, a deliveryman who hung himself and left a confession months after the murders, may have been involved. Makiko’s not the only one to wonder about Hisako, the blind daughter and sole surviving member of the family. But what is the real truth at the heart of this tragedy?

In a book that won the 59th Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel in 2006, Onda takes readers on a beguiling and unusual ride. The story unfolds from a variety of perspectives: snatches from an interview with Makiko Saiga where we only read her answers and not the unseen narrator’s questions, interviews in the same style with the housekeeper, the detective, and others involved in the original case, excerpts from Saiga’s bestselling book about the case, and segments of a new manuscript by another writer.

It's a kaleidoscopic method of storytelling, and readers may have to shake things together in their head to try to form and see some sort of clear picture from the various shards. The heat and humidity of the seaside town, known only as K___, adds to the discomforting and strange atmosphere. An unusual and absorbing tale from a bold storyteller.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: A GREATER GOD

A GREATER GOD by Brian Stoddart (Selkirk, 2018)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Superintendent Chris Le Fanu returns to Madras from Penang where he leaves his new Straits Chinese love interest, Jenlin Koh, and a tempting new post in police intelligence there. He finds Hindu-Muslim tension on the rise in Madras, and his friends and subordinates Mohammad Habibullah and Jackson Caldicott at loggerheads as a result. A series of Muslim murders around the Presidency adds more tension. Le Fanu's arch enemy, Inspector-General Arthur "The Jockey" Jepson is reacting recklessly to the new conditions, then Le Fanu has to travel to Hyderabad where his former housekeeper and lover Roisin McPhedren is seriously ill. 

Le Fanu swings between his personal and professional challenges as a gang of revolutionaries and Hindu nationalists from North India travel south to aggravate the troubles. Le Fanu and Jepson clash head-on as the latter causes several policemen to be killed, and Le Fanu is losing support because his main civil service protectors are leaving Madras. Just as he seems close to overcoming all these problems, news arrives that Jenlin Koh is on board a ship reported missing near Ceylon. How will Le Fanu cope?

It is 1925 and Superintendent Chris Le Fanu has returned to Madras from the Straits  a greater godSettlement, fending off multiple job offers while trying to work out who is on a killing spree targeting Muslims, and which romantic relationship to pursue.

This is the fourth outing for Le Fanu, and the first I have read.  The setting is riveting; the beginning of the end of the Raj, with political posturing becoming more and more divisive.  Le Fanu’s boss Jepson is an old style incompetent racist colonial to the point of insanity, and there is a range of colonial attitudes in the characters, right through to the liberal Le Fanu, who is not unblemished in his attitudes to others; “We Indians are always ready to help, sir” quips one of his staff, Assistant Superintendent Mohammad Habibullah (Habi). 

Along with Habi, Le Fanu has head of Special Branch, Jackson Caldicott, in his corner.  Habi and Caldicott are relieved to have Le Fanu back, given the increasingly erratic behaviour of Jepson and the spate of Muslim killings. But Le Fanu has a lot on his mind, the Governor and Chief Secretary of the Government of Madras (Le Fanu supporters) are both moving on, and want to get rid of Jepson and replace him with Le Fanu; the Chief of Police and Military for the Nizam of Hyderabad wants him to work for them, and Le Fanu was offered a position in Penang at the end of his last adventure.

To make things even more complicated for Le Fanu, his ex-fiancée, Roisin McPhedran, enters his life again (in Hyderabad), just when he has started a new relationship with Jenlin Koh (in Penang). Le Fanu blunders through the novel on not much sleep, lots of alcohol and the blokeish support of his mates.  He is a far from perfect character – suffering from PTSD post action in Mesopotamia, and quite neglectful of those close to him and whose admiration for him is unstinting.  Stoddart manages to painlessly cram an awful lot of historical detail into the novel, and there is some light relief by way of every man and his dog knowing all Le Fanu’s business (due to most of them running informants) and the under-stress banter of the men.

I was in India a few year’s ago and met a young Muslim man in Rajasthan who passed himself off as a Christian for safety reasons, so was intrigued by the historical emergence of militant Hindu nationalism, and the conflicts between Hindu and Muslim, which are far from over.  The novel has great descriptions of the bustle of Indian cities, and the (even then) widening gap between urban rich and urban poor.

The only frustration I had with the novel was the female voices being either off stage, mediated by men, or fleeting.  There are some great female characters, but we never really get to meet them – and more importantly they never get to meet each other!  Which I suppose is quite accurate for the ruling British and Indian culture of the time, but frustrating for the reader now.  There isn’t really a mystery to solve either, it is quite clear who (in general terms) is on a murder spree, but the narrowing down of the targets, and the conflicts about when and how to act to not exacerbate the situation, are gripping.

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving librarian in Nelson, New Zealand. This review was first published on her blog, which you can check out here. 

Review: PHNOM PENH EXPRESS

PHNOM PENH EXPRESS by Johan Smits (Mekong Media, 2010)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

A young Cambodian returns home. 

A diamond shipment goes missing.

A foreign assassin arrives in Phnom Penh.

And then there's the chocolate - lots of it. 

Phirun is determined to make it as Cambodia's first chocolate chef. But things don't go quite as plannned when he gets unwittingly caught up in a deadly turf war between rivalling diamond mafia and those who are after him. Falling in love with a mysterious Khmer-Australian doesn't help him. 

Throw in an overzealous post-9/11 American intelligence officer and a corrupt Belgian ex-Colonel, from Tel Aviv through Belgium and Bangkok right up to Phnom Penh - in this fast read of crime and intrigue, chocolates have never tasted so good!

I love travelling, and I love mystery writing, so whenever I'm abroad I like to dip into the local genre where I can, even collecting books from the places I've travelled. Ahead of three weeks in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam a few years ago I'd looked up some possibilities ahead of time, so I knew what to look for in the bookshops. Landing in Bangkok, I grabbed some John Burdett thrillers (his Sonchai Jitpleecheep series is excellent) and this then-new Cambodian-set crime novel. 

Written by a Belgian expat who'd spent years in Cambodia, PHNOM PENH EXPRESS is not your typical southeast Asian crime novel (not that they're all homogenous of course - far from it - but this one has some particularly unique flourishes). An international thriller with a chocolatier at its heart. 

Phirun has a dream. Half Cambodian and half Belgian, he wants to combine his heritages by making it as Cambodia's first chocolate chef. But his plans go awry when a shipment of chocolates containing diamonds is mistakenly delivered to his chocolate shop in Phnom Penh. That's just the first misstep in what becomes a dangerous and slightly madcap dive into the world of international diamond smuggling. Rival 'diamond mafia' in the middle of a turf war zero in. Rather than dealing with customers who he makes happy with his chocolate creations, Phirun is faced with a far nastier and less forgiving world full of diamond smugglers, arms traders, and professional assassins. 

As the same time, he gets romantically entangled with an intriguing Khmer-Australian. 

Danger and humor mix throughout PHNOM PENH EXPRESS. Smits, a Belgian who has spent years in Cambodia, gives his hero that same ‘insider-outsider’ perspective and takes readers on a journey through modern Phnom Penh in all its fragrant glory and grime. 

This is a solid read; a rather straightforward story and writing style that’s boosted by the vivid setting, unusual characters and events, and a vein of sardonic humour. When I read the book it suffered a little from comparison with Burdett's Bangkok thrillers (which provide a similarly vivid insight into a southeast Asian city while having stronger characters, deeper issues, and crackling prose), but PHNOM PENH EXPRESS still has something to offer too and is worth a look. 

Smits gives readers a sensory experience of Phnom Penh, from the pervasive aroma of fermented fish to the karaoke soundtrack beloved by citizens. The situation is a little surreal, and there's some lovely wry humour in what can at times seem a bit of a madcap story, careening around the globe. All centred on a local guy who just wants to make chocolates. A good beach read. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: THE GOOD SON

THE GOOD SON by You-Jeong Jeong, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Little, Brown, 2018)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Yu-jin is a good son, a model student and a successful athlete. But one day he wakes up covered in blood. There's no sign of a break-in and there's a body downstairs. It's the body of someone who Yu-jin knows all too well. 

Yu-jin struggles to piece together the fragments of what he can remember from the night before. He suffers from regular seizures and blackouts. He knows he will be accused if he reports the body, but what to do instead? Faced with an unthinkable choice, Yu-jin makes an unthinkable decision. 

Through investigating the murder, reading diaries, and looking at his own past and childhood, Yu-jin discovers what has happened. The police descend on the suburban South Korean district in which he lives. The body of a young woman is discovered. Yu-jin has to go back, right back, to remember what happened, back to the night he lost his father and brother, and even further than that.

There seems to have been a great rise in appreciation and appetite or translated crime writing in the past decade or so, spurred no doubt by the 'Scandi Crime Wave' phenomena, but going more broadly than that too. We've seen French author Fred Vargas win multiple awards in the UK for the English translations of her work, Romanian bestseller EO Chirovici launched in English in a big way, and plenty of other great tales brought to English readers, particularly from continental Europe. 

International publishers have been a little slower to plunder the treasures that have been delighting non-English speakers in Asian countries and languages, sometimes for decades. So it's great to see the recent mini-wave of Japanese crime fiction getting translated (Keigo Higashino, Natsuo Kirino, Miyuki Miyabe, Fuminori Nakamura, Masako Togawa, Seicho Matsumoto, Hideo Yokoyama, etc). 

Anglophile readers now get a chance to experience the provocative storytelling of million-selling and award-winning South Korean crime writer You-Jeong Jeong. THE GOOD SON is her first novel to be translated into English (she’d already been translated into several other languages).

A young man who has suffered from seizures and a mysterious ailment throughout his life wakes in a bloodied haze, only to discover his mother’s razor-slashed body at the bottom of the stairs of the house they share near the Incheon waterfront outside of Seoul. He has snatched memories of his mother calling his name the night before: but did she want his help, or his mercy? 

Realizing a call to the police would mean instant arrest, he spends the following days cleaning up, fending off his family’s calls, and trying to work out just what happened. He was once the good son, but is he now a killer? Who can he trust? 

Yeong (and Kim’s translation) takes readers on a confronting ride into mental illness, twisted family relationships, and the unclear realm of memory vs reality. This is not a comfortable read, or a traditional crime novel with a cop or outside sleuth at its heart. 

Guided by the first-person narration of an unreliable, tormented young man, readers are plunged into a harrowing tale that builds in an elegant and disturbing way. We slowly uncover the truth, via Yu-Jin’s skewed perspective, with plenty of secrets and horrors being revealed. 

Something different, THE GOOD SON is an atmospheric, creepy thriller from a master storyteller.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: FOOLS' RIVER

FOOLS' RIVER by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime, 2017)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

The two most difficult days in Bangkok writer Poke Rafferty's life begin with an emergency visit from Edward Dell, the almost-boyfriend of his teenage daughter, Miaow. The boy's father, Buddy, a late-middle-aged womanizer who has moved to Bangkok for happy hunting, has disappeared, and money is being siphoned out of his bank and credit card accounts. It soon becomes apparent that Buddy is in the hands of a pair of killers who prey on Bangkok's -sexpats-; when the accounts are empty, he'll be found, like a dozen others, floating facedown in a Bangkok canal with a weighted cast on his unbroken leg. His money is already almost gone. Over forty-eight frantic hours, Poke does everything he can to work the case before it's too late for him to do any good.

Bangkok is a city unlike any other, and Hallinan's excellent Poke Rafferty series brings it to vivid, messy life for mystery lovers. Over the course of several books, Hallinan does a great job invigorating readers' senses, provoking thought with his plotlines and underlying issues, and engaging the emotions through the characters and their relationships.

It's a well-rounded, multi-layered series that offers plenty within its pages.

This eighth instalment sees travel writer turned sleuth Poke Rafferty on an interesting precipice, personally. His wife and love of his life, former Patpong bar queen Rose, is heavily pregnant. Their 'modern family', which includes streetgirl-turned-adopted daughter Miaow, is about to grow. But Rose is worried due to her history that she hasn't shared with Poke. Meanwhile a friend of Miaow's is worried about his wayward father vanishing; Rose is keen to get Poke investigating, out of the way.

Reading a Timothy Hallinan book is a delight. There's a wee zing to his writing that combined with the vibrancy and complexity of the setting brings something little fresh to his crime tales. There's plenty going on away from the main mystery plot, and interesting character arcs or progressions for long-time fans of the series. I'm not sure if this would be the best first introduction to the Poke Rafferty series for new readers, as you'll get even more out of the book if you already understand some of the character relationships and background. It could be read as a standalone, and is a very good read regardless, but for me personally I'd advise going back and sampling a few of the earlier tales first. You may well find yourself devouring them all, book after book.

Another very good read from a very good writer. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: THE CORONER'S LUNCH

THE CORONER'S LUNCH by Colin Cotterill

Reviewed by Shane Donald

Laos, 1978: Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old medical doctor, has been unwillingly appointed the national coroner of newly-socialist Laos. Though his lab is underfunded, his boss is incompetent, and his support staff is quirky to say the least, Siri’s sense of humor gets him through his often frustrating days.

When the body of the wife of a prominent politician comes through his morgue, Siri has reason to suspect the woman has been murdered. To get to the truth, Siri and his team face government secrets, spying neighbors, victim hauntings, Hmong shamans, botched romances, and other deadly dangers. Somehow, Siri must figure out a way to balance the will of the party and the will of the dead.

A criticism often made of the ‘cozy’ in detective fiction is that it lacks the subtleties of more realistic types of crime fiction. Settings like rural villages form the backdrop and the detective is never a police officer; I’ve read cozies where the sleuth has been a florist or a maid or a stay-at-home mum pondering whether or not to return to work. Cozies are sometimes dismissed as providing comfort reading with a familiar protagonist and settings where there is murder but it’s seldom bloody or brutal.

On the surface Colin Coterill’s THE CORONER'S LUNCH meets most of the above criteria. Dr. Siri Paiboun is a doctor (not a policeman) in 1970s Laos. While he does live in the capital Ventiane, not a lot happens. The revolution has ended, the new government is establishing itself and a lot of the population has crossed the Mekong River into Thailand to escape. This is where Dr. Siri comes in. After being sent to France as boy to study and qualifying as a doctor he meets his future wife and follows her into the communist party. Returning to Laos, he joins the revolution and tends the wounded. The story opens after the death of his wife and the overthrow of the government. Now aged 70, Siri is looking forward to a quiet retirement. Fate has other plans. Told that the former national coroner has crossed the river, Siri makes the reasonable objection that he has practiced medicine on the living, not the dead. However, he takes up his new post because it will give him ample opportunity for making fun of the new regime. A reluctant revolutionary, Siri suspects the new government will be as corrupt as the monarchy was.

Part of the charm of this series is the relationships that Siri forms with other characters. In the morgue he comes to know Nurse Dtui and Mr Geung, his morgue assistant, and takes an interest in their lives, while never missing a chance to make trouble for his much younger superior. When the bodies of two Vietnamese pilots, shot down in the war pop up, Siri is called in to examine the bodies. He makes the acquaintance of Phosy, a police detective, and starts to investigate how the pilots really died. He is aided and abetted by his best friend Civilai, a minister in the new government, who has the same doubts about the new regime as Siri does.

As Siri goes about his investigations, he hears an assassin has been hired to kill him. And on top of all this, Siri discovers he is the host for the shamanic spirit Yeh Ming…which explains why he can now see ghosts, but not talk to them.

When this book was published it was compared to THE NUMBER 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY by Robert McCall Smith. The comparison isn’t apt, as I feel THE CORONER'S LUNCH is much more of a detective novel, with murder, rather than an examination of ‘philosophical’ crimes.

The depiction of 1970s Laos was an eye opener for me, as I’ve never been there, though this series makes me want to visit. The image of Siri racing off on his trusty motorbike along a rice paddy to get to the local high school in order to convince the science teacher to examine some evidence because she’s the only one with chemicals, gives you some idea of the setting; the USSR is a new ally, and the Americans have left, taking a lot of the trappings of modern life with them. Siri’s hero is Maigret and he aims to find the truth wherever it lies.

This series is into its 12th novel now (THE RAT CATCHER'S OLYMPICS is set in 1980 at the Moscow Olympic Games). I really enjoy reading this series because it does feel like seeing an old friend but also because it has a protagonist in his 70s who shows age is just a number and that life is to be lived. Yes, there are aspects of the cozy here, but THE CORONER'S LUNCH is a detective story that will show you a part of the world that might be new and a protagonist that is hard to forget.

Shane Donald is a New Zealander living in Taiwan. An avid reader with 3,000 books in his home, he completed a dissertation on Ngaio Marsh for his MA degree, and also has a PhD in applied linguistics

Review: A FRIGHTFULLY ENGLISH EXECUTION

INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A FRIGHTFULLY ENGLISH EXECUTION (Piatkus, 2016)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Inspector Singh is irate. He's been instructed to attend a Commonwealth conference on policing in London: a job for paper pushers, not real cops, as far as he is concerned. And as if that isn't bad enough, his wife is determined to come along to shop for souvenirs and visit previously unknown relatives. 

But it isn't long before the cold case that lands on Singh's ample lap turns into a hot potato and he has to outwit Scotland Yard, his wife and London's finest criminals to prevent more frightful executions from occurring on his watch - or indeed, from being added to their number.

When I first started out as a crime reviewer several years ago, one of my favourite things was discovering 'new-to-me' crime writers that weren't the biggest names around but who wrote superb series with terrific and memorable main characters. Particularly authors who were setting their books somewhere different to the usual US or UK big city locations. The kind of authors that have you going 'look here, try them, they're great'.

One such author was Shamini Flint, the creator of the Inspector Singh series that sees a portly Sikh detective from Singapore traversing Asia solving crimes. I really enjoyed  A BALI CONSPIRACY MOST FOUL, set among the aftermath of the horrific real-life Bali bombings, and promptly read a couple more books in the growing series. In the intervening years the series has grown to seven books, with Inspector Singh trying to uncover and capture murderers, terrorists and other ne'er-do-wells in Malaysia, Bali, Singapore, Cambodia, India, China, and now after a hiatus... England.

Inspector Singh's departure from his usual Asian adventures is an entertaining romp through the streets of modern London, brought about by his superiors sending him to a Commonwealth policing conference. When he's assigned the task of looking into how the British police could have better liaised with a minority community that closed ranks during an unsolved murder, Singh can't help but try to solve the murder himself. After he all, he's a murder detective, not a paper pusher.

Shamini Flint is a dab hand at writing books that blend light and dark, mixing comic elements and serious issues. Inspector Singh is a bit of a lovable grump, the kind of character it's hard not to fall for. A rotund, sneakers-wearing Sikh who loves eating, smoking, and drinking, he's a fresh twist on the intellectual detective of the Victorian and Golden Age. He's grumpy, but not at all dour. He loves life, and his job, even if he can't be bothered with the politics, or the henpecking of his wife.

One of the characters in A FRIGHTFULLY ENGLISH EXECUTION describes Singh as a bull in a china shop, and that's an apt description. He barrels about, setting his own course as he tries to catch killers, with little regard for politics or politeness. At the same time, he's a lot smarter than he seems - Columbo-esque in the way he's underestimated. After all, he has the best solve rate in Singapore.

The relationship between Singh and his wife is a delightful one. She's keen to bask in his reflected glory with her relatives, while at the same time wanting to underline that all his success is down to her influence, of course. Singh grumbles about his wife's intrusions and picadillos, but deep down it's clear how much love he has for her. As he investigates the death of a young Asian woman, they're each confronted with thoughts of what might have been in their own family.

As a foreigner now living in London, I found A FRIGHTFULLY ENGLISH EXECUTION particularly enjoyable in the way Flint brought the city to life through the eyes of an outsider. Singh is baffled by some of the things he witnesses, and the differences between London life and what he's experienced in his shiny and modern home city half a world away. Flint evokes some 'cultural differences', without seeming cliched or stereotyped, and the novel touches on some pretty serious modern-day issues, including the threat of homegrown terrorism.

Overall, A FRIGHTFULLY ENGLISH EXECUTION is a fun, engaging read centred on a terrific main character, well rounded out by a good supporting cast and a range of personal and social issues that give the book, and series, plenty of depth despite it's light-hearted tone in parts.


Craig Sisterson is a lapsed lawyer who writes features for leading publications in several countries. He has interviewed more than 160 crime writers, discussed crime writing at arts and literary festivals in Europe and Australasia, on national radio, and is a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can follow him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Review: THE QUEEN OF PATPONG

THE QUEEN OF PATPONG by Tim Hallinan (William Morrow, 2010)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Poke Rafferty has an unusual family life: his wife Rose is a former dancer in Bangkok's most lurid red light district on Patpong Road and their adopted daughter Miaow lived on the streets. When a dangerous man from Rose's past reemerges, Poke realises to keep them all safe he may need to dig far deeper than what his wife has revealed about her former life. But will what he finds out shatter his entire world?

Tim Hallinan manages to take readers into some very dark places in THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, the fourth in his excellent Poke Rafferty series, without ever becoming bleak or gratuitous. There's a vibrancy to Hallinan's writing, an electricity running through his prose, characters, and vivid Thai settings that helps balance things, bringing a little brightness to the blackness.

Bangkok is a sensuous city, and Hallinan uses that with aplomb to texture what is a cracking page-turner full of character and emotion as well as a storyline that grips, intrigues, and disturbs.

Travel writer Poke Rafferty has finally found some semblance of stability to his topsy-turvy life. He's married Rose, the bar girl turned businesswoman who stole his heart, and together they're living in 'domestic bliss', raising their adopted daughter, challenging adolescent Miaow. A 'real family', at last. The biggest issue on their plate seems to be that Miaow is in the local school production of The Tempest, but is miffed she's missed out on the lead role, instead playing Ariel. But for all the adventures and intrigues Poke has experienced throughout the series, he's never faced the truly dark side of Thai life that the women in his life, Rose and Miaow, suffered and survived.

Then it returns...

It is Rose's past, rather than series hero Poke's, that we delve into deeply in THE QUEEN OF PATPONG. Hallinan has taken a leap of faith centering this tale on Rose's story, but he pulls it off adroitly, deepening our understanding of Poke's world and the lives of those he loves.

Even Poke doesn't know all that went on during Rose's journey from rural village girl Kwan to star of Bangkok's notorious red light district, but the covers are painfully lifted when a malevolent man Rose thought was dead comes calling. When he interrupts Poke and Rose while they're out dining, Howard Horner comes across to Poke like another boorish ex-pat in Bangkok, but his appearance terrifies Rose. She knows the truth of his nature, and the danger that crackles beneath his surface...

As the present danger ratchets up, and violence ensues, Rose is forced to confess her full past to Poke and Miaow. It's a harrowing tale, and Hallinan intercuts between past and present, keeping the emotional needle high as THE QUEEN OF PATPONG unfolds. The twin timelines and strong focus on a supporting character's past could stumble in the hands of a lesser writer, but Hallinan proves once again he is a true master of the crime genre, finely balancing a powerful, page-turning narrative with a real sense of humanity in a vivid, evocative setting. Bangkok can be a bewildering metropolis full of sparkle and grime, flavour and heat, joy and danger - and Hallinan brings it to vibrant life.

Tim Hallinan is one of those writers who scores top marks across the board. He doesn't write pacy airport thrillers light on character, character studies light on plot, or tales with a strong sense of time and place while leaving readers wanting on other fronts. Instead he weaves a ferociously good story that blends all those elements into a near-perfect concoction. Like a Thai master chef who picks the freshest ingredients and expertly blends and balances them, bringing out their best, Hallinan has created a moreish feast that tantalizes and delights on a multitude of levels.

I can't wait for the next course.


Craig Sisterson writes features and reviews for print publications in several countries. He has interviewed more than 150 crime writers, discussed the genre at literary festivals and on national radio, and is a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can follow him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Review: A STRAITS SETTLEMENT

A STRAITS SETTLEMENT by Brian Stoddart (Crime Wave Press, 2016)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

In the third installment of the Le Fanu Mystery series, the intrepid superintendent is promoted to Inspector-General of Police in 1920s Madras, which proves to be more boring than he had envisaged. Instead of pushing papers across his desk, Le Fanu focuses on the disappearance of a senior Indian Civil Service officer and an apparently unrelated murder. As the two incidents intertwine, the world-weary detective is drawn into the worlds of indentured labour recruitment and antiquities theft.

The Le Fanu series from author Brian Stoddart is one of those extremely elegant combinations of mystery fiction and historical lesson that also provides entertainment for readers. There's even a bit of good old fashioned romance from the male point of view. In short, there's something for all readers within these pages.

The third book, A STRAITS SETTLEMENT sees Le Fanu promoted above his desired wishes to acting Inspector-General, buried in paperwork and oddly behaving subordinate officers, increasingly desperate to resolve his ongoing faltering love affair with a local Anglo-Indian woman. It's not surprising that this reluctant bureaucrat seizes the opportunity to get back into some proper investigating work when a senior Civil Service member goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated murder occurs.

The sense of place and time in this series is absolutely pitch perfect - using as always something from the time as an element of the crime - in this case highly suspect indentured labour recruitment, people smuggling and antiquities theft. Always though, the ongoing question of British rule in India and the bubbling pressure for independence forms the backdrop, with elements of the struggle between colonial thinking and posturing and the reality of day to day life for the people cleverly incorporated. Le Fanu is the point of difference in the Colonial powers, and in the day to day society, with the manner in which he runs his household, his love affairs and his interactions with the locals. Even his food choices are not what the Colonial powers would approve of.

The manner in which Stoddart writes these books is pitch perfect. The historical elements, the factual tidbits, are built into the narrative in a way that lets the reader learn a lot and experience what it must have been like in that part of the world at that time. The mystery elements remain to the forefront and the personal bits and pieces are dotted throughout creating a character with depth. Le Fanu is not just a totally believable character he's nicely vulnerable, complicated and extremely easy to connect with. A series that really hasn't put a foot wrong, A STRAITS SETTLEMENT pushes the story of Le Fanu, his life and his future forward, setting up some major changes for the next book. Really looking forward to that.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and is a Judge of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and the Ned Kelly Awards. She kindly shares her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: DEATH IN THE KINGDOM

DEATH IN THE KINGDOM by Andrew Grant (Monsoon Books, 2007)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

British agent Daniel Swann is sent back to Thailand to recover a small black box from the bottom of the Andaman Sea. But as his friends are beheaded and he's pursued by the CIA, Swann realises his mission is personal; someone wants him dead.

I've usually leaned more towards mysteries than spy thrillers, but I found myself really enjoying this tale from Canterbury author Andrew Grant. It's an unabashed 'airport thriller', but the way Grant brought Thailand to life as a backdrop, along with a really propulsive narrative drive, kept me hooked and the pages whirring.

Daniel Swann is a British agent who's ordered back to Thailand by his bosses. It's an area of the world he's avoided since he killed the son of a top underworld boss, but his government paymasters need him to recover a valuable item from the bottom of the ocean. But Swann's planned mission goes awry, and his friends and contacts start turning up dead, beheaded one by one. The CIA is after Swann too, and he doesn't know who to trust in the shifting sands of the spy game, so he turns to an unexpected source for help: the Southeast Asian underworld. 

Death in the Kingdom is one of those books that some may dismiss as pure masculine derring-do, a James Bond-esque thriller full of exotic locations and villains, treacherous allies, and a hero capable of impressive physical feats even when under extreme pressure. And it certainly is all of that - but I also felt there was a bit more to it too. For whatever reason, I just really enjoyed it, surprisingly so in fact. It was a fun read, and one that had a few layers to it beyond the standard spy thriller tropes. 

Perhaps chief among its merits is the way Grant evokes the Southeast Asian setting. He brings the various locations vividly to life on the page; you can feel the heat, the grime, the sweat dripping down your back. This is a book with some cool visuals, and I can easily imagine it transferring well to the screen. Furthermore, I found Daniel Swann to be an engaging main character. Sometimes we are following his first-person perspective, and at other times there's a broader viewpoint, but throughout he came across as having a nice mix of British secret agent familiarity along with enough wee tweaks to be a bit different, to be fascinating and easily follow-able. 

Swann isn't a superhero. He obviously has some skills, otherwise he couldn't and wouldn't be in the spy game, but he's more a 'do the job' guy, a man who questions himself and his work, who makes errors and is fallible, while also being capable of bravery and action. A realist rather than an idealist. 

The story in Death in the Kingdom is pretty gritty, with the darkness of some of the deeds perhaps ameliorated by the sea and sunshine of the location. There were some minor blips in pacing, and you do need to read any book of this type with a healthy suspension of disbelief, but overall I'm very glad I picked this one up. It's a fun, absorbing read with some fascinating characters, good action, and a terrific location. I'd definitely read more books from this Andrew Grant (there are other authors with the same name), particularly his second Daniel Swann thriller, Singapore Slingshot. 

I originally read and really enjoyed this thriller a few years ago. I included it in a crime fiction round-up for the Herald on Sunday in 2011, but never did a fuller review here on Crime Watch at the time. 

Craig Sisterson is a journalist from New Zealand who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He has interviewed more than 140 crime writers, discussed crime fiction at literary festivals and on radio, and is the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. Follow him on Twitter: @craigsisterson 

Review: THE ABRUPT PHYSICS OF DYING

THE ABRUPT PHYSICS OF DYING by Paul E Hardisty (Orenda Books, 2015)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson


Hardisty bursts onto the crime scene with a searing tale digging up the dirt on oil companies operating in third-world countries. 

'Write what you know', they say, and it's clear from reading globe-trotting environmental engineer Paul E. Hardisty's searing debut that he's put plenty of himself and his own hard-earned perspectives and experiences into what is a very fine literary thriller.

In the information age, the truth can often get lost. Information is power, and those in power wield information like a weapon; to bolster their own interests, to muddle and hide the truths they don't want known, to keep things ticking along and the money rolling in.

Clay Straker, a combat vet now working as a hired gun engineering consultant for big oil in Yemen, is a key cog in that system, modifying facts and mollifying locals, all to keep the all-important dollars rolling in. Perhaps a good man at heart, though that's murky, Clay has acclimatised to falsehoods, hiding many truths from himself and others. He does testing and crafts any data and facts in a way that shows his corporate masters in the best light. He knows the answers they want to be able to tell the locals, the shareholders, the world, and provides that 'truth' for them: of course the oil operations are benign. And think of the benefits!

He's a corrupted man operating in a corrupt business in corrupt countries.

Clay is forced to change his choices when his local driver and friend Abdulkader is kidnapped by a notorious Yemeni terrorist. The price for his friend's freedom? Find out why local children are getting sick.

Looking to save the life of a man who's previously saved his, Clay has to peel back the layers. Of himself, his industry, and just what the heck is really going on locally. Aligning himself with a mysterious investigative journalist, Rania, he's forced to confront some very harsh truths. Sunlight might be the best disinfectant, but bringing things to the surface can also be very painful for a whole lot of people, including those doing it.

THE ABRUPT PHYSICS OF DYING is an absorbing, searing novel that is difficult to categorise or pigeon-hole. Hardisty brings Yemen to vivid, sweat-inducing life on the page, powering his environmental thriller with exquisite prose. It's an evocative book, extremely thought-provoking. Dense while still being fluid. The kind of book where you feel like you've read a lot, only to look down and be only a quarter of the way through, because so much is packed in. It's not a light, breezy read, but is a very compelling one.

I found Clay's journey compelling, while at the same time the story raises plenty of important questions about the intersection of power, people, and the planet. How politics, resources, human rights and multi-national businesses can blend and collide - businesses becoming so large and powerful they can influence governments, the hunger for profit leading to shortcuts so even more money can be made, the true cost or damage caused by such profit creation an inconvenient truth that is ignored, modified or hidden away.

Overall, THE ABRUPT PHYSICS OF DYING is a very good novel, an outstanding debut. Full of fascinating characters and insights, it heralds the arrival of a tremendous new voice who straddles the border between popular thrillers and weighty literature.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I reviewed this book earlier in 2015 for the Herald on Sunday newspaper in New Zealand. This is a much-expanded review, based upon contemporaneous notes and further thoughts on the book. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9mm interview: Jake Needham

Today I welcome to Crime Watch one of the biggest-selling English-language authors in Asia, the man who's been called "Michael Connelly with steamed rice", lawyer turned screenwriter turned crime novelist Jake Needham.

While those in the crime critic world often focus inordinately on books sprouting from Europe and North America, there is plenty of great writing going on around the globe. Two of my favourite 'discoveries' in recent years set their books in their adopted home of Bangkok - John Burdett and Timothy Hallinan - and thanks to a recent recommendation, I'm now adding Needham to that list.

Needham is a Texas lawyer turned writer who's spent the past quarter-century living in Asia, and has sold several hundred thousand copies of his crime novels there, while being rather overlooked in his native United States. He has two main crime series, one starring a world-weary Singapore homicide cop, Inspector Tay, and another centred on legal troubleshooter and 'fixer' Jack Shepherd. Both series have been acclaimed for their atmospheric portrayal of the Asian continent, and Needham's stylish and exciting storytelling.

There's so much more that could be said about Needham, who seems a bit of a fun and rebellious 'do it his own way' iconoclast in the world of publishing, but let's be real - you want to hear it straight from the oxen's mouth, not mine. So here, staring down the barrel of 9mm, is bestselling thriller writer Jake Needham.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH JAKE NEEDHAM

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero, and what is it you love about them?
Michael Dibdin died eight or nine years ago, but he left us with Aurelio Zen, a middle-aged, slightly dour Italian cop with an unforgettable name. What I like most about Zen is his struggle to function as a policeman in a culture that has no regard for law, one in which today’s friends are likely to be tomorrow’s fugitives.

Zen is erratic, occasionally emotional, and always very human. The early books in the series have a lightness to them, but they become progressively darker as the hopelessness of Italy’s future wears Zen down. He becomes an anti-hero adrift in an ocean of corruption and incompetence who every day slips further away from the shore.

A lot of people say Thailand is the Italy of Asia – great food, beautiful women, joyously corrupt, and utterly dysfunctional – so I understand how Zen feels. Sometimes I feel a bit like that myself.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Hardly anyone today knows the name Richard Haliburton, but in the 1930’s Haliburton’s adventures were chronicled in a series of books that were best sellers in America. When I was about six, I found a copy of Haliburton’s Complete Book of Marvels at some relative’s house and I was instantly enthralled.

The book was made up of a series of adventure stories. Haliburton swam the Panama Canal from end to end, slipped into the city of Mecca disguised as a Bedouin, crept into the Taj Mahal in the dead of night, climbed the Great Pyramid of Giza, and dived into the Mayan Well of Death in Mexico. He retraced the expedition of Hernando Cortez to the heart of the Aztec Empire, emulated Ulysses' adventures in the Mediterranean, duplicated Hannibal's crossing of the Alps by elephant, and climbed both the Matterhorn and Mt. Fuji.

I learned from that book that I could go anywhere in the world I really wanted to go and do anything I really wanted to do. It was a magical discovery, and it shaped the rest of my life.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I was a screenwriter. It was entirely accidental, but I was.

I had practiced law for a couple of decades, doing mostly international corporate work, and I found myself involved in a complicated and unpleasant corporate merger. To get the deal closed, I ended up buying a piece of the target company myself that no one else wanted, a very modest little Hollywood production house that was making movies for cable TV in the United States. Since I was stuck with the company, I did my best to make it profitable, and I tried to focus it more tightly on what I thought it could do well. I dashed off an outline of the kind of movie I wanted the company to make and a copy of that outline accidentally got sent to one of the TV networks the company worked with. Several weeks later the development people at the network called up and asked me to write it for them.

‘Write what?’ I asked. The movie you sent us that treatment for, they said.

‘That wasn’t a treatment,’ I said, ‘it was a business plan.’ That’s okay, they said, we want to write it anyway. And that, girls and boys, was how I became a screenwriter.

I wrote screenplays for American television for quite a while after that, but eventually I came to realize how little I actually liked American television. That was when I decided to see if I could figure out how to write novels instead. I guess that’s worked out okay for me.

4. Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
When I was a graduate student in history, my primary interest was the American civil war. I still enjoy visiting the battlefields whenever I can and walking the ground where so many suffered so much. Sometimes when I stand on the same rocks where those men stood a hundred and fifty years ago, I can still hear the guns.

Every now and then I think maybe I’ll give up writing crime novels and write a historical novel set during the civil war. Maybe, but writers like Michael and Jeff Shaara have already done that so brilliantly that I’ll probably never work up the courage to try.

I’ve also got a pretty interesting collection of firearms, both antique and modern, and I’m a fair shot myself. I try to get out on the range at least once a week to stay sharp.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
By hometown, I suppose you mean Bangkok, the city where I’m known for living. So what would I suggest to a visitor to Bangkok? Honestly? I’d suggest they leave as quickly as possible.

Bangkok isn’t an exotic city filled with lovely, smiling people. It’s not even, as most of the world seems to think, a gigantic brothel. It’s… well, pretty much a shithole.

The place is so polluted you can't breathe; it's gridlocked with cars and crazies; hardly anyone speaks English; the police are predators looking for their next victim; it's hotter than hell and the humidity is crushing; half the year the streets are flooded and the other half their full of rabid dogs; and Thai thugs target any foreigner who looks weak or vulnerable.

I can’t understand at all why anyone comes here. I really can’t.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Robert Mitchum. Roger Ebert called Robert Mitchum “the soul of film noir.” How can you beat that? Yeah, I know he's dead, but I will be too by the time this movie gets made.

I actually had a few drinks with Robert Mitchum once back in the 1990's. Well…I had a few, and he had a great many. Mitchum was living in Santa Barbara and we both ended up at a very dull party there. At some point he proposed we split and find a saloon, and I agreed. I don't remember much of what happened after that.

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite, and why?
You must know that asking a writer which of his books is his favorite is exactly like asking a parent which child he prefers, but you’re asking anyway, aren’t you?

Maybe the most diplomatic way out here is to say that I do have a bit of a soft spot for KILLING PLATO, the second book in the Jack Shepherd series, but the reason for that is mostly that it has gotten far less attention than most of my other books have. I really don't know why, my wife even says that KILLING PLATO is her favorite of all my books, but it just never attracted the attention that most of my other titles did.

The premise of the book is that a well-known guy in the United States, a sort of O.J. Simpson figure, is charged with murder and jumps bail before he can be brought to trial. He becomes the world’s most famous fugitive and ignites a media frenzy. With half the world looking for this guy, one night in a little bar in Phuket he walks up to Jack Shepherd and says he wants to hire him. He thinks Shepherd is the man to secure a presidential pardon for him so he can return to America. Shepherd has some really good connections at the White House, so it’s not beyond reason that he could do something like that, particularly when our fugitive tells him what he has to trade for his pardon. And that half the US government is trying to kill him before he makes it public.

It's a damn good book. You ought to read it.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form?
My first novel was THE BIG MANGO and when I finished it about twenty years ago I had pretty reasonable chops as a screenwriter so the manuscript went straight into the hands of one of New York’s really legendary literary agents. He was confident that he would trigger a major bidding war with it, but then he began circulating the manuscript to a few carefully selected editors and…well, nothing. He heard exactly the same thing from every editor and publishing house he showed it to. A novel set in Asia isn’t commercial, they all said. Americans don’t like Asia and they don’t want to read about it.

After six or eight months of that, I’d had enough. So I took the book back and gave it to a small regional publisher in Asia that I knew would like to have it. They were indeed delighted to get it and rushed it into print within a few months.

I honestly don’t remember any having special feeling about that. The fiasco with American publishers had made me unhappy enough with the whole publishing business that I really didn’t much care anymore what happened to the book. But then over the next couple of years this little regional publisher in Asia sold well over 100,000 copies of it in just a handful of countries where almost nobody spoke English. That was when I decided I’d better start taking this novel writing thing seriously.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Some years ago I was asked to share a stage at the Hong Kong Literary Festival with Amitav Ghosh, the Indian novelist much revered by literary types, particularly in the UK. The organizers’ idea was that he and I would discuss the Asian novel from contrasting standpoints: his being the literary view, of course, and mine being the commercial view.

Mr. Ghosh was clearly far less enamored with the whole idea of doing this than were the festival organizers. What’s more, he had obviously never having heard of me or of any of my books, and he wasn’t all that pleased that we were being presented as colleagues of a sort. He clearly didn’t see me as nearly as significant or worthy as he was.

It was an awkward and strained hour, but eventually I had enough of being patted on the head and stopped being polite. I rather forcefully raised the question of how many people actually gave a damn about anointed literary luminaries. The audience loved that…


Thank you Jake, we appreciate you taking the time to chat to Crime Watch

You can find out more about Jake Needham and his stylish Asian crime thrillers here.