REVIEW

Review - Cambodia Noir, Nicholas Seeley

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

CAMBODIA NOIR will appeal to readers who like anything from wild west adventure novels, through to classic noir styled lone wolf investigations, set in a country with a difficult recent past, and a fraught present. Because it is a combination of all of those elements, and then some.

Dark and violent, with explicit drug taking and sex, author Nick Seeley has written a book that makes no attempt at all to cushion the blows that his characters, and his readers encounter whilst reading. It's a tough, no apologies tale set in a society that's broken. So broken that life is cheap, money is everything, and the levels of corruption and organised crime are positively breathtaking.

Needless to say, not one for fans of cosies, readers of this book are dragged through the mire along with a protagonist that's as guilty of some horrible behaviour as many of those he encounters. He's also one of those blokes capable of enduring a positively epic level of beatings, sleep deprivation and drug taking. He's also one of those blokes with a moral compass which might swing wildly, but is there, and his desire to find the missing June is as much about finding the girl, as it is about understanding what the hell she and her sister are up to.

Highly recommended if you like your noir on the darkest of dark sides.

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
Author
ISBN
9781501106088
Year of Publication
BLURB

A high-octane thriller with a heart-stopping conclusion about a mysterious American woman who disappears into the Cambodian underworld, and the photojournalist who tracks her through the clues left in her diary.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: The end of the line. Lawless, drug-soaked, forgotten—it’s where bad journalists go to die. For once-great war photographer Will Keller, that’s kind of a mission statement: he spends his days floating from one score to the next, taking any job that pays; his nights are a haze of sex, drugs, booze, and brawling. But Will’s spiral toward oblivion is interrupted by Kara Saito, a beautiful young woman who shows up and begs Will to help find her sister, June, who disappeared during a stint as an intern at the local paper.

There’s a world of bad things June could have gotten mixed up in. The Phnom Penh underworld is in an uproar after a huge drug bust; a local reporter has been murdered in a political hit; and the government and opposition are locked in a standoff that could throw the country into chaos at any moment. Will’s best clue is June’s diary: an unsettling collection of experiences, memories, and dreams, reflecting a young woman at once repelled and fascinated by the chaos of Cambodia. As Will digs deeper into June’s past, he uncovers one disturbing fact after another about the missing girl and her bloody family history. In the end, the most dangerous thing in Cambodia may be June herself.

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