Death in the Rainy Season by Anna Jaquiery

First Line: The moment he turned down the alley, the dog started barking.

Commandant Serge Morel was enjoying his vacation in Cambodia until the head of a humanitarian organization is brutally murdered and he's called to Phnom Penh to work with the Cambodian police to solve the crime. The victim is French and well-connected, so it does Morel the French policeman no good to protest.

He finds the investigation hampered by the murder having occurred in a country with few forensic resources and his being teamed with a local police detective who clearly doesn't want to be there. But what hinders the investigation most of all is the dead man himself. What was he doing in a hotel under an assumed name? Do land grabs have anything to do with his death? Who broke into his home on the night of the murder? As the rain continues to pour down from the sky, Morel has to slog his way to the answers that will solve this crime.

I had some problems when I read the first Commandant Morel mystery, The Lying Down Room, but I'm happy to say that this second book didn't have them. Well, her, to be precise. I strongly disliked the character of Lila Markov, so I was thrilled that she stayed behind in Paris. With Miss High and Mighty out of the way, I could settle down to enjoy the book.

I liked the depiction of Phnom Penh during its monsoon season, and I learned a bit about the Khmer Rouge as I tried to solve the mystery. Morel, in the homeland of his deceased mother, is much more relaxed here and doesn't resort to his hobby of origami nearly as often as he did in the first book.

In Death in the Rainy Season, the whodunit is rather easy to solve. At least it was for me. It's the eternal "Why?" that kept my little grey cells confused. All in all, the setting and the mystery are strong reasons to read this second Morel book. I wonder if there will be a third?

Death in the Rainy Season by Anna Jaquiery

ISBN: 9781447244493

Pan Books © 2016

Paperback, 344 pages

Police Procedural, #2 Commandant Morel mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Book Outlet. 

Impact by Douglas Preston

First Line: The trick would be to slip in the side door and get the box up the back stairs without making a sound.


Two young women borrow a boat and head off into the islands off the Maine coast to find the impact crater of a meteor. Wyman Ford has been given a secret assignment to locate the source of some very mysterious and otherworldly gemstones in Cambodia. A scientist at the National Propulsion Facility, working from information given to him by a colleague, has discovered an unnatural feature hidden in the depths of a crater on Mars. This feature seems to have been activated, and the clock is ticking.

I have come to rely on Douglas Preston for thrillers that pique my imagination, and he's done it again with Impact. Preston has teamed Ford with a beguiling amateur who's incredibly short on experience and extremely gifted with intuition and flying by the seat of her pants. It's just the right mix as the two work to find out what's happening on Earth and just how Mars is involved. The only small blight on an otherwise bright reading experience for me was the ending. Preston opted for an optimistic ending, but the cynic in me didn't feel that it would hold up to any sort of scrutiny. However, I do love reading his thrillers!

Impact by Douglas Preston

eISBN: 9781429967846

Forge Books © 2009

eBook, 380 pages

Thriller, #3 Wyman Ford 

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased as an eBook from Amazon.

Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree by Shamini Flint

First Line: My feet sink into the mud as if it is quicksand.

Inspector Singh's superiors have sent him to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal. As far as he's concerned, he'd much rather be home in Singapore. Then a key witness at the tribunal is murdered, and Colonel Menhay of the Cambodian Police asks Singh to be assigned to the investigation. It doesn't take long for the portly inspector to realize that the roots of this homicide reach all the way back to the horrors of the Cambodian killing fields.

I have enjoyed each book in this series for the character of Inspector Singh and for the depiction of areas in Southeast Asia that I probably will never see. A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree contains what I've learned to love about Shamini Flint's writing and then proceeds to take it to an even higher level.

It was Singh's life mission to tramp after the murderers in his snowy white sneakers, following the evidence and his instincts, ignoring the advice and warnings of his superiors, stopping only for regular meals, cold beer and the  odd afternoon nap, until he had ensured some justice for the dead.

Inspector Singh is his usual irascible self-- a man who loves his work, a man who appreciates time away from his ill-tempered wife, a man who manages to put up with his superior officers. In the eyes of those "superiors," policing is all about appearances, and the turbaned, overweight, chain-smoking, white sneaker-wearing inspector just does not fit their idea of what the police force in Singapore should look like. The only reason they don't get rid of him is because his success rate is so high. So they let him solve murders and hope as many of them as possible occur somewhere far away.

He remained a policeman under sufferance, his bosses always looking for an excuse to get rid of him. He suspected that deep down they feared someone whom they could not control, who valued a victim's right to justice more than the rules and regulations of the Force.

Part of the delight of reading these books is in seeing how Singh can circumvent the rules and regulations his superiors are trying to impose. He doesn't take shortcuts in interviewing witnesses or suspects, or in collecting evidence. He's just learned the best ways to avoid all those silly "for appearance's sake" rules.

What brings this book to an even higher level is its setting. Shamini Flint brings Cambodia's tragic history into sharp focus without being graphic about it. In imposing a radical form of agrarian socialism on his people, Pol Pot, his policies, and his henchmen were responsible for the murder of 25% (at least two million) of his country's people. Cambodians could be killed for wearing glasses or for being seen reading a book or for speaking a foreign language. By having Singh bear witness to the testimonies of those who survived at this international war tribunal, readers experience a tiny bit of the horror of the killing fields.

Once he's an official part of the murder investigation and helping Colonel Menhay, Inspector Singh learns that vengeance runs deep in Cambodian society. There are several suspects for this murder, but the truly mind-boggling part is in putting facts and supposition together in order to discover the true identity of each suspect, each person's motivation, and-- since the body count does rise-- exactly which suspect is responsible for the death of each victim. And always in the background is the serial killer who roams the countryside murdering former members of the Khmer Rouge.

If the phone had rung or if someone had knocked on the door while I was reading A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree, I would have ignored them. I was totally engrossed in this story, and I had to see how Singh and Menhay solved the case. In the end, I learned that my involvement led to my ignoring Flint's subtly planted clues. The identity of one of the murderers shocked me-- and that was the icing on the cake. One of my favorite characters, an emotionally charged setting which both taught and entertained, and a truly puzzling case.  I highly recommend this book-- and the entire series.

A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree by Shamini Flint

ISBN:  9780749953478

Piatkus Books © 2011

Paperback, 320 pages

Police Procedural, #4 Inspector Singh mystery

Rating: A

Source: the author 

Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett

Title: Bangkok Haunts
Author: John Burdett
ISBN: 978-0-593-05544-1, Bantam Press, 2007
Genre: Police Procedural, #3 Sonchai Jitpleecheep mystery
Rating: C

First Line: Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species.

To read John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep mysteries is to immerse yourself in the culture and mindset of Thailand. Westerners are not always understood or appreciated there, but if you're thick-skinned enough to withstand a bit of cultural bashing, you will be paid back in some marvelous reading.

Sonchai is a police detective in Bangkok. Now living happily with Chanya, a former prostitute who's pregnant with his child, Sonchai at one time had had a passionate affair with a Cambodian beauty named Damrong. When he comes across a copy of a snuff film in which Damrong is murdered, he joins with American FBI agent Kimberley Jones to find the killer. While Sonchai's superior, Colonel Vikorn, has his detective set up a porn film business, the list of suspects in Damrong's murder grows to include a banker, a teacher, a Buddhist, and an exclusive men's club called the Parthenon.

Once again-- as with the previous two books in the series-- I was immersed in the culture of Thailand, which is fascinating and so different from my own. I have to admit that one of the reasons why I enjoy these books so much is because I have the chance to see my own culture through the eyes of others.

I enjoyed the convoluted plot, the further machinations of the wily Colonel Vikorn, and the glimpse across the border into Cambodia. Ultimately, however, the book fell flat for me because of the murder victim, Damrong. I felt only great indifference toward her, which really dampened my enjoyment of the book.

Although this book wasn't exactly my cup of tea, your mileage could definitely vary-- and the first two books in the series, Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo are both superb. The fourth book in the series, The Godfather of Kathmandu, will be released in January, 2010, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

There are many mystery series based in other countries. Usually the setting only serves to provide a whiff of the exotic, without nudging the reader fully into another culture. John Burdett's Thailand not only provides an exotic setting, the reader is dragged out of his comfortable chair and out into the streets of Bangkok-- out into a world where the people have different customs, a different religion, and an entirely different way of seeing the world. John Burdett takes the reader out of his comfort zone and makes him think about more than just whodunit, and I like that.

[Source: Paperback Swap.]