Propulsive, entertaining and slightly psychotic, Cambodia Noir is an enticing blend of politics, drugs and mayhem. This ambitious first thriller from Nick Seeley, a journalist who spent a decade in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, is not for the faint of heart.
As the story begins, nearly vagrant newspaper photographer Will Keller is living in a drug- and drink-induced haze in Phnom Penh when a strange woman approaches him, asking him to help find her missing sister, June.
Will is surprised to learn that June was an intern at the same newspaper he works for, but given the pervasive lawlessness throughout Cambodia, and the rather staggering amount of drugs most of the newspaper staff are ingesting, no one noticed anything unusual about June being missing for a few weeks.
Complicating matters is a recent record-breaking drug bust, in which many high-ranking military officials were arrested. The parliamentary government is in a standoff, and June may have gotten tangled up in news stories that were well beyond her purview. With only June's inchoate journal as guide, Keller sets out to trace her whereabouts.
Cambodia Noir is a fast-paced, surreal journey through an out-of-control nation. Will must outsmart corrupt officials, scared co-workers, murderous thugs and his own hallucinations in order to get to the truth of June's disappearance. And given the violent, dizzying nature of Will's trip, readers are sure to be glad that they're visiting this setting merely via novel. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm