Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
It’s been a blast. Kolkata is an incredible city, packed with history, nostalgia and desire. The 8 week residency gave me the opportunity to write a new series of crime novellas, all set in Kolkata of course, and stretching over a period of 60 years. I also found the time to explore Kolkata at night, […]
Continue ReadingThe golden mind of Tom Vater speaks with an individual voice making his work to stand out from the often formulaic mass of recent detective writing. Tom Vater’s work is not for the faint of heart but is indeed reading time well spent. Read the full review here. Buy a copy of The Man with […]
Continue ReadingMy Indo-European Artitst Residency in Kolkata is wrapping up in a couple of weeks. Destroy Everything Beautiful – a series of photos I took during my meanderings through the city will be exhibited this week at Experimenter Gallery in Ballygunge. I am giving a reading of the crime fiction – 2 novellas and a short […]
Continue ReadingSelecting and preparing images for my first photo exhibition ‘Destroy Everything Beautiful’, at Outpost Experimenter Gallery in Kolkata, complimenting the work of artists Aditi Aggarwal and Sophie Starck. Huge thanks to Max Mueller Bhavan/ Goethe Institut for support and encouragement, particularly Sharmistha Sarker and Frieso Maecker. I am indebted to writer Aurko Maitra without whom […]
Continue ReadingCategorically Well Read have posted a great review of the first Detective Maier novel, The Cambodian Book of the Dead, originally published with Exhibit A in 2013 and now with Crime Wave Press. The story is set in 2001, just as Cambodia is re-emerging from over 50 years of war, genocide, famine, and cultural collapse. […]
Continue ReadingFar too many of you have read the ‘City of Joy’ by Dominique LaPierre. The book has sold more than eight million copies, put Calcutta on the map as both the world’s saddest and happiest place and got rave reviews by the pope. Yes, that dead POPE. Dominique LaPierre continues to come to Calcutta regularly. […]
Continue ReadingI am interviewed by veteran correspondent Richard Ehrlich in his thorough exhumation of all things Patpong and the the opening of the Patpong Museum, which recounts the history of what is perhaps the world’ most notorious red light district in downtown Bangkok and its historical connection to the Vietnam War, in this thorough exhumation of […]
Continue ReadingMy thoughts on travel safety in Cambodia in his Telegraph piece. Behind the paywall, unfortunately. Tom Vater, one of Telegraph’s south-east Asian experts who travels frequently in Cambodia, says the recent boom in investment in Sihanoukville from China has led to the arrival of violent gangs and a rising crime rate. “Since 2018, the Cambodian […]
Continue Reading“Camera traps have been smashed and stolen. We have caught hunting dogs. A logging gang started to build a road through the national park so our team watched them for three days, then stormed the camp and arrested 20 people. The following day, everyone was freed, but at least the road was not built.” Laure […]
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