“Tom Vater is apparently well-travelled and his picture of Cambodia is as compelling as it is scary. The country is poor and civic institutions ill-organised and riddled with corruption: life is cheap, and everything is for sale. Even the roads are lethal, driving licences apparently unknown and traffic rules non-existent or ignored. And close to the surface is the consciousness of that period when power fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge, when a quarter of the population, primarily the best-educated, were eliminated, and life became a living hell for most of the rest. Vater conveys the sense of fragility of life in such circumstances and certainly provides an invigorating backdrop to the tale.”
Read the full review by Chris Roberts at Crime Review here.