Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
The Blind Rooster by Preston land is the 13th title my publishing company Crime Wave Press has released. When con-man Ralph does a runner on the check at a shabby diner in an unfamiliar town, he doesn’t expect it to catch up to him. But the waitress Arlene tracks him down and ropes him into […]
Continue ReadingCambodia: A Journey through the Land of the Khmer has just been published. It’s currently only available in SE Asia but this will change soon. I am told the book will be available on Amazon soon. It’s been a great project to work on with photographer and publisher Kraig Lieb. And it’s the heaviest book […]
Continue Reading“The Plain of Jars, what it’s a symbol of, is how those people on the vague frontiers, those people in the Third World, those people we never see, we never know about, we never hear, can be vaporised, wiped off the face of the earth without people back here even knowing about it.” My obituary […]
Continue ReadingAs my publishing imprint Crime Wave Press has been invited to this year’s Georgetown Literary Festival in Malaysia, literary reviewer Umapagan Ampikaipakan interviews me for The Business Station. The publisher of a Hong Kong based fiction imprint (the company endeavors to publish the best new crime novels, novellas, and short story collections to readers around […]
Continue ReadingCheck out this new short film by photographer Hans Kemp on sak yant, Thailand’s sacred tattoos. Music by Keith Nolan. TIME Magazine Review (Asia Edition) Luck of the Draw By Andrew Marshall Monday, May 23 Read more: time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2071020,00.html#ixzz1MpMZ1QpH The introduction to Sacred Skin, Tom Vater and Aroon Thaewchatturat’s new tribute to Thailand’s sak yant, or […]
Continue Reading“There are plenty of unique, crazy and offbeat characters that fill this novel, and the author has a keen eye for detail. The part of this story that took place in the Blue Parrot is one of my favorites, and is an excellent example of how the author sets a scene that sucks the reader […]
Continue ReadingI just wrote a new article on Thailand’s sacred tattoos in the Nikkei Asian Review. Photographs by Aroon Thaewchatturat.
Continue ReadingKevin S Cummings tracks me down for an exclusive interview on crime fiction, Crime Wave Press and RocknRoll Music. There are certain writers in Thailand that if they were not writers they would make excellent fictional protagonists, because the real-life lives they lead would make for an interesting read. Joe Cummings is one such writer. […]
Continue ReadingTwo friends, Tom Vater and Hans Kemp, recently launched Crime Wave Press, in Hong Kong. Here Tom explains how they began their publishing (ad)venture. “In the summer of 2012, Hans and I were sitting in Bangkok talking about the changing world of publishing and the new challenges facing small independent publishers and writers. We had […]
Continue ReadingSacred Skin – Thailand’s Spirit Tattoos, photographed by Aroon Thaewchatturat, gets a couple new plugs/ reviews. The Apsara Diaries write “The book ‘Scared Skin’ focuses on Thai devotees and the Wai Khru; a once a year gathering of tattooed devotes. The book gives you a clear, in-depth understanding of Yantra and its magic.” Over at […]
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