Past Masters
Spotted a couple of books of mine in a second hand shop in Banglamphu, Bangkok, the other day. My first nonfiction Beyond the Pancake Trench (2004) and my second novel The Cambodian Book of the Dead (2013).
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The Monsoon Ghost Image is 99cents!
The Monsoon Ghost Image, the third installment of the Detective Maier series, published by Crime Wave Press, is on a virtual book tour this week. And an ebook copy is yours for just 99cents. The third Detective Maier mystery is a taut and crazy spy thriller for our disturbing times. When award-winning German conflict photographer […]
Continue ReadingInterviewed at Rainne’s Ramblings
I am interviewed at Rainne’s Ramblings this week about my brand new novel The Monsoon Ghost Image, the Detective Maier Mystery series and about how I became a writer. Here’s a taster: How did your journey as a writer begin? I was living in a cheap room in a cheap guest house on Freak Street […]
Continue ReadingFirst Amazon review of The Monsoon Ghost Image
Fellow author Janet Brown has posted a fantastic and very thorough review of The Monsoon Ghost Image on Amazon. E book copies are US$3.99 at the moment. It’s not easy to find a true noir detective in fiction these days, probably because as the German gumshoe Maier decides in The Monsoon Ghost Image, “Why solve […]
Continue ReadingThe Crime Fiction of Phnom Penh @ Crime Reads
Patrick French reports on Drifters, Conspirators, and Noir in Cambodia’s Capital City for Crime Reads and writes… “Hard-boiled and noir is pretty much the only option on the menu when it comes to Phnom Penh crime writing. Tom Vater, a Bangkok-based writer and publisher, wrote The Cambodian Book of the Dead (2013) which sees German […]
Continue ReadingMeet The Off The Beaten Path Explorer: Tom Vater
Today’s interview is with a very special friend of the Where Sidewalks End community. It is my honour to introduce to you Mr Tom Vater. Tom is a published author, a long time journalist in the field, co-owner of a publishing house “Crime Wave Press”, and a long time explorer of the world, with a […]
Continue ReadingVang Vieng, Laos: From party capital to eco-adventure paradise on CNN Travel
Sitting on the banks of the Song River, the rural town might seem serene now. But Vang Vieng has seen a tumultuous 15 years, evolving from an agricultural community to a hedonistic party capital when it was “discovered” by Western shoestring travelers in the late 1990s. Excessive drinking, drugs, trash, concrete construction and fatal accidents […]
Continue ReadingVang Vieng Boutique Riverside in The Daily Telegraph
Set on the banks of the Song River and facing spectacular limestone mountain ridges, Vang Vieng’s swankiest hotel resort offers a winning combination of Laotian culture and French colonial era ambience, with fantastic service, excellent facilities, great tours and a good restaurant… I am just back from Laos, where I was researching articles for the […]
Continue ReadingCircus shows temple tourists another side of Cambodia in The Nikkei Asian Review
Circus shows temple tourists another side of Cambodia – Creative training offers an alternative lifestyle for young performers SIEM REAP, Cambodia — It is a stiflingly hot Friday evening in Siem Reap, western Cambodia. The big top is packed, and there is an air of excitement as 300 or so spectators squeeze onto narrow wooden […]
Continue ReadingBangkok’s ‘motorcycle mamas’ roar into men’s world – in the Nikkei Asian Review
My latest article with Laure Siegel in the Nikkei Asian Review looks at how women enter the motorcycle taxi workforce in Bangkok, a traditionally male bastion. With fewer and fewer job opportunities for unskilled Thai women, riding a motorcycle taxi remains one profession that promises a degree of independence and freedom. Read Bangkok’s ‘motorcycle mamas’ […]
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