Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
Categorically 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 ReadingA short essay on politics and crime fiction, published at b for bookreview. A while ago, I had a conversation with an American book reviewer about politics in crime fiction. He felt that overt political messages do not belong in the genre. I felt that covert or subconscious political leanings are part and parcel of […]
Continue ReadingMy most recent post to promote The Monsoon Ghost Image is all about Hunting Humans…. My latest novel, The Monsoon Ghost Image, features a man hunt. One of my villains, Krieger, a German tycoon, lives on an island in the south of Thailand that has been populated with large mammals, some not indigenous to Southeast […]
Continue ReadingThe 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 ReadingFollowing a great review of my latest novel The Monsoon Ghost Image, Colman from Colman’s Criminal Library has taken the time to interview me, and I in return, have taken the time to ramble incessantly about my self and my work, to the point where it’s almost indecent. Here’s a taster…. From what I little […]
Continue ReadingCol’s Criminal Library posted a fantastic review of The Monsoon Ghost Image today. Late to the party as usual with my first taste of Tom Vater’s Detective Maier series in what may prove to be his final outing. Tense, violent, brutal, gripping, stunning and a savage indictment on how America conducts itself overseas in a […]
Continue ReadingI 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 Reading“I’d read anything written by Tom Vater — his mind works in strange and mysterious ways, a quality I genuinely appreciate in the crime fiction universe” Latest, very kind review of The Monsoon Ghost Image by Nancy O at Crime Segments. My first experience with this small indie press was, coincidentally, a book by the […]
Continue ReadingI was interviewed by New York Times best selling author Debbie Mack the other day about my latest novel, The Monsoon Ghost Image, my publishing house Crime Wave Press and the eternal Travis McGee. Debbi: [00:01:03] So my assumption is that you started with journalism and went into crime writing. Would that be correct? Tom: […]
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