Angkor Tears

by Steven W. Palmer

Cambodia, a country with so many shadows in its past. Now, there are new shadows. A killer is on the loose, and he's leaving no clues. It's enough to draw journalist Dave Bell back to Cambodia after a plea from an old friend. Bell puts together an unlikely team of allies. Together they begin to unravel the terrifying mystery. But can they find the truth lurking in the shadows, and stop the monster from killing again? this book contains adult content and is not suitable for readers under the age of 18.

282 pages, Hardcover

Published March 8, 2023

Reviews

[Roy Baht · Rating 1 out of 5]

Burma has George Orwell. Vietnam has Graham Greene. Cambodia has no such literary luminary. And now, to add insult to injury, Cambodia has "Steven W. Palmer". This leads to an obvious question: Hasn't Cambodia suffered enough? Contrived and predictable, the story is the same old story. People in a Third World country have a problem and an Englishman steps in to sort it out. Someone is killing children in Cambodia and it is up to English journalist Dave Bell to shoulder the white man's burden. He does so without a single line of interesting dialogue or an original thought. This book is Orientalist clichés and stereotypes all the way down. Predictably, the only fleshed out character here is the Great White Knight himself; the locals remain ciphers, cardboard cut outs with the occasional cultural marker. Books like these (and there are too many of them) are as formulaic as the Harlequin Romance series. And as with those supermarket paperbacks, the ending here is no surprise. This leads us to the real mystery of this book: who is "Steven W. Palmer" and why is he doing this to us? Is there some sweatshop in the jungles of southeast Asia which produces this pablum? Whether "Steven W. Palmer" represents a person or persons or a computer program, remains a mystery – a mystery which, like most mysteries, is better than the one in this book. Of course, regardless of "Steven W. Palmer"'s identity, one thing is certain. He is not a very good writer.

[Andrew Tattersall]

Having read a number of 'Cambodia noir' over the last couple of year this gets the highest marks for being believable and the accuracy of the setting. Mr Palmer is also one of the better writers setting their works in the country. Reading in one go whilst travelling to the UK from Ccambodia it made the lengthy flight pass quicker. I would recommend this series to anyone interested in noir eset in South East Asia.

[Klaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven W. Palmer takes you on a voyage to the terrifying underbelly of child trafficking and abuse in Cambodia wrapped in a compelling tale. While this story is fiction it sadly mirrors reality. A must read for anybody still having a heart and soul.