Ghost Money

by Andrew Nette

Cambodia, 1996, the long-running Khmer Rouge insurgency is fragmenting, competing factions of the unstable government scrambling to gain the upper hand. Missing in the chaos is businessmen Charles Avery. Hired to find him is Vietnamese Australian ex-cop Max Quinlan. But Avery has made dangerous enemies and Quinlan is not the only one looking. Teaming up with a Cambodian journalist, Quinlan's search takes him from the freewheeling capital Phnom Penh to the battle scarred western borderlands. As the political temperature soars, he is slowly drawn into a mystery that plunges him into the heart of Cambodia's bloody past.

Ghost Money is a crime novel, but it's also about Cambodia in the mid-nineties, a broken country, what happens to those trapped between two periods of history, the choices they make, what they do to survive.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction

243 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2012

About the author

Andrew Nette is an award winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, pulp scholar, bibliophile, noir aficionado.

He is the author of three novels, Ghost Money, a crime story set in Cambodia in the mid 1990, Gunshine State and Orphan Road. His short fiction has appeared in a number of print and online publications, including Phnom Penh Noir and The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir , which won the prestigious Anthony Award in the US for best crime anthology in 2018.

He is co-editor of three books on the history of midcentury pulp and paperback publishing for PM Press, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980, Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1956 to 1980, and Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1980. Dangerous Visions and New Worlds won the 2022 Aurealis Convenors Award for Excellence and the Locus Magazine award for non-fiction, and was been nominated for a Hugo award for non-fiction.

His scholarly works are Rollerball (Liverpool University Press, 2018), a monograph about Norman Jewison’s 1975 dystopian classic, and Horwitz Publications, Pulp Fiction and the Rise of Australian Paperback (Anthem Press, 2022).

His latest non-fiction book, co-edited with New York critic Samm Deighan, is Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema, from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960-1990 .

He writes a regular newsletter under his name on Substack.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Nette is Australia’s answer to David Corbett - GHOST MONEY comprises the same deep and richly detailed foreign landscape encrusted in local mannerisms, religion, and occupation as Corbett’s BLOOD OF PARADISE.

The plot centralises around Quinlan, a Melbourne cop turned PI and his search for the elusive Charles Avery. Hired by Avery’s sister, Quinlan follows a trail of blood through Cambodia in search of his quarry.

GHOST MONEY is not your run of the mill PI novel. Nette provides the reader with an interesting game and cat and mouse that's noir with a subtle nod towards literature. Highlighting the political state, grinding poverty, and socioeconomic landscape coupled with the history associated with the Khmer Rouge, establishes a true sense of struggle and identity. The peripheral two dimensional 'extras in the background' going about their daily lives feel real and with purpose, not merely serving as obstacles or obstructions for Quinlan in his pursuit of Avery. Everything adds to the story.

The place-setting is much a character as protagonist PI Quinlan, changing the character’s perception, demeanor and level of influence with via a change of soil. Along the way author Andrew Nette introduces many memorable characters to accompany or hinder Quinlan; none more-so than Sarin, a local interpreter turned fast friend.

The action does at time, lend itself to Jame Bond in an ode to the spy pulps of yesteryear yet it is entirely justifiable. The dialogue and plot are smart; the detail a devil - GHOST MONEY is all consuming and utterly essential for fans wanting more smarts to their noir.

Andrew Nette is on to a winner in Quinlan, a PI who doesn't conform to the stereotype. His background, emotional depth and way of getting into the private gig separates him from the others. I sure hope to see more of Quinlan, one cant help but think his story is just getting started. 5 stars.

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[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawing on his experience as a journalist in the 1990′s in South East Asia, Nette succeeds in constructing a highly readable thriller against the backdrop of a country, in this instance Cambodia, in its recovery from one of the most heinous periods of world history. Into this melting pot, comes Max Quinlan, a half Vietnamese, half Australian besmirched ex-cop, on the trail of a missing Australian businessman, Charles Avery, whose sister has comissioned Max to track down her errant brother. On his arrival in Bangkok, a city that bore witness to the end of Max’s police career- Quinlan discovers Avery’s business partner murdered and no sign of the shady gem-dealing shyster that is Charles Avery. Through his less than reputable contacts Quinlan gets wind of Avery hightailing it to Cambodia, and enlisting the help of an ambitious Australian reporter, and his Cambodian translator, Sarin, Quinlan enters a world defined by the socio-political upheaval of its past and into the path of some extrememly mercenary and pretty unpleasant characters as he seeks to discover the whereabouts of the elusive Avery…

I think most of us are familiar with the bloody events that have defined Cambodia’s history through films such as ‘The Killing Fields’ , but throughout the course of this book I learnt a great deal more about the former pervasive grip of the Khmer Rouge, and a country struggling for reunification and peace, after the well documented genocide and the lingering existence of hardline Khmer Rouge foot soldiers. The book is filled with information regarding Cambodia’s years of turmoil which, when being narrated through the experiences of the Cambodian protagonists, is very powerful indeed. Through the character of Sarin and his sister in particular, we gain a huge insight into the tearing apart of Cambodian society and the familial loss that so many citizens encountered, as the era of persecution set in. Nette also effectively references the efforts made to gather all the documentation and first hand accounts of the atrocities as a lasting testament to the evil that men do in their grasp for power. One of the small criticisms, I have of the book, and perhaps this is influenced by Nette’s journalistic background, is that sometimes there is just too much ‘non-fictional’ input, that for me at times, did interupt the natural flow of the story. However, generally I think the strength of the writing resided in Nette’s ability to conjur up the sense of location and atmosphere that formed the backdrop for the thrust of the story. Nette neatly constructs powerful tableaus to the reader from the grubby world of the seedy ex-patriates, to a no holds barred boxing match, to the relentless grind and poverty of rural Cambodia. His grasp of description adds strength to the assured central plotting so as a reader you really get a sense of the atmosphere and landscape of the region, especially the jungle terrain and rural outposts controlled by the remaining factions of the Khmer Rouge. In the character of Quinlan and his mixed heritage, Nette also gets the chance to sidestep into the world of Vietnam, and how Quinlan’s upbringing in Australia and the natural suspicion of the Cambodians to his half Vietnamese background, has influenced and defined his life and people’s reactions to him. Throughout the book Quinlan is depicted as a tough and resilient man, but imbued with a sense of morality that lays him bare in his defence of others. I enjoyed the gradual trusting relationship that developed across cultural boundaries between him and Cambodian translator Sarin, and thought this realistically portrayed.

The overall plotting was good and the story, with the intermittent hiatus into Cambodian history, was very engaging for the reader, as Quinlan comes up against and takes on, some very sinister and violent individuals in his search for Avery. The plot does veer off a little at the end into an almost Indiana Jones quest, and I found the ending a tad abrupt, but neither of these minor criticisms was enough for me to leave the book with a feeling of disatisfaction when viewed in the light of the strength of what had gone before. I would definitely recommend this thriller to other readers and on this showing, Nette is an author that I would happily seek out again and another welcome addition to the Australian crime stable.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Start out reading GHOST MONEY and you're quickly immersed in a tight, tough, noir story set mostly in Cambodia. But don't be surprised if at some point, you also find yourself right smack bang in the middle of a history lesson and a subtle exploration of racial politics.

Knowing a little of Nette's interest in pulp fiction, I confess that the taut, noir stylings of GHOST MONEY didn't come as any surprise whatsoever, so for this reader, what was most rewarding about the book was the unexpected complexity of the central character, Max Quinlan. As well as one hell of a plot that just does ... not ... let ... go.

In a testament to the power of the storytelling there's something very matter-of-fact about the son of a Vietnamese woman and an Australian Vietnam vet as an ex-cop, a specialist in finding people who would rather stay lost. It also seems to go without saying that Quinlan, despite his lack of extensive PI experience, and his own misgivings, would find himself in SE Asia looking for the once successful Melbourne lawyer Charles Avery. Who is now a missing, dodgy gems trader whose sister wants to know what happened to her brother. It doesn't come as any surprise at all that Quinlan would follow the clues to post Khmer Rouge Cambodia and right smack bang into the madness of a country still recovering from the extremes of that regime.

What's also frighteningly matter-of-fact and at the same time very revealing, is the nature of the world in which Quinlan moves. The tension between Cambodian and Vietnamese, the vulnerability of people in a society that's been so brutalised, the casual way in which life is regarded as dispensable, and the greed and self-interest. Quinlan survives because of his own background, because he can read people, because he can see things and people for exactly what they are. And because he's careful about who he allows to get close.

It's one thing to know the theoretical history of a place, it's another completely to see the outcomes from within, to experience the result from the point of view of a direct observer or participant. That is part of what's so clever about GHOST MONEY. In the character of Quinlan, Nette has created a very realistic dichotomy. A man with an Asian look, yet his knowledge of his Vietnamese mother is non-existent. Australian raised, by a man who was profoundly damaged. Thai speaking, but looking enough Vietnamese to be regarded as suspicious by the Cambodians, there's so much about this man that demonstrates perfectly the complexities of the Vietnamese / Cambodian / Australian experience. Pairing him with Sarin, a Cambodian who has had direct and devastating experience of the Khmer Rouge, who remains in his damaged and difficult country, desperately trying to find a way to continue to survive, he's realistic and considered. He's all too aware of the difference between the reality and western perception of Cambodia, he's not an observer, he is the experience.

Great characters are one thing, but stick them into a plot that is not just realistic, but tight and fast moving, and frankly, nerve-racking, and something else starts to happen. Again, there was something so matter-of-fact about the lows that people will sink too when it comes to greed and self-interest, the way that loyalties shift and personal gain remains paramount that was chilling, especially when you match that up with the extreme violence of whatever it takes to win attitudes. Fingers crossed GHOST MONEY is the start of a new series.

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[Timothy Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most accounts of the war in Cambodia treat it as a cola to the Vietnam conflict( but it’s central to this kindle book). There were similarities jungle-based communist guerrillas fighting against a government backed by western powers. The differences came to light once the rebels took power: in Vietnam, the war could be sold as one of reunification with the south to the north. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas had nothing to restrain them. They spent two destructive years emptying out Cambodia’s cities trying to turn the country into a peasant state. What resulted was one of the worst genocides in history. It only came to an end when Vietnam invaded from the east and installed their own puppet government.

Ghost Money by Australian crime writer Anderew Nette takes place during the late 90′s in Cambodia. Max Quinlan, an ex-cop turned people finder, travels to Thailand looking for the estranged brother of a wealthy Australian woman. His quarry, Charles Avery, had raised a lot of cash from his friends to finance a gem mining operation on the Thai-Cambodian border. He’s disappeared and the sister wants to know what happened to him.

Max is a very interesting figure: he’s Eurasian the product of a liaison between an Australian soldier and a Vietnamese woman in the 60′s. Although he physically favors his mother, Max has grown-up entirely westernized and has little knowledge of anything Asian As a cop, he was valued for his physical appearance which helped in raiding Asian drug cartels in Australia. But Max quit the force and went private when his obsession with an anti-drug enforcement task in Thailand resulted in the death of a friend.

Max soon finds himself in Cambodia, still on the trail of Avery. His objective has been mixed-up with western mercenaries and local gangsters. To make things complicated, the book takes place before the death of the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, right as the new government in is trying to amnesty the last few remaining guerrillas in the jungle.

Max has a tendency to push for answers, even if he lacks much of a hand to play. Coming along to help him is his interpreter Heng Sarin, who has memories of his own from the death camps. Along the way we learn about the tragic, recent history of Cambodia. It isn’t very pretty, but it makes for a compelling story.

I won’t reveal much about the ending to this book, but it makes the entire read worthwhile. Ghost Money takes a bit to get going, but the novel becomes hard to put down after the first few chapters.

[L.E. Truscott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because it is written by someone who lives in the same town as me...but I just couldn't. Ghost Money is ostensibly the story of a private detective searching for a missing Australian businessman in Cambodia but so much of it feels like a history lecture (and I do mean lecture) that I often forgot that we were supposed to be on the lookout for a missing person.

I'm not sure if it was a terrible ebook conversion or just poor editing but the book was littered with spelling errors and missing words, so much so that I started to wonder if it had actually been written by someone for whom English wasn't their first language and had then been lumped with the worst copyeditor in the world.

On my feminist pedestal for a moment: there are absolutely no complex female characters in this book.

Off my feminist pedestal now: I don't think there were any truly complex characters in this book. I didn't particularly like the main character - he seemed like a stereotype and a whiner - and by the end I was kind of hoping he would die. But, of course, at every opportunity the villains had to kill him, he miraculously and implausibly would be set free to continue with the story.

Perhaps the only redeeming feature for me was that the mythical treasure they were all searching for by the end of the book - missing person storyline was over and done with - didn't end up in the hands of any of the unworthy characters in the book.

If you have a special interest in Cambodian or Asian history, perhaps this might interest you, but if you're just looking for a good action/adventure/thriller/mystery etc, there's plenty of other books I'd recommend before Ghost Money.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Nette spent a number of years in Cambodia as a journalist in the 1990s and it shows. The real strength of Ghost Money is the sense of place and historical contextualisation. Nette drops the reader into the landscape, culture and politics of the country, without it dominating the story, and one gets a real sense of what ordinary people have been through during various regimes and the unsettled legacy they now find themselves in. And he does a good job at detailing how an outsider such as Quinlan negotiates this complex terrain. The story itself is a relatively standard search for a missing person who doesn’t want to be found and has got themselves into a situation they can’t handle. The plot unfolds with some twists and turns as Quinlan homes in on his target, despite the various threats and warnings given to him. There were a couple of things that didn’t seem to quite sit right, however. The first was Quinlan’s naivety - he was an experienced ex-cop, yet he wanders into really dangerous situations with no real forethought. The second was motivation - I couldn’t understand why Quinlan was willing to risk his life to find Avery, a man he has no connection to or affinity with other than he was hired to do the job, and why he didn’t just walk away. In general, the characterisation is fine, though Quinlan and the other central actors were somewhat skin deep, their back story substituting for personality and character at times. Other than those quibbles, the story rattles along as a real page-turner. Overall, an entertaining and informative story that gives a real sense of Cambodia in the mid-1990s.

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

A private investigator of Australian-Vietnamese heritage is hired to find a wealthy Australian woman's missing brother last sighted in Bangkok.
He arrives in Thailand only to find a dead man in the hotel room of the man he's been hired to find.
From personal items he uncovers in the room he determines that the missing man has fled to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

This novel is set amid the chaos of the post-Khmer Rouge regime in 1996 -twenty years after the Cambodian civil war. Fully armed units of the Khmer Rouge Army are still assembled throughout the mountains of western Cambodia at this time, operating from bases in Thailand and maintaining organized resistance against the government.
Foreign mercenaries, various countries' secret agents, home-grown insurgents, foreign newspaper reporters and villains of every stripe abound.

Andrew Nette has done an outstanding job researching the history of Southeast Asia.
Unless they've seen the harrowing film THE KILLING FIELDS, most Americans are ignorant of the events that transpired following our disastrous incursion into Cambodia near the end of our war in Vietnam.
Part of what drives this novel is the wealth of information provided on the rarely discussed events in the decades following our wars in Vietnam and Cambodia and the resonating devastation that fell on the people of the region..
The author has set up the usual P. I. missing persons case featuring intermittent violence and brutality in an exotic and dangerous locale during an almost forgotten era.
The main character's ethnicity and the historic context make this a unique and intriguing read.

Recommended.

[Jason Beech · Rating 4 out of 5]

What starts as a regular private eye tale, beginning with the discovery of a body, turns into quite a profound thriller. The protagonist is half white Australian, half Vietnamese, and though he is sometimes torn between the cultures, he’s entirely comfortable identifying as just himself.
He’s on the hunt for a fellow-Australian, Charles Avery, in Cambodia, whose sister hires Quinlan to find him. He’s quickly mired in Cambodian politics, the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, and a host of gangsters who have sniffed a horde of gold in the mountains. Is it myth, or real?
Quinlan’s a sympathetic character. He carries issues around with him, but he’s all can-do in his attitude. Not averse to putting himself in danger for the reward of gold, but also vulnerable to stress caused by death threats and beatings. You don’t always like him, but you’re interested in following him. Right to the end, tension squeezes your belly wondering if he’ll survive the race for lost treasure.
A cracking read, with an interesting end.

[Maree Overall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ghost Money was selected by our book club and was an immensely enjoyable. It generated wide ranging discussion and plot kept me turning the pages way after I should have turned the light out. Great sense of being there and it invoked clear images and even smells of location and time. The crime setting was a terrific vehicle to draw out the political history and the ongoing impact of the Khmer Rouge. The character of Quinlan was a clever way to introduce the tension between Vietnamese and Cambodians, a history lesson that we all appreciated. Small snippets of Quinlan's experience of growing up in Melbourne also sparked discussion of our own cultural tensions. Definitely one of our best selections.

[Robert Peck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Nette created an original, but bloody, story. Enjoyed it. The cruise through Southeast Asia made the context interesting.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit, I don’t know much about Cambodia or the Khmer Rouge – and therefore Andrew Nette’s debut novel, Ghost Money was a real eye opener for me. It works on many levels – as a history lesson (all the best novels teach you stuff you don’t know), a detective thriller, and a deep explorative character study. Furthermore it is dripping with atmosphere. I know that sounds like a cliché, but I can’t think of a better way to describe the heat, humidity, and smell of South East Asia. While I have to use cliche’s, Nette doesn’t. He lived in Phnom Penh for a few years, and would appear to know the city well, and paints a extremely evocative picture.

The story concerns an ex-cop named Max Quinlan who now works as a detective, tracking down missing persons. In this instance, his case is to track down an Australian businessman named Charles Avery who has disappeared while in the midst of a shady gem stone deal.

As the tale begins, Quinlan, while searching Avery’s hotel apartment in Bangkok, finds the delinquent Australian’s business partner dead. Quinlan suspects Avery of the deed, and clues point to him fleeing to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Quinlan follows the trail, but what he finds is quite a bit more than he bargained for. A normal detective would have cut their losses and returned home safely, but not Quinlan. He is driven by his own demons, and has to see the case through to the end, no matter where it takes him.

At a quick glance, Ghost Money may seem like a stereotypical detective thriller. Anyone who has read Chandler, Spillane, or Corris (as an Australian reference) will recognise the frame work of this story – a missing person case. But that is where the comparison ends. Quinlan doesn’t spout wisecracks. He doesn’t drink. And furthermore comes of second best in every physical encounter (okay he does come out on top once, but only because his opponent falls foul of his own evil scheme – to say more would constitute a spoiler). So while the framework may be familiar to readers of crime fiction, the characters certainly are not. And that is important, as it is the characters who drive the story. Quinlan has his share of back story. He is not a man who arrives on the page, already a hero (that is if you’d call him that). He has flaws and skeletons in his closet. At the end of the book, he is a very different character to the man who started

Once the story kicks into high gear, Quinlan is partnered with a Cambodian named Sarin, who is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, and now works as a translator for a local reporter named Gillies. While Quinlan is the driving force in the story, Sarin is its heart. Cambodia is his country, and the events, and changing political climate, are the things he will have to live with, once the story is over – coupling that with his brutal backstory, and a man emerges who is strong, resourceful and resilient – and if one has to call one of the characters a hero, then Sarin is more deserving of the title.

The wash-up is, Ghost Money is a noirish detective story, the likes of which you’ve never read before. As I said at the top, the framework is something very familiar, but the trip itself is a wild roller-coaster ride that will take you places you’ve never been and teach you things about the world that you were never taught – all of this in a package that’s damnably readable, and thoroughly entertaining.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early last year I read and very much enjoyed Hard Labour, an anthology of crime writing by Australian authors. After that review, the editor, Andrew Nette, asked if I would be willing to read Ghost Money, which I believe is his first full length published novel.

Introducing ex-cop turned private investigator Max Quinlan on the trail of missing Australian businessman, Charles Avery, Ghost Money is a gritty detective novel set in the late '90's. Quinlan, employed by the missing man's wealthy sister, begins his search in Thailand, the scene of his past professional disgrace, but soon discovers Avery has fled to Cambodia. Following the man's trail, Quinlan enlists the assistance of an ambitious Australian journalist and his interpreter, Sarin, only to find himself the target of ruthless killers and treasure hunters.

Quinlan, born of a wartime liaison between his Vietnamese mother and soldier father, was raised in Australia after his mother's death. Orphaned after his father's suicide, Quinlan eventually joined the police force where his Eurasian appearance was both a help and a hindrance to his job. It was his role in a failed joint operation in Thailand that essentially put an end to his career and after Quinlan resigned from the force, he began to take on missing persons cases.
There is a nice depth to Quinlan, though at times his motivations are questionable. I don't quite understand why Quinlan doesn't simply walk away when his search for Avery puts his own life at risk nor why he insists on walking blindly into a number of easily discernible traps. That being said, I like that Quinlan is a man with limits, he makes mistakes but keeps moving forward, doing his best for his client.

Of the supporting cast it is Sarin I found most interesting, the Khmer translator chooses to become embroiled in Quinlan's mission and proves to be a helpful guide. The romantic element involving Sarin's sister and an American archivist wasn't particularly strong and largely irrelevant to the story.

Nette spent several years in Cambodia and his knowledge of the country's politics informs his character's experiences. Though I did think Nette was in danger of overwhelming the narrative with facts at times, his insights into the Cambodian conflict are fascinating, particularly regarding the legacy the Khmer Rouge. A particular strength of the novel is the author's portrayal of the landscape of South East Asia, from it's seedy urban centers, to the areas of grinding rural poverty.

Ghost Money takes the reader into a world of violence, betrayal and corruption with twists and turns leading through the gritty underworld of south east Asia. If you enjoy noir detective novels and are interested in something different, then you should take a chance on this interesting thriller.

[Tom Vater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Quinlan is a PI on the trail of a shady Australian businessman who’s gone to ground in Southeast Asia. Quinlan, a half Vietnamese, half Australian ex-cop, has only recently taken up the detective mantle but he quickly becomes embroiled in post-war shenanigans in a 1996 Phnom Penh that is populated by shady characters, both foreign and local. He teams up with a Cambodian journalist and trawls back in time, through the UNTAC years, the long civil war, the Vietnamese liberation, the Khmer Rouge genocide and the Killing Fields.

Quinlan is a contradictory guy, an ex-copper who blushes when spoken to by an Asian woman but can’t get his clothes off quick enough with a girl from Central America. He is in almost-denial of his Asian heritage and he absorbs Cambodia’s tragic history from a number of sources like a sponge without ever falling into the cynicism one might expect from his kind.

There is plenty of action, especially in the second half of the book, as Quinlan edges closer to Cambodia’s heart of darkness, the nexus between a beleaguered Khmer Rouge and shameless foreign businessmen – the last game in town, in this instance Pailin, a Khmer Rouge hold-out near the Thai border, an independent economic zone that finances itself by selling gem stones and offering every vice known to man, precisely the kind of thing the Cambodian revolution had tried to eradicate only a couple of decades earlier.

Writing a crime novel set in this sad and violent Cambodia without delving into the country’s extreme history is impossible. Nette knows his shit when it comes to the bloody convolutions of the Southeast Asian kingdom and spins a gripping yarn of greed and madness in the late 20th century. While feeding the reader with the horrors of our time, he also finds the space to skillfully reward us with the conventions of the genre – memorable femmes fatales, effective bad guys, and not just one, fast action and lively dialogue. Quinlan, our man in Cambodia, beaten and pushed, cornered and outgunned, takes it all in his stride, ready, for a sequel to Ghost Money, apparently.

[S.B. Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published by the very pulpy sounding Snub Nose Press, Ghost Money is a solid outing for a first novel. Though I don’t read a lot of pulp Crime, I think I have enough of a handle on the genre to sense where Nette is going with this novel. For the most part I think he gives us a pulpy feel without the misogyny, treats the history of Cambodia respectfully and gives us a well paced read.

Ghost Money is pulp detective fiction featuring an Asian-Australian lead, Max Quinlan the son of an Australian ex-serviceman and a Vietnamese mother. Quinlan’s an ex-cop recently self-employed as a private detective on the trail of an Australian businessman lost somewhere in South East Asia. Chuck in the dismantling of the Khmer Rouge, a country in turmoil and you have an interesting backdrop, with plenty of scope for double dealing and dastardly acts.

What I like about Quinlan, is that once Nette takes him further away from his area of expertise ie investigation, the reality that he is largely on his own, and increasingly out of his depth, impact on the character. Our tough guy has his limits.

Nette's research and experience working in South East Asia is evident in the novel; perhaps too much so in some cases. There were times when the history and the ambience that Nette tried to generate though imparting it, felt a little clunky. A subtler delivery of the information or perhaps less information would have ensured a smoother read for me.

That being said I am a history nerd, with some undergraduate background in Ancient South East Asian history so I enjoyed the history in and of itself.

Ghost Money is gritty without indulging in it and considering the history of Cambodia, that’s a wise decision on Nette’s behalf. The romantic liaison, a staple I am sure of every pulp detective novel, felt a little light-on for me. There were two potential love interests and I am not sure if the character’s choice necessarily married up to the effort Nette put into developing the back story.

Perhaps we’ll see the further adventures of Max Quinlan, where his choice of dame comes back to bite him.

This book was provided to me by the author

[Christopher Irvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the mystery and Quinlan’s investigative work throughout the novel. Once the action took a couple turns, the pacing drew me in and kept me curious as to how everything would unravel. The son of a Vietnamese woman and Australian man, Quinlan seems uncomfortable in his own skin. Unable to find his place in Australia or Thailand, he turns to PI work to fill the void. Quinlan is a complex character and Nette strings the reader along, sprinkling his quirks and flaws along the way so there is always something new and interesting. The novel’s secondary characters are believable and their actions colored by the setting and history of conflict in and around Cambodia. Several of such characters play very minor roles but stood out to me due to the attention Nette gave them. There are several reviews that comment more specifically on the events in the book, but I prefer not to spoil so search them out on Goodreads if you’d like to know more. But, I will say that the end left me satisfied and was well worth the trip.

My favorite aspect of GHOST MONEY is the setting. In addition to conducting exhaustive research, Nette, a native Australian, spent six years living in Southeast Asia and it shows from the minute background details of a store front, to the history of the Khmer Rouge. The novel is JAM PACKED with historical information, but it never feels like a dump of facts. I spent some time in Southeast Asia in 2005, and while the conditions are much improved (especially in Cambodia) since the early 1990′s when GHOST MONEY is set, the sights and sounds in the novel took me right back. From an American perspective, I think the history of conflict between Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand (and in most cases, China) is often overlooked, forgotten or unknown. I hope GHOST MONEY inspires readers to delve further into the fascinating and frightening history between these countries.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Quinlan is a disgraced ex cop working a missing persons case that leads him to Cambodia. There, he clashes with all of the possible powers that be, all colored by the days of the former Khmer Rouge. Being half Viet Namese gives him another obstacle even though he has little knowledge of his own heritage. Rather than presenting a super human P.I., Nette gives us Max as a character who is always in over his head dealing with figures that have little regard for life unless it means a way to make a profit. The missing persons case becomes linked to a story of missing gold, increasing the danger for everyone involved, and Max must figure out the local ways of doing things if he hopes to solve his case or even stay alive. After receiving a "gift" of "ghost money" (money to take with him into the afterlife) it's clear his attention to the case is not wanted there, but Quinlan has a problem letting things go. "Ghost Money" is a solid detective story, remarkable for all the careful attention paid to the Cambodian locale, the plight of many citizens, the workings of its underworld, and the lasting legacy of the Khmer Rouge.

[Patrick O'Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid piece of not-quite-neo noir that takes a concept and formula that could be tired - private eye searches for missing man and gets dragged into conspiracy about missing fortune - and revitalises it with its choice of setting. That setting is Cambodia in the late 1990s, a time and place that Nette evokes efficiently and convincingly (at least for someone like me that's never been there).

Overall a solid piece of crime fiction - if anything, perhaps a bit too solid and settled in places. I would have liked to see more risks in the voice and writing, more attempts to get away from the noir mold with language and pace as well as setting and time. But that's me, and I like show-off writing; Nette is here to work, not to show off. So if a strong story, clearly told is what you're after, Ghost Money will provide.

(One aside - my ebook was formatted in a tiny tiny tiny font, so that I had to turn the size all the way up just to read it. Hopefully that's a quirk that's since been fixed.)

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the love of me, can someone find me a valid reason why this isn't a best-seller yet? Don't get me the 'it's because it's set in Cambodia' bullshit excuse. Nette created a valid, universal dystopian environment full of broken people who try to get their lives together and create a country for themselves. He would've set it 100 years in the future and it would've been a huge succes. Plus, he doesn't hammer the cultural variables too hard. They are always meshed with character development and makes the plot and the backdrop interdependent. Pretty clever stuff.

The reason why not every mystery/P.I novels fans aren't raving about Andrew Nette right now is that the publishing industry is a broken place. Big publishing firms seek to make money, rather than to publish good books. Thank God for Snubnose Press and their high standards. Now, go read GHOST MONEY. Max Quinlan is one of the most gripping private eyes since Matthew Scudder. Nothing less.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghost Money is a hell of a ride over to SE Asia where along with the booze, human life is cheap. Three sittings was all it took to knock over Nette's debut. I was usually in a bar with a beer in front of me and usually on a killer hot day: the three seemed to go hand in hand.

Our hero, Quinlan is an Aussie ex-cop, turned skip tracer. He's hired to find missing businessman Charles Avery. The search takes him from Bangkok to Cambodia and into a sad and lawless world. BUT what a land! Too often we see noir set in the familiar urban setting. Nette throws all those concrete streets and tall buildings out the window and fills his tale with with an awesome amount of authenticity that makes you feel the environment as if you were there, sweating in the heat and fighting off the beer girls.

If you're looking for noir, 3000 miles off the beaten track, this is for you.

[Rory Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a tremendous story. I was immediately keen on the exotic locale, which is something that always gives a work of fiction a big leg up. Nette clearly knows what he's writing about, and the descriptions make the atmosphere palpable. I see some found the history of Cambodia that one gets here to be intrusive -- I did not. I found it came along in the flow and added to my understanding of the story and the characters. Quinlan's quest held my interest throughout (I even thought of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness") and the action scenes were especially riveting.

[Quentin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A genuinely interesting read. I knew next to nothing about Cambodia and Andrew Nette writes convincingly about the place.
The book is a little rough around the edges but it rattles along at a great pace.
There are a few things left dangling, but that's not a problem for me although other readers might not appreciate it. Unless there's a sequel on the way? If there is, I'd like to know what happens to Max Quinlan next and hope he's still in Cambodia.

[Iain Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Nette's first novel is a ripper. Ostensibly a missing person / private investigator book, Ghost Money rapidly steps out of convention with unusual settings (Thailand, Cambodia) and diverse characters. Personally, I found the history weaved through the plot fascinating. Recommended.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting is exotic and well handled, but the characterization is flat, some of the writing is sloppy and clichéd. Read 30% and decided to move on elsewhere. Expected better.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, nothing earth shattering.

[Melanie McKissock]

Tightly plotted noir tale set in Cambodia. Loved the rich descriptions of Cambodia, very atmospheric.