In
the early 1990s, at the end of the devastating civil war UN
peacekeeping forces try to keep the lid on the violence. Gunfire
can still be heard nightly in Phnom Penh, where Vietnamese prostitutes
try to hook UN peacekeepers from the balcony of the Lido Bar.
Calvino
traces leads on a missing farang from Bangkok to war-torn
Cambodia, through the Russian market, hospitals, nightclubs,
news briefings, and UNTAC Headquarters. Calvino’s buddy, Colonel
Pratt, knows something that Calvino does not: the missing man
is connected with the jewels stolen from the Saudi royal family.
Calvino quickly finds out that he is not the only one looking
for the missing farang.
Praise
“Moore
set the parameters of the Asian noir world, one where law
is meaningless and power lies with the rich and ruthless.”
—Khmer440
“The
perfect hardboiled mystery. Vivid and scary. High stakes story
for Calvino who faces betrayal from every side. The setting
is provocative: the Cambodians have experienced so much death
and destruction and live with so much corruption and so little
safety that you wonder how much catching one murderer can really
mater. This is one of my favorite noir aka hardboiled mysteries
because it is written with a high level of artistry.”
—Cliffhangers
Favorite Noir a.k.a. Harboiled Mysteries
“A
layered novel which transports the reader to the time when
this beautifully complex country [Cambodia] is attempting
to put the pieces of their broken past back together, while
the pieces continue on a perpetual crumble.... A highly entertaining
read that will stay in the forefront of your mind long after
the book is closed, finished and has found its place back
on the bookshelf.”
—Will
Bowie's list of the 21 Greatest Books to inspire travel
“Moore
does a great job in Zero Hour of depicting two places I hope
to never be – a seedy lakeside brothel, which doubles as a murder
scene and the inside of a real life Cambodian prison, where
life is not just cheap, to some it’s worthless. Moore seeks
out societies at crossroads and he finds one in Cambodia, but
in the process he tells the reader a ripper of a yarn with the
added bonus of making us realize how unlucky some people are
or conversely how lucky we are.”
—Kevin Cummings, Thailand
Footprint: People, Things, Literature
“A
distinctly noir sensibility... There's no holds barred in
the way that Phnom Penh is described, the way that the lawless
society operates and the stark and very in-your-face descriptions
of the differences between the UN peacekeepers and locals...
There are glimpses of kindness, of care and of generosity,
[and] touches of humour... I was completely and absolutely
hooked.”
—Austcrime
“An
excellent hardboiled whodunnit, a noir novel with a solitary,
disillusioned but tempting detective in an interesting social,
historical context (of post-Pol Pot Cambodia), and a very thorough
psychological study of the characters.”
—La
culture se partage
“Moore
is an idealist and a lone warrior who doesn't hesitate to
get his hands dirty.... Those who have travelled to Southeast
Asia will be captivated by his ability to recreate the atmosphere.”
—Le Parisien
“Much
more than a thriller, Zero hours in Phnom Penh is a
fresco of Cambodia and its people, their despair, their hopes,
their fears, their lives. And that’s what makes this book a
single work, much deeper than what can be expected to begin
reading.”
—Unwalkers
“The
story is fast-paced and entertaining. Even outside of his
Bangkok comfort zone, Moore shows he is one of the best chroniclers
of the expat diaspora.”
—The Daily Yomiuri
“Zero
Hour in Phnom Penh is political, courageous and perhaps [Moore’s]
most important work. Moore is a brilliant storyteller and a
masterful character inventor.”
—CrimiCouch.de
“Zero
Hour in Phnom Penh is a brilliant detective story that portrays—with
no illusion—Cambodia’s adventurous transition
from genocide and civil war to a free-market economy and democratic
normality. Zero Hour in Phnom Penh is a rare stroke of luck
and a work of art, from which one can always draw more stories
and levels of meaning. . . . an all too human, timeless, historical
and philosophical novel.”
—Deutsche Well Buchtipp, Bonn
“A
thriller in which the importance of the single crime shrinks
visibly at the sight of mass murder and grand corruption.”
—Thomas Klingenmaier, Stuttgarter Zeitung
“It
was ten years ago in Cambodia, but this great novel sits well
after Kandahar, Luanda, Kabul, Baghdad and other places where
the brutality of war destroys the souls of humanity.”
—KulturNews, Hamburg
“[In
Zero Hour in Phnom Penh] one experiences an impressive novel
and discovers lives in a country—keyword ‘Pol Pot—that
has a long history of genocide behind it. A novel of sad intelligence
and intelligent sadness”
—Thomas Widmer, Facts Zürich
“Moore
is an accurate storyteller and a sensitive observer. He bares
the colonial attitude of the foreigners and soberly describes
the survival strategies of the young women—imparting
a great amount of information and a valuable insight.”
—Marianne de Mestral, P.S. Magazin, Zürich
“The
novel is more than a crime fiction. It is a believable attempt
to describe a society at the crossroad. Moore’s portrayal
of the omnipresent prostitution in Cambodia goes under the skin.
Nothing is glossed over.”
—Christian Ruf, Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten
“Zero
Hour in Phnom Penh is a bursting, high adventure . . . extremely
gripping . . . a morality portrait with no illusion.”
—Ulrich Noller, Westdeutscher Rundfunk
“A
well written, exciting, but not simplistic thriller. The description
of Cambodia at the end of the Pol Pot terror regime (approximately
1993) is convincing. High tension amidst violent backdrop. Recommended.”
—Ute Ulrike Fauth, EKZ Buchbesprechungen Reutlingen
“Moore’s
crime fiction is a multi-layered and disillusioning picture
of the Cambodian society and the UNTAC soldiers: the reality
behind the headlines.”
—Inge Wünnenberg, General-Anzeiger, Bonn
“Like
other Calvino novels, Zero Hour in Phnom Penh captures the tropical
sultriness that often sucks away the breaths of West Germans
in Southeast Asia. Heat, noise and stench almost emanate from
the book.. Moore heats up the climate even further with his
portrayals of raw power, cheap sex, wretchedness from drugs
and human contempt. It can be stomach-turning for the delicate
of the hearts.”
—Sönke Boldt, Badische Neueste Nachrichten Karlsruhe
“Moore
writes to entertain, and that he does.”
—Bangkok Post
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