Literature Review: The Monsoon Ghost Image

What if Graham Greene had written extreme horror? Interesting thought. True, the carnage of cold war detente may have produced some hideous and bloody results, but instead of The Third Man, we could have ended up with something akin to a Tom Vater's Detective Maier mystery. In the third book of the Detective Maier trilogy, Tom Vater will bring us deep into the covert 'war on terror,' introduce us to horrific mad scientist types, show us horrors Josef Mengele would applaud, and tease us with double-cross and double-agents that Graham Greene would applaud. Let us delve into The Monsoon Ghost Image.

Not post war Berlin or even Vienna...Bangkok and outer reaches of Thailand. Maier, the disgruntled German private detective has an assignment. His old buddy and war photographer, Ritter, was blown up at sea. But wait! This is where Maier comes in, Ritter was seen in Bangkok well after the explosion. Finding Ritter won't be hard but Maier will head to Bangkok with his partner Mikhail (a former Russian assassin). Now it gets blurry (literally and figuratively). The reasons for Ritter's phony demise concern a photo he took...one he shouldn't have taken. Of what? You'll see. Now everyone (CIA, Mad Scientists, Spies, Thai cops, his wife, transvestites, sharks, etc) all want Ritter. Ritter is a threat to most of them and now that Maier is on the case....well, he is also wanted.

Enter the monster...think Mengele without the glitter. Dr. Suraporn! Suraporn plus the photograph in question yields quasi-supernatural results that border on mind control and magic. Maier finds this out the hard way. Like many of the monsters throughout history, they have friends in high places and Maier finds he can trust no one. No more spoilers, but after traipsing through the seedier side of Bangkok, Maier and Mikhail will be whisked away to the wild tropics where Dr. Suraporn and vicious jungle animals want to play with them. Many will die and Suraporn will demonstrate his madness and ill will.

Maier and Mikhail may be disgruntled and see the good guys as just as bad as the bad guys, but they may have a point. Even in a morally relativistic Graham Greene universe, Maier will have to care and cling to a hope of goodness or he could get swallowed up by the evil he detests. This mystery/ adventure takes us to some wild settings and becomes relentless in throwing evil and horror at us. If Maier survives, he will be changed. Enjoy Tom Vater's The Monsoon Ghost Image, available on Amazon by clicking the link below.
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