Book review
Title: The Monsoon Ghost Image (Detective Maier Mystery Book 3) by Tom Vater
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Horror
Rating: 4.5 Stars
After reading both The Cambodian Book of the Dead and The Man With the Golden Mind I was really coming to appreciate how Tom Vater crafted a really unique and complex protagonist in Maier and how he weaves together one story within several separate mysteries and how he brought to life the East Asian countries and cultures he writes about in the mind of the reader. So, the series concluded with The Monsoon Ghost Image and after the insane plot twists in the first two books and some of the weird and strange events that took place within those novels I couldn’t wait to get stuck into the series finale. The novel opens with Maier being contacted about an old colleague, Martin Ritter, a renowned war photographer who is presumed dead after his boat literally exploded off the coast of Thailand. Things get interesting very quickly when Maier is contacted by Ritter’s wife, Emilie who has received evidence that her husband is alive and in Bangkok. In response, she hires Maier to find her husband and find out why he apparently faked his own death.
During my reading of The Monsoon Ghost Image I realised that like in Cambodian Book of the Dead the literary style is very similar with Maier narrating a story where he is often abusing and recovering from that abuse in a violent and brutal fashion that makes you wince and yet you can’t put the book down. In Vater’s signature style the case is merely a cover for something far bigger and it doesn’t take long for Maier to find himself at the heart of it all after being manipulated into it but a woman who only calls herself the Wicked Witch of the East. It is from her that Maier receives a digital image, this image is a code named the Monsoon Ghost Image after which the novel is named and capture proof of a post 9/11 CIA approved torture of a suspected Muslin terrorist which was really difficult to read at times. Vater also introduces more than one of his essential plot twists that cause a change in the events of the novel that transforms Maier from the hunter to the hunted for the possession of this photograph.
It seems that Ritter is one of the bad guys planning to set the code off to the highest bidder only to have it stolen by The Wicked Witch of the East and is now willing to do anything in order to get it back and get revenge as well. Maier seems to be in possession of something that many people are looking for and willing to do some horrific things in order to get it in their possession so Maier spends a lot of time running from one bad guy or another. Throughout the novel and the trilogy Vater has proven himself to be an absolute craftsman in terms of plot and characters and repeatedly dives into the well of knowledge he has to evoke a stunning sense of place, making the reader vividly imagine his richly written scenes in their mind. In this novel, the dark side of Thailand spring to life and we get to see and experience it all from the back street of Bangkok. While the island adventures of Maier and Mikhail with their sly wink at both Jurassic Park and Rambo might very well be over the top and leave one shaking their head they are nevertheless very entertaining to read.
In classic Vater style this is a complicated, twisty plot and is also very disturbing to read so definitely check out the trigger warnings before diving into this series and that often took me by surprise. Having now completed the trilogy I strongly believe that Vater intended to highlight moments in history through each novel and how he strings them together into a cohesive series was absolutely divine to watch unfold under Vater’s skilled hands. The Detective Maier trilogy has made for some very well spent reading time. I highly recommend all three and reading them in order, even though each could be read as their own contained story there are overarching themes and characters that appear in each novel. Overall, Vater has become an author that I wouldn’t hesitate to read because I know I’m in for a wild ride even if I don’t completely love the novel at the end of the experience.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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