Thanks to my family, especially my wife Aroon Thaewchatturat and my brother Marc Eberle – both played instrumental roles in getting me to finish The Cambodian Book of the Dead.
Thanks to my friend Hans Kemp for embarking on an adventure called Crime Wave Press and helping to get Detective Maier on the road. Lucy Ridout did a great early edit.
In 1995, I crossed from Thailand into Cambodia at Hat Lek, racing in a speed boat up the jungle-fringed Koh Kong River, with troops dug in on both sides. The other passengers besides my travel companion and me were a man who had a suitcase chained to his wrist and a s*x worker on her way home from Pattaya. The sky was g*n metal grey. I was hooked.
Cambodia is a land of stories, both beautiful and beautifully poignant – an obvious location for the f
