Zero Hour in Phnom Penh

2004 German Critics Award for Crime Fiction and Winner of 2007 Premier Special Director Book Award Semana Negra, Spain ISBN 974-93035-9-8 Trade paperback 6" - 9 1/4" 2005, 287 pages read excerpt buy this book Previously published as Cut Out

Third in the series 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.

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“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 >>read more ctitical reviews of the book l >>main crime fiction