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
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