LIFE

Brakes abandoned in 'Phnom penh express'

B Magazine, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 17/02/2013

» A Belgian-educated Khmer, a female Hezbollah-financing Israeli crime boss, a sexy Cambodian-born Mossad agent, a gung-ho US embassy worker and a Belgian ex-military diamond lord. In Phnom Penh Express, a first novel by Thailand-based Johan Smits, this quintet of self-serving characters cast their nets and drag each other ever closer in an implausible but highly readable thriller as tension mounts. Set in a Phnom Penh riddled with corruption and mismanagement, an imbroglio of misplaced packages and mistaken identity unfolds, as assassinations go awry amid an international turf battle.