New Book Alert: The Monsoon Ghost Image (Detective Maier Mysteries Book 3) by Tom Vater; Detective Maier Returns In Vater's Best Mystery Thriller Yet
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Once again Tom Vater is available to give his Readers a guided tour of the world's most dangerous and least scenic spots. After India and Cambodia, this time the author sets his sights on Thailand, mostly Bangkok a city known for its active nightlife and sex trade.
In what is probably his best work yet, Vater provides an effective merge of setting and character to quite possibly end his Detective Maier Mystery series with The Monsoon Ghost Image.
This book is much better than the previous book, Cambodian Book of The Dead which was very descriptive in setting but lost something in the plot. Dare I say it, I even liked it better than last year's Kalkota Noir which combined Kalkota's setting with tributes to drawing room mysteries, noir literature, and science fiction. The Monsoon Ghost Image has a mesmerizing setting and believable characters inside a plot that is not only well executed with suspense and tension but pushes those characters beyond their endurance.
In this third go round in the adventures of Detective Maier, things have changed considerably. Maier seems to have recovered from the events in The Cambodian Book of The Dead (which I read) only to be left traumatized by the events in The Man with The Golden Mind (which I have not.) In his last mystery set mostly in Laos, Maier slept with his stepsister, was nearly killed by his father, and lost a couple of fingers in a Vietnamese prison camp ambush. On the plus side, he befriended Mikhail, a large Russian man who serves as Maier's bodyguard and sidekick. Well he no sooner is getting some much deserved rest in which he should consider never leaving the house let alone accepting any job that takes him out of the country, then what does his boss want him to do? Accept another job that takes him out of the country.
Emilie Ritter, a former girlfriend of Maier's, reported that her photographer husband, Martin, is missing and presumed dead. Even though his funeral is in Hamburg, Emilie is convinced that Martin is still alive and that he is on the run. She sees sinister unknown figures that seem to scream government ops. Not only that but she receives a letter from someone dubbed "The Wicked WItch of the East." The letter informs her that Martin is alive and well in Bangkok and is "involved in the crime of the century." All of this implies that Martin got involved or uncovered something dangerous and with far reaching implications. It seems to involve a photograph of various prominent individuals. So off Maier and Mikhail go to Bangkok with two sinister agents following close behind.
Vater's gift for setting is definitely at play and is even heightened more in this book than any of his previous works. With Kalkota Noir and The Cambodian Book of the Dead, Vater combined real setting with a sense of unreality. The Cambodian Book of the Dead mixed the reality of a country still living with the scars of the Khmer Rouge dictatorship and the supernatural of traditional ghost stories to create a comparison of disruptions in the physical and spiritual worlds of Cambodia. Kolkata Noir borrowed heavily from various genres like film noir and science fiction to create a three part mystery that reads like a Hollywood film, set in India.
What is particularly sinister about The Monsoon Ghost Image is aside from tropes that could be found in murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and political suspense novels, there is no sense of fantasy. The setting is very real and somehow made even more dangerous. Some of the more horror elements are a bit over the top, such as the appearance of a surgeon who specializes in torturing people for financial rewards, political gain, and for his self pleasure. However, in this context and as we know in our history books and the news, there were and still are people who are that sadistic and brutal.
We see the sex trade industry but not as some enticing glittery thing where people can go abroad to fill their deepest desires. Instead, it is seen as something dark and depraved, showing the people who get involved in it were drawn by needing money, feeling devoid of any self worth or validation, or believing the empty promises that sinister adults gave them. They have since grown into hardened individuals who survive this harsh uncaring existence the only way that they can. They do anything for money and inflict the same pain that was given to them, continuing an endless cycle of abuse and human trafficking.
Maier goes through a lot of development and mental stress in this book, surprisingly even more so than in the previous books where his struggles were more personal. Without spoiling too much there are several points where Maier is left alone without contacts, allies, and with multiple enemies after him. Just like many of the victims that he encounters and tries to protect and find justice for, he realizes that he is likely to die because of others' schemes and manipulations.
In fact it becomes clear that Maier, The Ritters, Mikhail and many other characters are manipulated by outside higher forces. These forces don't care who they are or who has to be hurt or killed. Maier is just simply another person for these forces to step on and remove, no more important to them than a small insect.
There are various chapters in which Maier is held captive. It's very rare in a mystery novel when the detective is left in such a vulnerable position where they are imprisoned during their investigation and subjected to physical and psychological torture for a long time, for a period of months it seems. Considering the physical and mental abuse inflicted on him in the last couple of books, Maier's experience in Thailand during his imprisonment and the realization of him being manipulated could be the final push to send him completely over from the justice seeking law abiding citizen to the tortured empty lawless. The protective light that Maier shines over the innocent could dim forever and never return.
This may be the final book in The Detective Maier Mystery Series. If it is, Vater definitely saved the best for last.
