Ghost Money

Ghost Money, originally published in 2012, has recently been republished by the Hong Kong-based Crime Wave Press.

Here’s the pitch.

Cambodia, 1996, the long-running Khmer Rouge insurgency is fragmenting, competing factions of the coalition government scrambling to gain the upper hand. Missing in the chaos is businessman Charles Avery. Hired to find him is Vietnamese Australian ex-cop Max Quinlan.

But Avery has made dangerous enemies and Quinlan is not the only one looking. Teaming up with Heng Sarin, a local journalist, Quinlan’s search takes him from the freewheeling capital Phnom Penh to the battle scarred western borderlands. As the political temperature soars, he is slowly drawn into a mystery that plunges him into the heart of Cambodia’s bloody past.

Ghost Money is a crime novel about Cambodia in the mid-nineties, a broken country, what happens to those trapped between two periods of history, the choices they make, what they do to survive.

The manuscript for Ghost Money made the final 10 out of 534 entries in the 2009 Scribe fiction prize for writers over 35 years of age and was shortlisted in the 2010 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in the category of ‘Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer’. In 2011, it was the recipient of an Unpublished Manuscript Fellowship at the Wheeler Centre and Readings Foundation.

Available as an e-book on Amazon here, with paperback version out soon.

Here’s what people have said about Ghost Money:

“Ghost Money is a fast-paced, atmospheric crime novel. Its journey into a cynical and treacherous world is tense and suspenseful.”

Garry Disher, author, Wyatt

“Ghost Money is a terrific crime thriller that builds quickly and holds its nerve, right to the final pages. An important addition to the growing canon of outward-looking Australian crime fiction.”

David Whish Wilson, author, Line of Sight

“Ghost Money could well be The Third Man of Asian Noir.”

Crime Fiction Lover

“Ghost Money captures elements of the noir darkness of that unstable, chaotic time of transition during the mid 90s in Cambodia.”

Christopher G Moore, author, Zero Hour in Phnom Penh

“Ghost Money is an entertaining read for anyone looking for an engaging take on the Phnom Penh of yesterday or in thrall to the stories of the long-termers who lived through it.”

Phnom Penh Post

“Nette knows his shit when it comes to the bloody convolutions of the Southeast Asian kingdom and spins a gripping yarn of greed and madness in the late 20th Century.”

Tom Vater, author, The Cambodian Book of the Dead

“Writers who are not native inhabitants of the setting they depict can have a tough time delivering an authentic atmosphere but that has not been a problem for Nette who has created a truly enveloping sense of time and place.”

Fair Dinkum Crime

“The dialogue and plot is smart, the detail a devil – Ghost Money is all consuming and utterly essential for fans wanting more smarts to their noir.”

Just a Guy That Likes to Read

MORE REVIEWS FOR GHOST MONEY:

My Bookish Ways, June 11, 2015

Cambodia: books, people, places, June 1, 2015

Dead End Follies March 15, 2013

Bite the Book, Book Reviews and Industry News, March 4, 2013

Mysteries in Paradise, February 13, 2013

In the Spotlight: Andrew Nette’s Ghost Money January 14, 2013

Raven Crime Reads, January 9, 2013

Out of the Gutter, December 11, 2013