Still anxious to get rid of him, Inspector Singh's superiors send him as an observer to the trial of a former member of the Khmer Rouge in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. When a witness is murdered he is appointed as an outside co-head of the investigation.

Difficult reading in places. So many of the characters are psychologically walking wounded - how could they not be against a background of genocide? ( )

One of the delusions publishing houses appear to suffer from these days is that a book has to be depressing to be taken seriously. To be considered really good. In the world of police procedurals this often means at least a couple of these characteristics: a dysfunctional detective with an addiction or two, a location beset by months of darkness, gruesome crime scenes (usually involving the mutilated bodies of young women) and a portion of the tale seen through the eyes of the killer. Shamini Flint’s Inspector Singh series offers none of these qualities but I would argue it’s just as serious – and just as good – as crime fiction gets.

Here Flint sends her irascible Singaporean Inspector to Cambodia where he is to have a ‘watching brief’ over an International War Crimes Tribunal on behalf of ASEAN which wishes to demonstrate its solidarity with Cambodia. Really it is a way for Singh’s Superintendent to keep his irksome subordinate out of the way for a while and Singh is not happy about the prospect of having nothing practical to do. He does not see himself as a thumb twiddling observer. In fact

It was Singh’s life mission to tramp after the murderers in his snowy white sneakers, following the evidence and his instincts, ignoring the advice and warnings of his superiors, stopping only for regular meals, cold beer and the odd afternoon nap, until he had ensured some justice for the dead.

It is not unreasonable then that Singh is irritated at being taken away from his ‘real’ work. But as fate would have it one of the witnesses at the Trial is murdered and Singh, who has already befriended Colonel Menhay, the military policeman in charge of security at the Tribunal complex, is invited to be a joint leader of the subsequent investigation along with the Colonel. With the help of Singh’s reluctant translator Chhean they attempt to find a motive and perpetrator for the witness’ murder before the entire war crimes process is abandoned due to fears about security.

The story takes place about 30 years after the Khmer Rouge’s horrendously bloody reign over Cambodia ended but the country and its people are a long way from recovery. Flint teases out the various ways people individually and collectively are grappling with their memories, their loss, their anger, their guilt. And, for those like the man on trial, their self-righteous indignation that anyone dares question their right to have behaved as they did. If it had nothing else to offer the book would be worth reading for providing these accessible insights into a difficult topic.

However the book has loads more to offer. The story itself is a cracker; proving several false ends as different characters attract suspicion and others try to influence the investigation’s outcome in one way or another. What I particularly love about the story though is that it never once takes the easy route. There are several plot threads that could provide the warm and fuzzy resolution that the novel’s bright cover and jaunty title font hint at but Flint doesn’t succumb to these temptations. Without being depressing purely for the sake of it, each thread is resolved realistically, occasionally with humour and, where necessary, incorporating the sadness that often accompanies traumatised people going about their fractured lives. The book also manages to show us the myriad shades of grey that come into play when exploring the nature of good vs evil or right vs wrong. As Inspector Singh muses when a resolution of sorts is at hand

It would have to do. In Cambodia, he feared, there were only small successes, no grand triumphs.

The Inspector is, as always, a delightful and surprisingly complex character. His foibles – such as his love of good food (something he struggles to find in Phnom Penh) – are on show but so are his basic humanity and his desire to see justice prevail. Here it is not always possible to discern which path will achieve that – or even what justice looks like – and Singh is really forced to struggle with his own morality on occasion. The characters new for this story – including the Colonel and Chhean the translator – are the kind who linger long after the book is finished.

I don’t know what else you could possibly want from a novel than an evocative setting, a genuinely thought provoking narrative and characters who worm their way into your heart. Even those who haven’t read earlier instalments of this series need not worry: this is a novel that stands entirely on its own. So, you’ve no excuse not to find yourself a copy.

I was happy to finally get my hands on the authors book which is not easy.

I was glued to the story, read in two goes! It is interesting and although I though I knew the simple way how it will work out i was sooo mistaken! Thats the best, it didn't had a sweet ending, in a way.
The book gave me a whole new view about Cambodia, the war and genocide meaning to the nation was natural. The story draw the background of Cambodia's today's life.

This is detective story that gives a glimpse of the trial during the Inspector's Sigh's visit to witness the tribunal as official from Singapore, even if it does seem to be so easy he is drawn into in investigation when a serial killing starts to take a place and more stories come up to be solved. ( )

I have enjoyed each book in this series for the character of Inspector Singh and for the depiction of areas in Southeast Asia that I probably will never see. A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree contains what I've learned to love about Shamini Flint's writing and then proceeds to take it to an even higher level.

"It was Singh's life mission to tramp after the murderers in his snowy white sneakers, following the evidence and his instincts, ignoring the advice and warnings of his superiors, stopping only for regular meals, cold beer and the odd afternoon nap, until he had ensured some justice for the dead."

Inspector Singh is his usual irascible self-- a man who loves his work, a man who appreciates time away from his ill-tempered wife, a man who manages to put up with his superior officers. In the eyes of those "superiors," policing is all about appearances, and the turbaned, overweight, chain-smoking, white sneaker-wearing inspector just does not fit their idea of what the police force in Singapore should look like. The only reason they don't get rid of him is because his success rate is so high. So they let him solve murders and hope as many of them as possible occur somewhere far away.

"He remained a policeman under sufferance, his bosses always looking for an excuse to get rid of him. He suspected that deep down they feared someone whom they could not control, who valued a victim's right to justice more than the rules and regulations of the Force."

Part of the delight of reading these books is in seeing how Singh can circumvent the rules and regulations his superiors are trying to impose. He doesn't take shortcuts in interviewing witnesses or suspects, or in collecting evidence. He's just learned the best ways to avoid all those silly "for appearance's sake" rules.

What brings this book to an even higher level is its setting. Shamini Flint brings Cambodia's tragic history into sharp focus without being graphic about it. In imposing a radical form of agrarian socialism on his people, Pol Pot, his policies, and his henchmen were responsible for the murder of 25% (at least two million) of his country's people. Cambodians could be killed for wearing glasses or for being seen reading a book or for speaking a foreign language. By having Singh bear witness to the testimonies of those who survived at this international war tribunal, readers experience a tiny bit of the horror of the killing fields.

Once he's an official part of the murder investigation and helping Colonel Menhay, Inspector Singh learns that vengeance runs deep in Cambodian society. There are several suspects for this murder, but the truly mind-boggling part is in putting facts and supposition together in order to discover the true identity of each suspect, each person's motivation, and-- since the body count does rise-- exactly which suspect is responsible for the death of each victim. And always in the background is the serial killer who roams the countryside murdering former members of the Khmer Rouge.

If the phone had rung or if someone had knocked on the door while I was reading A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree, I would have ignored them. I was totally engrossed in this story, and I had to see how Singh and Menhay solved the case. In the end, I learned that my involvement led to my ignoring Flint's subtly planted clues. The identity of one of the murderers shocked me-- and that was the icing on the cake. One of my favorite characters, an emotionally charged setting which both taught and entertained, and a truly puzzling case. I highly recommend this book-- and the entire series. ( )

When a witness at the international war crimes tribunal is murdered Inspector Singh, who had been attending the hearings as an ASEAN observer, is appointed as an investigator, jointly in charge with a local Cambodian police inspector. His "sidekick" is a rather taciturn Cambodian translator, herself an orphan as a result of the Cambodian killing fields.

Inspector Singh notes that, for the first time he can remember, the murder under investigation has its roots in the past.

He was investigating a murder in the early twenty-first century. But every aspect of the killing indicated that it was a crime born of events thirty years ago. It was probably the first time in his life that an investigation of his had invoked history in this way. In a sense, he supposed, it wasn’t history at all – what was that expression, the past is prologue?

Singh is not happy with his role as an ASEAN observer and fervently wishes he was anywhere but in Cambodia.

Singh was slumped in an armchair in his hotel room contemplating the day’s testimony. He cast his mind back to when he had investigated a murder in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings in Bali. At the time, it had seemed that the callous snatching of life in a terrorist attack, without any nexus between murderer and victim, was the most grievous expression of cold-blooded murder possible. He would have to revise that thought. The murder of innocents without malice aforethought but with a cynical, clinical cruelty over a period of months and years, that was worse. Kill or be killed, torture or be tortured, follow orders or have the same fate befall one as the would-be victims.

I enjoyed CAMBODIAN CRIME SPREE even more than the earlier titles that I have read. I feel as if Inspector Singh has become even more tangible and I think Shamini Flint does an excellent job in her character development both of Singh and the other characters in the novel.
.
The other thing that is excellent about this novel is the historical detail relating to the war crimes in Cambodia. ( )