Although the word is rarely used, the spirit of “le cafard” permeates through Anna Jaquiery’s new crime novel Death in the Rainy Season, with anxiety, depression and base desires seeping out from between its pages. It’s almost enough to have you reaching for the Xanax and booking tickets to Bali before the wet monsoon kicks in.
In this novel, like Jaquiery’s first, The Lying-Down Room (2014), the police officer on the case is Commandant Serge Morel. Holidaying in Siem Reap, Morel is called down to Phnom Penh to help cover the case of a murdered NGO executive whose uncle, a French Minister, is concerned over the scent of scandal. Reaching Phnom Penh, Morel is quickly drawn into the world of NGO office politics and personal intrigue, which serve as the ingredients for the unfolding plot.
Death features a grab-bag of Cambodian ills that will be familiar to anyone living here – land confiscations, corruption, paedophilia, violence, police incompetence – which leave you wondering if the author could have been more imaginative. Nor is the book’s leading protagonist, Commandant Morel, a man of mixed Khmer-French descendent, entirely convincing, coming across as formulaic and superficial at times. Jaquiery is on more solid ground with her writing though, scribing a novel that weaves together plots and sub-plots to present a tale that unfolds slowly and in a compelling fashion, at least until the final few chapters.
It is at this point that things go awry. In short, Death’s climax is, well, anticlimactic. This is especially so with one of Death’s more tantalising sub-plots, which comes to a resolution way too swiftly and neatly, especially given the effort made by the author to develop its characters and back story. The main plot, fortunately, has a more compelling end, but even here one retains a feeling that angles and revelations revealed earlier in the novel deserve a more fitting end. As a result, one leaves the final page of Death feeling strangely dissatisfied and unfulfilled.
Interestingly, Death is the second crime novel set in the Kingdom published in the last six months, following K.T.Medina’s White Crocodile (The Advisor, Feb. 12-18). Unsurprisingly, there is the temptation to compare the two, and while Jaquiery is a more seasoned writer and shows a better mastery of syntax, Medina’s raw style, especially as one approaches the climax of her tale, is much more agreeable. All of this means that, while there is great potential in Death, it is let down by its damp ending. In this sense, the book is, in its own way, very “le cafard.”
3.5/5
Q&A
1. What inspired you to create a lead character of mixed Khmer/French descent?
AJ: It made sense to create a character of Eurasian descent because of my background. I’m part-French, part-Malaysian. I grew up mostly in Southeast Asia and Europe, and feel at home in both regions. Morel and I have little in common – I wasn’t interested in creating a character that might resemble me – but I did want him to have that mixed background.
2. When writing Death, how much time did you spend in Phnom Penh? What were your impressions of the city?
AJ: I’ve been to Phnom Penh a few times. The most recent trip was two years ago. That time, I only spent five days in Phnom Penh. I did a huge amount of walking and met up with old friends who have been there for a long time, and who shared their stories with me. To me, Phnom Penh is vibrant, full of life, and yet still retains a laidback charm. I would love to be able to spend more time there.
3. Where will your next book take Commandant Serge Morel?
AJ: I’m working on a third Morel book, set this time on a housing estate in a troubled suburb north of Paris. I wanted to be able to write about immigration and I was also interested in the relationship between the French capital and its suburbs. One of the things I like about writing in this genre is that it allows me to plot crime stories and, at the same time, look at contemporary issues that interest me.
4. If you were to pick an actor to play Serge Morel in a film, who would you chose and why?
AJ: I’ve often said, only half-jokingly, that I’d love to see Benedict Cumberbatch play Morel. I think he could pass as Eurasian – with a little help from a make-up artist! He’s a great actor, and I can easily picture him fitting in Morel’s shoes.