Set in the shadowy Killing Fields of Cambodia, this gripping military thriller follows Tess Hardy as she works to unravel the mystery of how her husband, and many others, keep disappearing and turning up dead in the mine-laden backwaters of Southeast Asia.
Tess Hardy thought she had put Luke, her violent ex-husband, firmly in her past. Then he calls from Cambodia, where he is working as a mine-clearer, and there's something in his voice she hasn't heard before: Fear. Two weeks later, he's dead.
Against her better judgment, Tess is drawn to Cambodia and to the killing fields. Keeping her relationship to Luke a closely guarded secret, Tess joins his team of mine clearers, who are shaken to the core by Luke's sudden death. Even in their grief, the group remains a tightly knit and tightly wound community in which almost everyone has something to hide.
At the same time, the circle of death begins to expand. Teenage mothers are disappearing from villages around the minefields, while others are being found mutilated and murdered, their babies abandoned. Everywhere there are whispers about the White Crocodile, a mythical beast that brings death to all who meet it. Caught in a web of secrets and lies, Tess must unravel the truth, and quickly. The crocodile is watching, and Tess may be its next victim.
Combining the technical expertise of military suspense with a richly drawn sense of place, White Crocodile forges new ground in the thriller genre. Medina's internationally acclaimed debut announces the arrival of a prodigiously talented novelist whom readers will be discussing for years to come.
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"Operatic ... the most ambitious of canvases [with] the fraught psychological territory of Joseph Conrad's Africa in Heart of Darkness ... a vulnerable buttenacious heroine ... a strongly written thriller and a passionate meditation. There is yet another accomplished crime writer joining the sizeable throng of names to which attention must be paid."
— Barry Forshaw, The Independent
“Operatic…the most ambitious of canvases [with] the fraught psychological territory of Joseph Conrad’s Africa in Heart of Darkness…a vulnerable but tenacious heroine…a strongly written thriller and a passionate meditation.”
— Independent (London)“Absorbing…Suspenseful…Convincingly evokes a heartbreaking place.”
— Publishers Weekly“[A] tense debut. Readers will want to see outspoken survivor Tess again, especially those who like Zoe Sharp and Dana Haynes.”
— Booklist“A heart-rending look at a culture decimated by the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge…The book’s real plus is the peek it allows into a world few Westerners see: the ravaged society the Khmer Rouge left behind in Cambodia, with rampant poverty and hunger, as well as the dangerous, deadly job assigned to mine cleaners.”
— Kirkus Reviews“Medina’s chilling debut takes audible form through Mary Jane Wells’ narration…[She] adeptly juggles a variety of accents for the multicultural cast and recounts the characters’ internal conflicts with compassion and authenticity… an exciting, dark story that thriller fans should find suitably captivating.”
— AudioFileA dark tale of the way our past haunts us, and the revenge it can drive us to take. K.T. Medina knows her war torn landscape intimately, in all its complexity and desperation. Medina does for Cambodia what Timothy Hallinan does for Thailand, and I anticipate more from this intriguing new author.
— Jenny Milchman, Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Cover of Snow and Ruin FallsAn exciting first novel, from a huge new talent.
— Mo Hayder, Edgar Award-winning author of Gone and WolfImpressive...powerful.
— Marcel Berlins, The Times (UK)Powerful and unforgettable. The most compelling female protagonist I have come across in a long time. A page-turning, unsettling thriller from an exciting new novelist.
— Salma Haidrani, StylistBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Mary Jane Wells (a.k.a. McAllister Lee) is a British actress, writer, voice-over artist, and Earphones Award and Audie Award–winning narrator. A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, she held a recurring role on the BBC’s Half Moon Investigates and narrated the BBC Three television show My Children, which won a Scottish BAFTA.