Tired of vampires?
I loved them when I was thirteen
Want a story to grab you by the neck–but tired of getting it in the neck?
How about a sexy, adult, political thriller? No virginity. No teenage angst. Plenty of adult angst. Setting? No, not Utah. The tropics. The End of the Monsoon.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, today. Hot, humid nights at the Foreign Correspondents Club
overlooking the Mekong. Businessmen and tourists, both a little on-the-make. A cosmopolitan in your hand and frangipani on the air–with a whiff of sewage from an outfall by the National Theater down the quay.
A contemporary story. The lovers: a British professional woman of Sudanese ancestry, and an American, formerly on Wall Street, now a diplomat. Their affair is illicit, as is his latest assignment: do what it takes to ensure an American oil company is granted a concession to drill in Cambodian waters.
Adult characters with real jobs and real conflicts:
The American diplomat, burned on Wall Street, happy in a new career of blameless duty with a pension at the end–now asked to take on a job that makes the deals he analyzed at Lehman Brothers look clean.
The British lawyer, a Buddhist in a sexless marriage, finding love outside it–but looking for a way to transcend the moral conflict.
The senior American diplomat, a woman who’s climbed the ladder without a break, now asked to follow an order of ambivalent legality–and tempted to pass the chalice.
The young, conscientious Agency case officer–looking for the courage to come out of her sexual closet.
Consciously and unconsciously, in ways they see and ways hidden, their lives intertwine. It’s the end of the monsoon, the country’s under water, and elections draw near. The Prime Minister’s party needs money for votes and the American oil company’s willing to pay for the concession. The US embassy pushes the deal but the Englishwoman, pushing transparency, unwittingly works against it.
The ruling party’s not interested in transparency. They’ve never hesitated to assassinate their own people (when they couldn’t be bought off). How far will they go with foreigners?
No, not a vampire story. Published this August. Read the first chapter here.
