White Crocodile

In British author Medina’s absorbing but flawed debut thriller, mine-clearer Tess Hardy, newly arrived in Cambodia, quickly comes to understand why the villagers outside Battambang believe in the White Crocodile—a traditional Cambodian symbol of death. A veteran of five years with the British Army’s Royal Engineers in Afghanistan, Tess can’t ignore the almost palpable sense of menace as, under the cover of a new job with a humanitarian organization, she surreptitiously tries to investigate the death of her estranged husband, Luke, in a mine-clearing accident six months earlier. The author, like her powerful protagonist a former troop commander in the Royal Engineers, convincingly evokes a heartbreaking place that seems to bring out the worst in people ostensibly there to do good. She’s less successful integrating the secondary story line of a murder investigation in Manchester, England, or resolving the suspenseful but overly complicated plot. Still, this is a grim tale with grisly details you won’t soon forget—even though you might prefer to. Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit (U.K.). (June)