A M Riley’s detective novel DERAILED follows two British missing-persons detectives as they travel from the UK to Thailand to investigate a disappearance. The British Ambassador’s daughter has gone missing on a train. What follows is an intriguing mystery that builds tension and suspense as it barrels along, train-like, towards a thrilling, and quite profound, destination.
One of the most compelling aspects of DERAILED is the way it immersed me into the culture of Thailand and used the cultural dissonance between Thai and British ways to throw obstacles in the way of the two detectives as they try to navigate the complexities of the Thai police system, and the Land of Smiles in general.
This novel is rich in texture. I felt like I was there, on the streets of Kanchanaburi and Bangkok with these characters, experiencing the humidity, the food, the hustle and bustle, the trains, the roads, the restaurants, the bars and clubs and the sweltering need for air-conditioning or the respite of a hotel swimming pool. As the story moved on, this enveloping context for the narrative speaks to Riley’s strength in his ability to replicate just what is needed to make the locations feel authentic on the page. Honestly, this heightened sense of the reality of the locale is a true highlight of the book. It is clear from this work that Thailand is a beloved, admired and formative location for the writer.
But perhaps most interestingly, Riley isn’t shy about showing us the nastier side of the Thai police, and the drama comes front and centre here. Punctuated by moments of shocking violence, often out of nowhere, he really doesn’t hold back when it comes to peeling away the layers of corruption in the police, and in the country as a whole, to show us how difficult it is to move forward legitimately in this eco-system. As with another of Riley’s books, Afterlife Inc, the ending points to something more profound, and underlines how fiction works best when it exposes previously un-thought-of aspects of humanity’s highs and lows. But amongst the nasty characters that propell the plot, there is beauty in others, and Riley takes time to show us how kindness prevails amongst the majority of people that call this vibrant country home. DERAILED is a great, propulsive page-turning mystery/thriller, with characters to root for, and I’d love to see another outing for Hobbs and Stirling.