3.5 rating

This novel could have been so good. It just needed a better editor. The story is a mystery set in the background of mine-clearing in Cambodia. The problem is that it also involves sex trafficking, spousal abuse, child abuse, murder, a mythical creature, police corruption, NGO corruption, government corruption and more. Too many leave little room for any of the issues to be explored properly or for the story to flow. I wish the author had focused on fewer issues and given us more character development. I found the ending rushed and trite. That being said, the book was interesting and raised topics I knew little about, and now can't stop thinking about! ( )

This book was a neat story that kept me engrossed through the whole thing. The descriptions of the locations were superb and the mystery kept me guessing until the end. I would recommend this book as a great read and am looking forward to more by this author. ( )

Reading the other reviews of this book I wonder if I read something else. The story was good, it would have been great in more capable hands. The dialogue and interaction between Tess and Alex, were horrible, stilted, and bring. No one behaves like this. It took forever for the story to get to the point, and it was very difficult to like anyone in the book. A great story wasted by bad writing. ( )

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher.

White Crocodile is one of my favorite books of the year, even though once I start writing this review it doesn't sound like something I'd love.* Tess Hardy is a mine clearer who moves to Cambodia to work for the non-profit Mine Clearance Trust after several stints in the military. She starts to investigate a series of mysterious deaths that are not the accidents they seem to be, and in the meantime Medina covers Hardy and her colleague's troubled backgrounds. Balanced with those stories are several detailed scenes about the logistics of mine-clearing and scenes from Battabang, a bustling city, and a rural village on the outskirts.

The story works because of Tess's outsider perspective standing in for my own. I learned quite a bit about the complicated nature of NGOs working in Cambodia, and along the way there was a good plot. It wasn't the most twisty thriller I've read, but it moved along. This novel is much darker and much more troubling than what I can read regularly: the characters all have bleak lives to varying degrees. But the writing is good, the characters almost entirely are complicated beings, and the pacing is superb.

* I'm always glad to be surprised by a book that doesn't seem to fit my reading interests. I was hesitant to read White Crocodile because I thought it would be too horrific, but I was incredibly impressed. A year ago I didn't think I'd like the vaguely-fantastic Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes, and two years ago I didn't expect to love the old protagonist of Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller, and both of those were some of my favorites of their respective years. ( )

WHITE CROCODILE made me feel equal parts anger and guilt in much the same way as BOX 21 did a few years ago. Anger that humans can be so horrible to each other. Guilt at…what?…the luck of my birth I suppose. And the fact I haven’t immediately given every dollar I have to help resolve the sorts of problems the novel depicts.

Its central character (other than the eponymous white crocodile) is Tess Hardy. Having been a mine clearing specialist for the British military she is well-placed to respond when her ex-husband Luke, who had called her to tell her of his fears, dies in a mine clearing accident in Cambodia. Tess makes her way to Battambang in the country’s north west and starts working for the same charity that Luke had been working for and tries to find out what might have happened. Could it possibly have been the mythical white crocodile that locals are afraid haunts the nearby minefield and is the cause of Luke’s death along with the deaths and disappearances of many young women?

While I’m sure (indeed fervently hope) the book is not entirely autobiographical its author shares some of Tess’ work history and it shows. This is a book which drags the reader into its frightening world in a very believable way. The delicate mechanics of the task of clearing land of mines, the sheer scale of the problem and the human toll of it, the nauseatingly low value placed on human life…you can’t help but be moved.

Medina hasn’t relied on a confronting setting alone to demand the reader’s attention: the story is a ripper too. Soon after Tess’ arrival there is another accident – similar to the one in which Luke was involved – and the suspects pile up. But her investigation – any investigation – is fraught with very real danger. Interspersed into the main story are snippets of other threads. A body of an Asian girl is found in England. If she is Cambodian how did she get there? And there are flashbacks to the a childhood of almost unimaginable horror. Who did that little boy grow up to be?

It’s only the beginning of February and I already feel like I’ve read multiple contenders for my end of year favourite books list, WHITE CROCODILE included. It’s evocative, informative and genuinely suspenseful. I loved it. Even though it made me feel wretched.