• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Future Expats

Create an Untethered Life Overseas

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • About
    • Big Fat Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
  • Portable Careers
    • Blogging
      • Blogging for Expats WordPress Tutorials
    • Life Coaching
    • Photography
    • Teaching
    • Websites
    • Writing
  • Prepping the Move
    • Countdown
    • Narrowing Your Country/City Search
      • Africa
      • Asia
      • Australia/New Zealand
      • Central America
      • Europe
      • North America
      • Region
      • South America
    • Visas and Residency
    • Quality of Life
    • Learning the Language
    • Health Care
    • Technology
  • Panama
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Hire Me!
    • Expat Resources: Prepping the Move
    • Expat Resources: Portable Careers
    • Expat Resources: Technology
    • Book and Movie Reviews
You are here: Home / Book and Movie Reviews / Malice on the Mekong [Review]

Malice on the Mekong [Review]

June 27, 2016 by FutureExpat

Malice on the Mekong [Review]

Take a group of career diplomats and expat businesspeople, then move them in and out of each others’ lives a few times. Add families, change locations, and stir.

Malice on the Mekong is a mystery novel. It’s also a fascinating look into the world of the serial expat. Not the “oh, let’s retire someplace cheaper/sunnier/more fun than where we’re from,” but the “this is my career, moving around the world from one place to another” type.

Which is all well and good for the employees, but what about their spouses, children, and significant others?

In addition to a cracking good mystery, Malice on the Mekong takes a hard look at what we now refer to as “trailing spouses.” What does the well educated, accomplished professional person (usually a woman) do all day? After the household is up and running, how does she engage with the community and employ her talents? She can’t usually get a job, and she may not want to start a business.

So she gets involved in charity work, in trying to make things better.

Nancy SwingWritten by Nancy Swing, a serial expat herself, the novel is set during the 1990’s. The action takes place in and around Vientiane, Laos, where the Mekong River runs along the Laos-Thailand border.

Charming line drawings of various local scenes and landmarks, like this one, enliven the pages.

line drawing from Malice in the Mekong

The book’s structure reflects the complicated and intertwined relationships of the expats and locals involved. Swing starts her narration with the discovery of a dead body. The story then slowly unfolds, jumping around in time and space to create context. After Anjali, the main character, has gathered the story threads, the pace picks up.

I don’t want to give anything away, but after a slow unraveling and a few tense scenes, the web of murder, embezzlement, and betrayal emerges.

Well worth the read!

Buy Malice in the Mekong

Visit Nancy Swing’s website.

Filed Under: Book and Movie Reviews

Primary Sidebar

Visit Panama

Panama Relocation Tours

VPN Services

Best VPN for TravelersBest VPN for Travelers

Sale on .COM Domains!

KINGCOM domain salepixel

More Posts

rainbow over Panama

Quality of Life is an Elusive Beast

10 More Expat Blogs to Follow

WordPress logo

Need Portable Income? Create a Money-Making Website

Brave New Year

Start the New Year Right

best country for overseas retirement

How To Choose the Best Country for your Overseas Retirement

Reading for Expats

Top Expat Blogs – How Cool is That?

Here's a new award. . . We've just been named to the Top Expat Blogs list at Ranked Blogs! If you like us, click the link and vote us up! we're one of the top expat blogs at Ranked Blogs! Future Expats was recently awarded a spot in the Top 100 Expat Blogs.

Follow Me

  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Future Expats Forum
Proudly running on a Genesis Theme by StudioPress