Does a mysterious manuscript, discovered by chance in the library of a Burma’s monastery, contain the oldest thriller story of Southeast Asia literature?

This novel is not a classic thriller, but rather a mixed genre of police, adventure and spy-story. The hero, Prince Asaka, fights against the intrigues of the Khmer Court. Himself involved in a crime, he manages to identify the true culprit, thanks to the help of two friends, one of whom, a wise old Hindu, reminds us of the figure of the western investigator. Twists and turns are abundant in the story and in the final hearing we do find the Public Prosecutor and the Defense Attorney, with abundant cross-questioning ante litteram of the testimonies, documentary proof as well as circumstantial.

The exotic scene (the far east of the Indochina peninsula), the anomalous period generally unknown to the Western reader (the Ninth Century A.D.), and the erotic vein present throughout, makes this book a quite unusual reading.

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