The Devil's Road to Kathmandu

By: Tom Vater

Narrated by: Edmund Bloxam

In 1976, four friends - Dan, Fred, Tim, and Thierry - are on a bus along the hippie trail from London to Kathmandu. But everything is not going according to plan.

After a drug deal goes wrong, the boys barely escape with their lives. Thousands of kilometers, numerous acid trips, accidents, nightclubs, and a pair of beautiful Siamese twins later, they finally reach the counter-culture capital of the world, Kathmandu, and Fred disappears with the drug money.

A quarter-century later, mysterious emails invite the other three to pick up their share of the money, and they decide to reunite in Kathmandu. Soon, a trail of kidnapping and murder leads them across the Roof of the World.

With the help of Dan’s backpacking son, a tattooed lady, and a Buddhist angel, the aging hippies try to solve a 25-year-old mystery that takes them amongst Himalayan peaks, and toward the inevitable showdown with their past.

©2021 Tom Vater (P)2021 Tom Vater

A psychedelic crime thriller

Great fun. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of 1970s adventure with modern day hijinks. Great cast of characters and loads of colourful details to give you the feeling of having been in the exotic and forbidden places.

Better than I Expected or Thought it would be.

I didn't really even know who Tom Vater was when I got The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu. Granted I have only more recently in the last few months gotten back into reading after years of not really having the time to read. I have been trying to make the time and learn about all the new authors coming out and also find Indie authors to read.

I did like this book and I feel that this was a good first start into reading books by this author. I plan on looking into more works by Tom Vater in the future in hopes to find any other hidden gems that might be there.

What I enjoyed was that the book showed you into the life of some teenage hippies in a coming of age story mixed with crime, a bit of mystery, suspense, at times a thriller, with just the tiniest sprinkle of romance that is not too overpowering.
One thing I had a hard time with this book was the way that it jumps from past to present to past and then back to present. Usually this would not be that much of an issue for me and maybe I just didn't catch the cues when they would happen with the switch. But from my personal experience, it could be jarring at times and would make me lose place of where I was at. At times, I would have to replay parts of the book because I felt like I had missed something and would find myself wondering “who the heck is this person that just got introduced? Why are they there? Did I skip forward or something?” So I have to say that this is a book that you definitely want to take your time listening to and paying attention to.
I do wish that the story was fleshed out at least a little bit more to make some of those transitions a bit smoother but maybe that is supposed to be part of the mystery aspect of the book. I'm not the most familiar with mystery books so this was kind of a new thing to tread into.

Edmund Bloxam did a decent job with narrating the book and the quality of the recording was very good with no background noises or anything that could be a distraction within the recording I have heard with other books in the past. However, towards the beginning of the book The narrator can be very monotonous sounding or use a robotic tone of voice but as he goes along it does start sound a little bit more lively and you can tell the difference between the characters and their different accents or voices.

On a small side note, I did like some of the descriptions of how these places were in the 70s and found it to be pretty historically accurate from what little bit I know of that era and  location from photos and the small bit of history I know and recall about that time and place.

Overall, In My Opinion this book could easily be overlooked. However, this is a book that would be a good and entertaining read for some people that are looking for a bit of excitement and maybe even something different to read.
I give this book 3 hippies out of 5.
Until next time,
-Teo

Capers with surprising depth

I wondered where this was going at first, but when the pieces start to show…
I can’t spoil it, of course.

But there’s more than the simple. And it all plays into great characterization and great characters. And you can hear the differences too.

Disappointing

The premise of this book was very intriguing, but the characters were underdeveloped and the plot worked out in a very cliched fashion. I finished it but only because I kept hoping it would get better. The narration was good-very convincing British stoners.