A wooden boat on a misty river, with the dark forests of Southeast Asia behind it in the morning light.

ASIA · 1962–1968

Allies
until further
notice.

A pilot, a diplomat, a journalist.
They work together without telling each other everything.

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THE SIX BOOKSVERBORGENE FRONT NOVELS BY KEN LANDROS
01 / THE NOVEL SERIES1962 — 1968

Verborgene
Front.

Even allies have reasons
to leave a case unsolved.

An American pilot, a young diplomat and a French journalist meet in Laos. Over the following years, they search for missing people and investigate deaths in Vietnam, Indonesia and India. A Lao officer, an Indian radio technician and a Vietnamese teacher pursue investigations of their own. Each book tells a complete crime story.

Read Books 1–3 in English and Books 4–6 in German. The covers show the German titles.

Original German cover: Das andere Ufer by Ken Landros, Verborgene Front, Book 1LOOK INSIDE
BOOK 01 LAOS · 1962

The Other Shore

Twenty-four names are on the departure list. Twenty-three men wait beside Garrity’s aircraft. Paymaster Dwight Pruitt is missing. Garrity is sent to find him and establish what happened to the money intended for the Lao army.

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Original German cover: Der Preis eines Wortes by Ken Landros, Verborgene Front, Book 2LOOK INSIDE
BOOK 02 SAIGON · 1963

The Price of a Word

Translator Phan Văn Lộc is found dead in a Saigon canal. The police say he was killed in a robbery. Journalist Marguerite Vernier doubts their account. With Zielinski, she investigates what Lộc heard at a secret meeting — and what he later passed on.

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Original German cover: Die Phantome von Tonkin by Ken Landros, Verborgene Front, Book 3LOOK INSIDE
BOOK 03 LAOS & TONKIN · 1964

The Phantoms of Tonkin

Owen Hale, a civilian working in American signals intelligence, dies in Saigon. The military police report an enemy attack. His friend Zielinski has doubts: the evening before, Hale had shown him that his intercepts did not confirm the second attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.

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Original German cover: Die Stunde der Generäle by Ken Landros, Verborgene Front, Book 4LOOK INSIDE · GERMAN
BOOK 04 INDONESIA · 1965–1966

The Hour of the Generals

Jakarta, 1965. Zielinski discovers a name added to a list of people to be arrested: Pak Kusno, his Indonesian teacher. As the army rounds up alleged communists, he tries to get his teacher to safety.

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Original German cover: Die letzte Meldung by Ken Landros, Verborgene Front, Book 5LOOK INSIDE · GERMAN
BOOK 05 INDIA · 1966

The Last Message

Ravi Kapoor wants to show his colleague Menon what is wrong with an operations report. The next morning, he is found dead at the foot of a storehouse staircase in the Himalayas. Menon starts asking questions. His own signature is on the report.

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Original German cover: Der Name des Toten by Ken Landros, Verborgene Front, Book 6LOOK INSIDE · GERMAN
BOOK 06 HUẾ · 1968

The Dead Man’s Name

Photographer Đỗ Quang Nghi fails to return from an assignment. His wife Hạnh begins looking for him. Weeks later, she recognises him in a photograph said to show an enemy fighter killed in combat. Vernier has the same photograph — obtained before the reported date of his death.

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Complete cases, recurring characters.The books follow events from 1962 to 1968 in chronological order.

02 / THE SETTINGSINDIA — INDONESIA · 1962–1968

Where the
novels unfold.

Select a place on the map or in the list.
Read about the historical setting of each book.

LAOS · AUTUMN 1962

Vientiane on the Mekong

In 1962, Vientiane is the administrative capital of the Kingdom of Laos. Thailand lies across the Mekong. Garrity’s search for the missing paymaster begins at Wattay airfield, taking him across the river and back into the city.

The Geneva agreement of July 1962 provides for a neutral Laos and the withdrawal of foreign military personnel. A commission from India, Canada and Poland is to supervise the withdrawal. Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma heads a coalition of rival factions.

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The settings from India to IndonesiaMap of South and Southeast Asia with six selectable settings: Vientiane, Saigon, the Gulf of Tonkin, Jakarta, Delhi and the Himalayas, and Huế. Vientiane Saigon Gulf ofTonkin Jakarta Himalayas Delhi Huế
SETTINGS OF THE NOVELSBOOK 01 · Vientiane
04 / THE AUTHORKEN LANDROS
Mist over the river and a light aboard the boat.
“Both figures were true,
and only one would
go on record.” FROM THE OTHER SHORE

BANGTAO, PHUKET

Ken Landros

Political crime fiction
set in South and Southeast Asia.

Ken Landros lives and writes in Bangtao, Phuket. In Verborgene Front, he writes about the Cold War in Asia: the people who work for governments, and those who have to live with their decisions.

His research draws on contemporary reports, diplomatic records and historical studies. His fictional criminal cases take place against the wars and political upheavals of the 1960s.

Read an excerpt from Book 1
KEN LANDROS / EXCERPT

English excerpt

End of the excerpt.

Find more opening chapters in the book overview.