A troubled Australian journalist undertakes an odyssey into the heart of Cambodian darkness that will destroy the life of everyone he encounters – and his own …
BEYOND YEAR ZERO
by Lawrence Held
Big Sky (Australia), August 2022
Carl Meissner is a 32-year-old unemployed journalist who was fired over his reporting of a paedophile scandal involving a prominent Sydney judge, and is hired by Joe Goldman, a rich currency trader/property developer, to find his missing twin brother, whom a private detective has traced to Cambodia.
BEYOND YEAR ZERO is the story of Carl’s journey into the dark heart of Cambodia – and simultaneously into himself – along the way becoming entangled in the lives of the mysterious ‘Bible Bill’ Butt and the two beautiful Eurasian sisters, Bopha and Dara, and being forced to confront Cambodia’s dark underworld of child pornography, trafficking in human body parts, personal and political corruption, cannibalism, incest, lust and drugs. Having got himself into this seething milieu, where the only certainties are cruelty and violence, Carl then has to get himself out …
Lawrence Held trained at the ‘Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art’ (London), worked in theatre and television in the UK and Europe, presented a ninepart series for the BBC, acted in Waiting for Godot and Endgame, developed scripts for ‘Film Victoria’ and published Once A Jolly Swagperson (Pan Macmillan).
A nomad swallows poison and drowns himself. Resuscitated by a paramilitary bandit named Aslan, Figure is nursed back into a world of violence, sexuality and dementia. Together, Figure and Aslan traverse a coastline erupting in conflict. When the nearest city is ethnically cleansed, Figure escapes on the last ship evacuating to the other isle of the sea. Crossing village to village largely on foot, a slew of outcasts and ghosts guide him as he navigates states of cultural and metaphysical crisis.
Maggie Hoyt is a quick-witted, house-sitting LA actress who’s dated one too many DJs. One night, while still grieving the death of her ex-boyfriend, she meets Rob, a charming tattoo artist who makes her feel like her best self—a feeling she hasn’t experienced in a long time. Their attraction for one another is electrifying and instantaneous. There’s just one problem: he’s married. Their precarious relationship forces Maggie to confront the love she’s been looking for, the guilt she’s been harboring, the grief she’s been hiding, and the woman she wants to be. 
Belleville 1860: Lavender Fitch is a twenty-eightyear-old spinster, whose station in life is diminished after the death of her father, the local apothecary. Her only inheritance is the family house along with its extensive gardens. To make ends meet, Lavender resorts to selling flowers at the local market.
When Alana Shropshire hears from her brothers, Teddy and Martin, complaining about Kelly, the 28-year-old “gold-digger” their 76-year-old father has taken up with, she ignores them. A single mom with a disabled daughter, Alana has more important things on her mind and has long since left her dysfunctional family behind. But her brothers persist, and eventually, she relents. In exchange for sorely needed payment, Alana flies to her father’s private island retreat to perform one tiny task in Teddy and Martin’s simple plan to make the gold-digger go away.