Grist 04 - Incinerator (38 page)

“… a beautiful yet terrifying book that illustrates the humanity and hatred that people show to each other. This novel is well worth reading.”

—www.reviewingtheevidence.com

“To say that this is a must read or a page turner, would be a grave injustice. For these catch phrases are used far too often to be attached to a novel such as this. I highly recommend this novel and anxiously await the second in the series! Happy Reading!”

—Barnes & Noble.com

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A Nail Through the Heart
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.

The Fourth Watcher (Poke Rafferty #2)

Travel writer Poke Rafferty is ready to let go of his “Looking for Trouble” series of travel books and settle down in Bangkok with his fiancee, Rose, and his newly adopted daughter, Miaow. But trouble isn’t ready to let go of Poke. Enter the one person Poke least wants to see in the entire world — a person whose emotional hold over Poke is absolute. And with him comes a box of rubies, a wad of fraudulent identity papers and — in pursuit of those things — one of the most dangerous gangsters in China.

Add to that Rose’s innocent involvement in a North Korean counterfeiting operation and an off-the-tracks agent of the American Secret Service who’s dying to put Poke behind bars, and Poke and his family find themselves in a complicated and potentially deadly situation. Getting them all out alive will take every skill Poke has.

PRAISE FOR “THE FOURTH WATCHER” AND THE POKE RAFFERTY NOVELS

*
In Hallinan’s stellar sequel to A Nail Through the Heart, travel writer and sometime detective Poke Rafferty is researching the dangerous side of Bangkok for a book when he, his ex-prostitute girlfriend, Rose, and their adopted daughter, Miaow, run afoul of a U.S. Secret Service agent who accuses Rose of passing counterfeit money. The Secret Service is concerned, Poke learns, that the North Koreans have been flooding the world with billions of dollars of fake currency. Poke is then abducted by the beautiful Ming Li, who takes him to his despised father, Frank, who abandoned Poke and his mother many years before. When Frank’s mortal enemy, Colonel Chu, turns up, it’s clear that things are going to hell very quickly, and Poke and his beloved family are not going to escape unscathed. Smooth prose, appealing characters and a twisting action-filled plot make this thriller a standout.

—STARRED REVIEW from Publisher’s Weekly (July)

“This new breed of character for a series is a welcome addition to the thriller fiction set in Asia.”

—Japan Times, 2008 Best of Asia Books

“Hallinan offers a taut story line enhanced by an insider’s look at Thai culture. This book features an unlikely but likeable hero and provides readers with an informed glimpse into a world they are not likely to experience otherwise.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“A stunning follow-up to A Nail Through the Heart. It’s filled with mystery and suspense—as well as a healthy dose of heart—and it’s artfully painted in varying shades of gray. Beautifully written yet satisfyingly seedy, it’s a must-read for mystery enthusiasts and literary types alike.”

—Nightsandweekends.com

“Call me a sucker for thrillers set in exotic foreign locales. Guilty as charged; please let me serve out my sentence in the Thailand depicted by Timothy Hallinan in his wickedly atmospheric new work, The Fourth Watcher.”

—BookPage

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The Fourth Watcher
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Breathing Water (Poke Rafferty #3)

When Poke Rafferty wins, in a late-night, alcohol-fueled poker game, the right to write the biography of an eccentric and mysterious Thai billionaire, he has no idea what’s in store. Within 24 hours, the lives of his family are threatened if he writes the book, and two hours after that, the lives of his family are threatened if he
doesn’t
write the book. As Poke tries to pick his way through the minefield, it becomes apparent that he’s a pawn in a battle between some of the most powerful and unaccountable people in Thailand, and that his only real allies are some of the Kingdom’s least powerful inhabitants — beggars, runaways, and street children. The central question seems to be, can the small bring down the great? Poke’s life, as well as those of Rose and Miaow, are riding on the answer.

PRAISE FOR “BREATHING WATER” AND THE POKE RAFFERTY NOVELS

“Cleverly crafted, masterfully written, characters and dialogue rooted in reality, BREATHING WATER offers fascinating insights into the dark side of crime in another culture. Written with the authority of one who knows life on the hard edge in southeast Asia. Another wonderful read from an author who knows his business.”

—Steve Martini, New York Times bestselling author of
Shadow of Power
and
Compelling Evidence

“BREATHING WATER is as brilliant a piece of crime fiction as I’ve had the pleasure of reading, from the clean prose of the author to Poke Rafferty’s noir humor, and the richness of the Thai landscape.”

—www.gumshoereview.com

In Hallinan’s nicely paced third Bangkok thriller to feature writer Poke Rafferty (after The Fourth Water), Poke wins a bet to write the biography of Khun Pan, a major-league bad guy, after a dispute with Pan in a poker game. When local papers run big stories about the deal, a phone caller threatens Poke, his wife and his daughter if he goes ahead with the project. Soon afterward, Poke is forced into a car by gun-wielding men who demand he write the book, but based on interviews with people on a set list. Poke’s efforts to keep himself alive amid competing interests move the plot along. His sangfroid in the face of serious peril, reminiscent of Cary Grant’s in North by Northwest, may strike some readers as out of place in a book that opens with a heartrending scene of a thug instructing a reluctant girl how to become a professional beggar by pinching an infant to make it cry to gain more sympathy.

—From Publisher’s Weekly (September)

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Breathing Water
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The Queen of Patpong (Poke Rafferty # 4)

For American travel-writer Poke Rafferty, life finally seems to hold some semblance of stability. He and his long-time love, Rose, have gone through with their much-deferred marriage ceremony, their adopted daughter, Miaow, a former street child, has become a loving—if sometimes difficult—part of the family, and the three of them live in relative comfort thanks to Rose’s housekeeping business and Poke’s writing.

Then a nightmare figure from Rose’s time as a Patpong dancer barges into their world, shattering the peace they’ve worked so hard to create. His appearance threatens everything they cherish: their love, their home… their very lives. As a foreigner who’s seen some of the worst Bangkok has to offer and survived confrontations with the Thailand’s most powerful, most dangerous elements, Poke feels equal to most of the challenges Bangkok can throw at him. But now, his only hope is to discover the whole truth of Rose’s past—a journey down the dark and twisting road that turned a shy, awkward village teenager into the queen of Asia’s most lurid red-light street: Patpong Road. And, just when Poke thought life was looking good, reality comes crashing in as he learns that the secrets from Rose’s former life are almost impossible to accept—and even harder to survive.

The Queen of Patpong
is a horrifying, heart-breaking, electrifying story of peril, love, and, ultimately, redemption in modern-day Thailand, and the most ambitious, affecting novel yet from thriller master Timothy Hallinan.

PRAISE FOR “THE QUEEN OF PATPONG” AND THE POKE RAFFERTY NOVELS

*
“Life in Bangkok is good for writer Poke Rafferty and his unlikely family. Poke’s new book is selling well, and he’s happily in love with wife Rose, once a Patpong bar girl. Daughter Miaow, just a few years removed from living on the streets, is enrolled in a good private school and becoming a feisty preadolescent. But their contentment is upended by Howard Horner, a dangerous man from Rose’s past.

Hallinan’s previous Poke thrillers have been reliably entertaining, featuring a fascinating and exotic locale and exceptionally malevolent bad guys (Breathing Water, 2009), but this one is a breakthrough. The backstory concerning Rose’s impoverished life in a squalid Isaan village, her father’s plan to sell her into prostitution, and her escape to Bangkok and life in the sex trade is riveting, genuinely moving, and entirely plausible. Miaow’s entry into a stormy adolescence, and her parents’ efforts to deal with it, are knowingly written. Even Bangkok seems more richly detailed than in past adventures, and Poke’s effort to condense “The Tempest” for Miaow’s school’s production (Miaow plays Ariel) is thoroughly charming. The Queen of Patpong is a terrific page-turner, and the surprising denouement will thrill readers who want the good guys—or girls—to win in the end.”

—Booklist Starred Review: Thomas Gaughan

*
Kirkus Starred Review: (A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.)

“Hallinan (Breathing Water, 2009, etc.) takes his Poke Rafferty series to the next level with this taut, offbeat and fast-moving thriller that focuses on Bangkok’s red-light district and sex trade.

Travel writer Poke has finally persuaded his live-in love Rose, a statuesque former bar girl in Bangkok’s Patpong district, to marry him. The couple and their adopted daughter Miaow are happy. Miaow, a former street urchin, is doing well in school and preparing for her part in an upcoming version of The Tempest; Rose’s cleaning service, which hires former bar workers, is successful; and Poke’s latest book is doing well. But as anyone familiar with Hallinan’s previous entries in this series knows, that much serendipity means Poke’s trouble meter is running. This time the trouble centers around Rose, who finds her past flooding back to haunt her in the worst possible form—a man she thought was dead pops up with the clear intention of not only disrupting her life, but taking it, along with the lives of the other people who matter to her. Poke is well aware of Rose’s past—he met her in a bar—but he had no clue as to what she endured at the hands of this man, or the detailed story of her journey from village girl to prostitute. In the second part of the novel, Rose poignantly tells her story, and this is where Hallinan’s writing really shines: Readers can feel the grime and poverty of village life, smell the streets of Bangkok, taste the fear when Rose—previously known as “Kwan”—fights for her life in her own, private version of The Tempest. Stalked by a resourceful killer dedicated to wiping out his family, Poke and his loyal and incorruptible friend, police officer Arthit, still mourning the loss of his wife, put together a plan to bring the hunter into the kill zone, hoping they can end the nightmare that began years ago in a Bangkok club.