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Connoisseurs of contemporary crime fiction know Timothy Hallinan's Thailand-based Poke Rafferty series; at least they should. This fifth entry in the series demonstrates why. It's well-written, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, while providing a tour of Bangkok - and of the moral choices we make as individuals and as a society. Rafferty, a writer who has cobbled together a family that includes a former prostitute and a former street urchin whose adolescence is in full bloom, is on his own as Rose and Miaow visit relatives in the north of Thailand. When he goes out to buy paint to redecorate his daughter's room, he gets caught up in a crowd and is shoved so hard from behind by a big Westerner that they both fall down. When Rafferty realizes his spilled paint is mingling with spilled blood, he looks around for help. But the help that arrives is determined to ensure that nobody knows about the murder of the American, even if that means using fear to silence witnesses. Rafferty's friend Arthit is still too numbed by his wife's death to provide much help – or to notice how deeply infatuated with him a former street girl turned house servant is – so Poke uses a scruffy group of expatriate ex-spies and his own wits to evade surveillance and find out why the murder is officially a non-event. Fans of the series may be disappointed that Rose and Miaow don't play a more prominent role in this volume of the series, yet it was wise of the author to focus on Rafferty after the emotional impact of the previous novel. In fact, it's a relief that Hallinan avoids putting Rafferty's family in danger, though the focus on how family relationships reveal people's moral choices remains an important driver of the story. There are a lot of reasons a reader might enjoy this book. Those interested in the ways thrillers can shed light on society will be interested in Hallinan's exploration of the historical and current use of state-sanctioned terror in the War on Communism, terrorism, or other -isms. Those who like a duel of wits between a hero and a scary bad guy will relish the opponent Hallinan has dreamed up – a sociopath whose training in viciousness is all too believable. Anyone who enjoys the creative use of language or an exotic setting well described will want to read this book. But one of the really haunting things about the story has to do with relationships between fathers and daughters, a theme lingers long after the book is closed. Early in the book, Rafferty feels "a bit of the old tingle, the little carbonated fizz of anticipation he'd felt all those years ago, when he first arrived, when Bangkok was just one jaw-dropper after another." Readers will feel that fizz, too, whether they are die-hard fans or readers new to this excellent series. § Barbara Fister is an academic librarian, columnist, and author of the Anni Koskinen mystery series.
Reviewed by Barbara Fister, June 2012
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