The Queen of Patpong

This book showed up as a recommendation via LT. I was not impressed with the writing, with the huge gaping holes in the story-line and the sensationalist topic that offered no deeper insight into the plight of Thai children being sold into the sex trade industry than a Hollywood Tabloid. Even the author's disclaimer at the end of the book suggesting that MOST mercenaries are nice guys was, in my opinion, just more empty fodder to gain attention for this book. Poke's wife is a product of the sex trade - okay. All of a sudden a man from her past rises up like the devil himself, to terrorize her and the family. Rose repeatedly implies that Horner - the bad mercenary that's after her/them has limitless power and then proceeds to do nothing but stare out windows and smoke. Poke leaves Rose and their daughter alone numerous times while his wife is in extreme danger but as luck would have it, her chain smoking is never interrupted. Big bad Horner and his evil buddy do attack Poke and the daughter but they make short work of scaring Horner away and the buddy is crushed by a bus because he forgot that Thai's drive on the opposite side of the street than Americans. Now, the deep part - Rose/Kwan tells her superficial story of her evil father and how she is sold into the sex industry .... she didn't know how beautiful she was, she saved huge sums of money - where did that go, what's the point? Rose/Kwan just turned off being a prostitute and "love" transformed her into a pouty wife that operates a house cleaning business to further exploit the bar girls that she is able to pluck out of the business without any repercussions from the bar operators/mama-sans, in fact the mama-sans readily take up Rose/Kwan's "noble" cause and - oh, don't let me ruin the ending for anyone. If you loved the film "Pretty Woman" and hoped that a poor Thai version book would come out, then you're in luck. ( )

Poke Rafferty living in Bangkok has married a former sex worker. Her tale now comes to live when she runs into evil from her past life.
Not a big fan of fiction about the international sex industry and it was hard to stay with the novel. Author Hallinan did a good job keeping it from becoming too soap-box but it was a hard topic. This is why it didn't rate high for me. The mystery part was still good. ( )

This is an exceptional novel, certainly deserving its Edgar nomination. Timothy Hallinan writes with a graceful ease that makes Queen of Patpong highly readable. Within a short time, Thailand literally popped off the pages. Hallinan articulated both rural and urban Thailand, vastly different worlds unto themselves, with such authority and vivid detail, I literally felt transported into a wholly new and exotic culture.

The central story revolves around a young Thai girl's birthwright into poor village hopelessness, which by unfortunate fate, ultimately compelled her into big city prostitution. Hallinan's prespective is straighforward, the seediness of Rose's situation is always present, but not overstated. Hallinan masterfully spins the tension of that situation into a life and death showdown with a truly evil person from Rose's past. ( )

THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, A POKE RAFFERTY THRILLER is a title that is something of a misnomer. It is the fourth book in the Poke Rafferty series by Timothy Hallinan, but while it is definitely a thriller it isn’t really a Poke Rafferty book. The book belongs to Rose, Poke’s wife, a former dancer in a bar, whose outstanding beauty made her the queen of the red -light district of Bangkok. And that isn’t quite right either. Would any woman be happy with a title that describes “what” she is when the “who” she is goes so far beyond that sad bit of geography that has come to define, in many minds, Bangkok?
Rose is extraordinary and so is her story. Both owe their existence to the great talent of the author who has written a book that defines the experience of the brutally poor young women who are forced to sell their beauty and, in many unfortunate cases, their souls so that they can support their families and perhaps, hopefully, keep their younger sisters from having to make the same deal with the devil.

Hallinan choreographs chapter one so that readers who are just discovering the series with THE QUEEN OF PATPONG have enough information to understand the underside of Bangkok. For those who are familiar with the characters, chapter one is funny and a bit reassuring after BREATHING WATER. Chapter two lulls readers as they go to dinner with Poke, Rose, and Miaow who is caught up in her role as Ariel in her school’s production of THE TEMPEST. It is a glimpse into the life of a happy family until, suddenly, it isn’t. A man approaches and places his palms flat on the table in front of Rose. Rose is terrified. Rose was sure he was dead because she was sure she had killed him.

Howard Horner is a nightmare from Rose’s past. The next day, when Poke discovers evidence that Horner knows where they live and when Miaow spots Horner’s associate, John, stalking them, the stakes have been upped and Poke has to become proactive in protecting his family.

Poke leaves Miaow in the cab and follows John to a the Beer Garden, where he runs, literally, into Pim, a girl from the north who is following the same path from poverty as Rose did. When Poke asks Pim to see if John is inside, things go badly, and Pim becomes a hostage. Poke takes care of John; Poke takes Pim home. Emotions are unbridled, glass breaks, doors slam, voices are raised, tears flow and, because Pim reminds Rose of herself, the girl whose name was Kwan, Rose talks about her past to save the girl and to save her family.

It is in this part of the book that Hallinan’s writing soars. As Rose tells her story, she disappears and becomes Kwan, the very tall village girl called, disparagingly, Stork. Kwan is beautiful although she does not know it. She is very bright, something she does know. Her teacher and a man from the Children’s Scholarship Fund come to her home to offer her father money to allow Kwan to stay in school, to even move on to college. But her father refuses and with that refusal Kwan realizes that he has already sold her to a brothel in Bangkok. Rather than becoming a vitual slave, Kwan decides to leave town quietly with Nana, a village girl who has been working on Patpong. Rose continues her story….

When she is finished, Poke knows that Rose and Miaow will not be safe as long as Howard Horner is free to roam Bangkok. His claim that Rose broke a promise is true and for a man with Horner’s ego, she needs to pay for that with her life. Poke brings Pim along as he hides his family in Arthit’s house. Once the women are safe, Poke begins to put into action a plan borrowed from THE TEMPEST.

The author makes frequent references to THE TEMPEST throughout the novel. The first section is entitled “Caliban” after the half-man, half-monster in the play. Horner is Caliban, who believes himself the victim of gross injustice. The second section, the story of Kwan/Rose is entitled “Sea Change”. In the play, Shakespeare writes: “Of his bones are coral made:/ Those are pearls that were his eyes:/Nothing of him that doth fade/But doth suffer a sea change.” A sea change is transformative, it alters the nature of the person who undergoes the stress that creates the change. Kwan becomes Rose. The simple, innocent child of poverty becomes the queen of Patpong Road. The last section is “The Storm”. In the play it is a storm, the tempest, that throws the characters onto the island. In Hallinan’s hands, the tempest created by Horner seems at first to wreak havoc on the family bonds that have been forged among Rose, Poke, and Miaow. But the sea change applies to the family, not just to Rose. At the end, there are no longer any doubts.

THE QUEEN OF PATPONG seems to be transformative for the author as well. For the nearly one hundred and forty pages that are Rose’s story, Hallinan is writing from a woman’s perspective and the result is natural, flowing. I read it, it seemed, without taking a breath.

In the end, THE QUEEN OF PATPONG is laid to rest. In the telling of her story, Rose proves to herself, and to Miaow, that the bar girl no longer exists, perhaps she never did. Rose was a victim of circumstances and the sins of others. Because Rose had to live the life of the bar girl on Patpong Road, Miaow will not have to do so. The street child has been saved because the bar girl had the strength to bring about her own salvation.

She saved Poke when they met.

If THE QUEEN OF PATPONG is made into a movie (and a really good movie it would be) the climax will leave audiences ch ( )

QUEEN OF PATPONG is named for the wife of Poke Rafferty, a writer and the usual protagonist of Timothy Hallinan's Bangkok thriller series. Unlike the other books in the series, this story focuses on Poke's wife, Rose. The story gives readers a full picture of Rose's life (and it ain't pretty).

Although the book starts from Rafferty's point of view, it switches over about a third of the way through to Rose's viewpoint. Not only does this give readers a deeper look into Rose's past, but Hallinan manages to do so while maintaining the tension and humor (despite the bleak scenario described) that are his trademarks.

After a grabber of an opening scene that plays into the theme of the book, the main story begins with Rafferty, Rose and their ever-more-teenaged adopted daughter Miaow having dinner at a restaurant. The three are discussing the Shakespeare play, The Tempest, in which Miaow will appear and which Rafferty is adapting (i.e., truncating with extreme prejudice) to make it more palatable for the kids in Miaow's class to perform.

This semi-pleasant (as discussions with teenaged girls go) scenario is rudely interrupted by the appearance of a man. Not a nice man, either. The man and his not-so-nice friend emanate hostility toward Rose – and she makes it plain the feeling is mutual. Naturally, Rafferty goes on alert. When the man leaves, Rose confesses that she knew him years ago and thought he was dead. By her own hand.

The first third of the book shows Rafferty taking action to protect his family from this threat. Along the way, he takes in another victim – a young girl who (like Rose) seems to be heading for a squalid life as a dancer and prostitute in Bangkok's strip clubs. The man's threat creates pressure and a volatile dynamic among the family members. Miaow's turn as the moody and petulant teen puts her at odds with Rose because of her past life. Things reach a head and become explosive.

Read the entire review at: http://thriller-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/review-of-queen-of-patpong ( )