Timothy Hallinan

One seems to be on a satisfying streak book-wise, chiefly being because of the settings playing such a part. After rural Italy and then Hong Kong, here I am now in Bangkok. For some reason this city started showing up on nightly video sessions on YouTube, and consequently I have walked the length and breadth of its markets.

So when hero Poke (!) Rafferty, author of popular travel books, goes about his somewhat complicated life and ducks in an out of alleys in and around, say, Phetchaburi, I show more feel a great thrill of recognition. Not that this is the only draw of course. Poke is a likeable character, and in this second of the series he's living happily with Rose and their adopted daughter Miaow. Unfortunately things just happen to Poke, it seems: this time it's Rose who gets tangled up in a counterfeit money scam through her domestic helper agency. And then the FBI is on the case, and then Poke's long-gone father shows up, and he's on the run from some very nasty Chinese gang types...

Phew. The action is relentless, but it's all leavened by a considerable funny streak. Rafferty is a bit of a comic, ready with deadpan one-liners. His friendship with cop Arthit has plenty of such dry gems of exchanges, and together with the smart-alecy daughter and wife, and not to mention even the main criminal and antagonists, it's all very palatable. I must confess the whole scheme at the end involving the swap of the counterfeit dough got too sphagetti-like for my dull brain to follow exactly. But I followed along anyway.

Another good series, yay! There's plenty more where this came from, and I'm eager to see how many I read before we actually make it to Bangkok in real life. Rafferty and co. will be even more pleasing then, I'm guessing. show less

I have had an interesting (well, interesting to me, at least) experience reading Timothy Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty series. The series, which began with 2007’s A Nail Through the Heart, is soon to be seven books long, but I only started reading it at book number five, The Fear Artist. Since then, I have read book six, book four, and now finally book one. As I always try to read a series in the order the books are published, this jumping around has, I think, given me a different perspective show more on the evolution of main characters than the one I usually get.

I do not mean to imply that Tim Hallinan’s plots are not first class crime thriller plots when I say that the main reason I keep reading the Poke Rafferty books is that I have fallen in love with several of the main characters. Poke Rafferty, travel writer, has come to Thailand to continue his rather cynical series of travel books but he finds things in Bangkok that he very much needed: a good woman and a purpose for his life. Rose, a Thai bar girl, would seem to be an unlikely choice for a wife, but Poke senses that there is more to Rose than meets the eye (and she certainly attracts the eye). And then there’s Miaow, the little girl that Poke cannot bear to leave on Bangkok’s dangerous streets. Miaow is a streetwise, precocious little kid who is wise beyond her years. She has a mouth on her and a deadly sense of humor, and it easy to understand why Poke cares for her so deeply.

And there’s Arthit, one of the very few honest policeman in Bangkok - and Poke’s best friend. These two have the kind of friendship that every man needs but seldom finds. Theirs is a relationship built on trust, honesty, respect, and a genuine fondness for each other. And then, of course, there is Poke himself, a man whose very nature makes it impossible for him to ignore the evilness he sees on the streets of Bangkok. As Rose said to Poke when they were discussing marriage, “You see a problem and your response is to fix it, like a broken air conditioner…” That’s Poke: Mr. Fix It.

The thing that surprised me about A Nail Through the Heart is that each of the main characters is already so fully fleshed out as introduced in this series opener. More times than not, in my experience, an author will continue to add layers to the continuing characters for several books rather than to have them this refined in an opener. They more often focus on plot as a way to ensure that readers will want to read the next book in the series. Hallinan, instead, manages first time out to combine a top-notch thriller plot with unique, memorable characters.

A Nail Through the Heart takes a long, hard look at what is still one of the main industries of Asian cities like Bangkok: prostitution. If the Bangkok bar girl lifestyle were not already bad enough, the sexual exploitation of the city’s street children puts Bangkok in a league all its own. Poke Rafferty refuses to watch the exploitation of those too weak to defend themselves – and if he has to play dirty to rescue a child or a young woman, he is ready to do whatever it takes.

Bottom Line: The Poke Rafferty books may not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended, but readers willing to open their eyes to the real world are guaranteed to learn something in every book – even if it is only about themselves.
I have had an interesting (well, interesting to me, at least) experience reading Timothy Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty series. The series, which began with 2007’s A Nail Through the Heart, is soon to be seven books long, but I only started reading it at book number five, The Fear Artist. Since then, I have read book six, book four, and now finally book one. As I always try to read a series in the order the books are published, this jumping around has, I think, given me a different perspective on the evolution of main characters than the one I usually get.

I do not mean to imply that Tim Hallinan’s plots are not first class crime thriller plots when I say that the main reason I keep reading the Poke Rafferty books is that I have fallen in love with several of the main characters. Poke Rafferty, travel writer, has come to Thailand to continue his rather cynical series of travel books but he finds things in Bangkok that he very much needed: a good woman and a purpose for his life. Rose, a Thai bar girl, would seem to be an unlikely choice for a wife, but Poke senses that there is more to Rose than meets the eye (and she certainly attracts the eye). And then there’s Miaow, the little girl that Poke cannot bear to leave on Bangkok’s dangerous streets. Miaow is a streetwise, precocious little kid who is wise beyond her years. She has a mouth on her and a deadly sense of humor, and it easy to understand why Poke cares for her so deeply.

And there’s Arthit, one of the very few honest policeman in Bangkok - and Poke’s best friend. These two have the kind of friendship that every man needs but seldom finds. Theirs is a relationship built on trust, honesty, respect, and a genuine fondness for each other. And then, of course, there is Poke himself, a man whose very nature makes it impossible for him to ignore the evilness he sees on the streets of Bangkok. As Rose said to Poke when they were discussing marriage, “You see a problem and your response is to fix it, like a broken air conditioner…” That’s Poke: Mr. Fix It.

The thing that surprised me about A Nail Through the Heart is that each of the main characters is already so fully fleshed out as introduced in this series opener. More times than not, in my experience, an author will continue to add layers to the continuing characters for several books rather than to have them this refined in an opener. They more often focus on plot as a way to ensure that readers will want to read the next book in the series. Hallinan, instead, manages first time out to combine a top-notch thriller plot with unique, memorable characters.

A Nail Through the Heart takes a long, hard look at what is still one of the main industries of Asian cities like Bangkok: prostitution. If the Bangkok bar girl lifestyle were not already bad enough, the sexual exploitation of the city’s street children puts Bangkok in a league all its own. Poke Rafferty refuses to watch the exploitation of those too weak to defend themselves – and if he has to play dirty to rescue a child or a young woman, he is ready to do whatever it takes.

Bottom Line: The Poke Rafferty books may not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended, but readers willing to open their eyes to the real world are guaranteed to learn something in every book – even if it is only about themselves. show less

First Line: Moon and river.

Poke Rafferty had been making his leisurely way around the world, writing a series of travel books for young and terminally bored males. First came Looking for Trouble in the Philippines, then Looking for Trouble in Indonesia, but when it was time to write Looking for Trouble in Thailand, he found the country had an unbreakable hold on him in the form of two women: beautiful former go-go dancer Rose, whom he wants to marry, and Miaow, a tiny young girl Poke rescued show more from the streets, whom he wants to adopt.

Unfortunately he was once very lucky in finding someone, and that luck has come to haunt him. Poke reluctantly agrees to try to locate an Australian woman's missing uncle, and even more reluctantly takes on the assignment of locating a blackmailer. He needs the money to speed the adoption of Miaow. To top it all off, that tiny urchin insists that he take another street child under his wing-- a very scary young boy known as Superman. Things are about to become very, very complicated. Not only is Poke not a real investigator, he really doesn't understand the country in which he's living, and that is a volatile and dangerous combination.

I could go on and on about characters that immediately latched on to my heart, a setting that I could taste and smell and feel, and a plot that flowed smoothly to its conclusion, but I won't.

What struck me most forcibly in reading A Nail Through the Heart was a true feeling for the culture of the people of Thailand. I have long been a fan of the novels of John Burdett which are also set in Bangkok. Featuring Royal Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, they also are fascinating portraits of the Thai culture. In them, however, I will never be anything other than a farang-- an outsider, a foreigner, a crass American who will never truly understand the Thai people. Although keeping me at that remove is a good thing for maintaining necessary humility, I found Poke's sometimes bumbling attempts to understand a very different culture made me an ally who was more willing to open her mind and her heart. As Poke learned, so did I.

Heart. Not only is heart in the title of this book, it is also on every page. As each chapter flowed into the next, I felt that Hallinan wrote this with a great deal of heart, of emotion... of love. As a result Thailand became alive to me in a way that it never had before.

Timothy Hallinan, you are jai dee. show less

In the third Poke Rafferty story, Rafferty finds himself in a strange bind. He's won the right to write a biography of Khun Pan, a populist but immensely wealthy and corrupt power broker. Other power brokers won't let Rafferty out of his deal, but want to ensure the book paints Pan in a bad light. What's at stake? control of the country - and the lives of Rafferty and his family. The contradictions of Thailand and the effects of corruption and the gap between rich and poor are show more well-illustrated here, but the best part is the story of Da, a child who is given a baby as a prop for begging. Also a highlight - the street kid Boo, known as Superman in A Nail Through the Heart, returns. These are very tender-hearted books, but so well-written they never fall into sentimentality. show less