"Poke" Rafferty is an American travel writer living in Bangkok, who has created a niche writing "Looking for Trouble" guide books about Southeast Asia's multitude of adult pleasures. Having eventually grown bored with the bar scene, he has created a family of sorts with a former bar dancer and a rescued orphan girl, one of thousands of discarded children in Thailand. He has also made a kind of side business out of finding people in Bangkok who don't necessarily want to be found.
"A Cut-Out"
It is this "missing person" sideline that draws Clarissa Ulrich to him. Ms. Ulrich is a middle-aged Australian woman looking for the uncle that raised her, an uncle Claus who is suddenly unreachable by phone or email. Perfunctory inquiries lead nowhere, unusual for a 300+ pound man who has lived in Bangkok for over twenty years. To Rafferty, "He’s a cut-out. The blank space is the only reason you know it was ever there."
Trying for Normalcy
Gradually, perhaps inevitably, Poke begins to learn more about this private man. First he is led to a mysterious old woman, Madame Wing, who lives in a colonial mansion with an unusual amount of security. She hires him to find something that has been stolen from her. Something, she casually explains, if he looks at, she will have to have him killed. Nice lady.
Do Some People Deserve to Die?
As the search for Claus Ulrich and for Madame Wing's property converges into one mystery, Poke is drawn into a side of Bangkok that even a writer about the underside of the city cannot imagine -- or stomach. It's a world of exploited and damaged children and of evil. With each new discovery comes another question. Will Poke's involvement in this affair threaten his fledgling family? Will he too be damaged by what he has learned?
A Nail through the Heart is an insightful novel that makes good use of Mr. Hallinan's many years' experience living in Southeast Asia. It is at times a difficult book, not for the reader who prefers cottage cozies. Hallinan varies the pace of the book to create a "hurry up and wait" feeling of fast-paced action followed by periods of inaction. His use of language and phrasing alone make this a book worth picking up.
Mr. Hallinan's Web site indicates that this is the first of a series of novels set in Southeast Asia. I look forward to reading the next one. One of the best mysteries of 2007.
About Timothy Hallinan
Timothy Hallinan is the author of eight novels, a songwriter, and a former college writing instructor. Mr. Hallinan is married and divides his time among his homes in California, Thailand, and Cambodia. He describes the writing and publishing process with refreshing (and amusing) candor in this blog.
(Full disclosure: a review copy of this novel was made available by FSB Associates)
Reviews of Other Recommended Mystery Novels
- Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (John Banville)
- Exile by Richard North Patterson
- The Watchman by Robert Crais
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