One of the gripes voiced by veteran readers of Bangkok Fiction is that the common plot of western man-meets-bargirl has become so hackneyed that it’s really served its time, and should either be upgraded or retired. We’ve started to feel the same way about its replacements, the girl gets trafficked or children are molested by gross Westerners themes. Author Timothy Hallinan, is his A Nail Through the Heart (2007, ISBN 978-0-06-125580-9) has managed, to a large extent, to overcome the bathos inherent in much of the writing on children get molested themes, providing a scenario that offers compelling twists and turns for the reader. 

The is the first in a series of books Rafferty has either written— or will write — about his protagonist Poke Rafferty, who lives in Bangkok. Recurring people in his life include Rose, an ex-bargirl, and Miaow, a young girl with some serious street experience. We don’t know a whole lot about Rafferty at the beginning, other than the fact that he’s written a series of edgy travel books on Asia. Along the way, we find he’s pretty proficient at breaking and entering, and hand-to-hand and small arms combat. In ‘Nail,’ he takes on a missing person’s case that soon involves child pornography, and eventually involves a real nasty foe that was responsible for some egregious actions on behalf of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. 

Overall, the plot is good, the writing prosaic, and several of the characters are memorable. Hallinan does a nice job of character development, especially concerning the street urchin ‘Superman.’ The author displays a good working knowledge of the Bangkok police system as it relates to money, bribery, and favors, and like all Bangkok Fiction, involves the city as a character unto itself. He has an unmistakable flair for the dramatic, and with 60 or so pages to go at midnight one night, we elected to make a strong pot of coffee and finish the book, rather than waiting until the next day for the suspense to unravel, a compliment to any author. 

We were less comfortable, though, with the feeling we get that Hallinan just doesn’t like punters, otherwise known as western men that engage in Bangkok’s adult nightlife. It’s tempting for western authors to paint Bangkok’s troubles, from bribery, to kiddie porn, to adult trafficking, on the canvas of western male visitors, who after all, are as varied in terms of their personalities as the countries from which they come. Whether this concern has merit should be borne out by the following book in the series, The Fourth Watcher. In summation, Hallinan’s a very good writer with a uniquely different perspective on the Bangkok experience than many of the authors in the genre that have preceded him. We look forward to his subsequent books in the series. Buy it now at the WoWasis estore, powered by Amazon.

Interview with Timothy Hallinan