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A Nail Through the Heart: A Novel of Bangkok (Poke Rafferty Thriller Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Timothy Hallinan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 458 ratings

Book 1 of 9: Poke Rafferty Thriller

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An expat detective in Bangkok discovers the dark truths beneath the surface of his chosen home in this “fast, bold, and beautifully written” thriller (T. Jefferson Parker).

Travel writer Poke Rafferty was good at looking for trouble—so good that he made a little money writing a few offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored. But that was before Bangkok stole his heart. Now the expat American is happily playing family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and with Miaow, the wary street child he wants to adopt. But settling down won’t be as easy as it seems . . .

First, Poke takes in Miaow’s friend, a troubled and terrifying street urchin named Superman. Then he agrees to help an Aussie woman find her missing uncle—and accepts an old woman’s generous payment to find a blackmailing thief. Soon, these three seemingly disparate events begin to overlap, pulling Poke into dark, unfamiliar terrain.

Poke soon comes to realize that he’s been gliding across the surface of a culture he really doesn’t understand—and that what he doesn’t know is about to hurt him and everyone he loves.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brutal torture and equally brutal empathy define this excellent, if sometimes familiar, thriller from Hallinan (The Bone Polisher). Poke Rafferty, a travel writer turned detective, intends to settle down in Bangkok with his ex-prostitute girlfriend, Rose, and a young urchin, Miaow, when Miaow brings her troubled friend Superman into the household. While dealing with this intrusion, Rafferty takes on dual sleuthing assignments to help pay for adopting Miaow. The first case involves finding Australian Claus Ulrich, a hardcore bondage aficionado. When Rafferty meets the powerful and rich Madame Wing while investigating Ulrich's disappearance, she offers him $30,000 to find an envelope and the Cambodian man who took it. The only catch? If Rafferty opens the envelope, he'll learn information about Madame Wing that will force her to kill him. Rafferty stumbles through the clues like the foreigner he is, always on the outside looking in. Despite an overly leisurely ending, the rich depictions of Bangkok's seedy side recall John Burdett's visceral mysteries. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The author of the 1990s Simeon Grist series returns with a compelling new protagonist: American travel writer Poke Rafferty, who is out to right some serious wrongs on the predatory streets of Bangkok. While attempting to adopt a homeless girl, rescue a potentially murderous urchin known as Superman, and build a lasting relationship with the former bar girl he loves, Poke is pulled into two brutal mysteries. One involves a notorious Khmer Rouge torturer, the other a series of child-porn photos. As he doggedly plumbs these ghastly depths, Rafferty matures from a play-it-as-it-lays layabout into a man willing to meet his lover's culture more than halfway and find his moral compass at a time when the victims can be as guilty as the murderers are innocent. The fact that the referenced pedophile photo series and Phnom Penh torture house both existed heightens the impact of a narrative that's already deeply felt. If this opens a new series, Hallinan is off to a surefooted start with a supporting cast (including Poke's precocious, pugnacious, almost-daughter Miaow) well worth getting to know. Sennett, Frank

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001AZRJJO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3634 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #292,576 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #613 in Asian American Literature & Fiction
- #1,268 in Heist Thrillers
- #1,728 in International Mystery & Crime (Kindle Store)

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4.4 458 ratings

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Timothy Hallinan

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Edgar, Shamus, Macavity and Lefty nominee Timothy Hallinan has written twenty-one published novels, all thrillers and mysteries, all critically praised. He currently writes two series, one set in Los Angeles and the other in Bangkok, and in 2017 he also revived his earlier series, written in the 1990s about the overeducated slacker private eye Simeon Grist. The new book, the first since 1995, is "Pulped."

His 2014 Junior Bender novel, "Herbie's Game," won the Lefty Award for Best Comic Crime Novel of the year. His 2010 Poke Rafferty Bangkok novel, "The Queen of Patpong," was nominated for the Edgar as Best Mystery of the Year.

The Junior Bender mysteries chronicle the adventures of a burglar who moonlights as a private eye for crooks. Six titles have been published to date, and "Herbie's Game" (2015) won the Lefty Award for Best Comic Crime Novel. The other titles in the series are "Crashed," "Little Elvises," "The Fame Thief," "King Maybe," and "Fields Where They Lay," which was on many "Best Books of 2016" lists. Coming in 2018 is "Nighttown."

The Junior Bender books are presently in development as a primetime television series.

In 2007, the first of his Edgar-nominated Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers, "A Nail Through the Heart", was published. "Hallinan scores big-time," said Kirkus Reviews, which went on to call the book "dark, often funny, and ultimately enthralling." "Nail" was named one of the top mysteries of the year by The Japan Times.

Rafferty's Bangkok adventures have continued with "The Fourth Watcher," "Breathing Water," "The Queen of Patpong," "The Fear Artist," "For the Dead," and "The Hot Countries." Coming in 2017 is "Fools' River."

In the 1990s he wrote six mysteries featuring the erudite private eye Simeon Grist, beginning with "The Four Last Things," which made several Ten Best lists, including that of The Drood Review. The other books in the series were well reviewed, and several of them were optioned for motion pictures. The series is now regarded as a cult favorite and is being revived, in one sense of the word, with "Pulped."

He has also edited two books. "Shaken: Stories for Japan" contained original stories by top mystery writers and raised more then $100,000 for tsunami relief efforts, with every penny going straight to Japan. "Making Story: 21 Writers and How They Plot" contained practical ideas on plotting by well-known mystery and thriller writers.

Hallinan divides his time between Los Angeles and Southeast Asia, the setting for his Poke Rafferty novels.

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4.4 out of 5

458 global ratings

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Nanday Conure

A riveting story.

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2007

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I found this story riveting. The quote from a major reviewer that I like is "Many readers are likely to find that good feeling infectious, even as they are horrified by what the region's tragic history over the past half-century has left in its wake."

It's good because I can not put into words so succinctly the darkness and depravity that seems to hover over that region. And somehow Mr. Hallinan has touched on all of it ... and yet at the same time because of his characters, he has conjured up a heart warming story. I think that Rafferty could become the champion of a certain type of horribly abused "child". You can not really give them the title of children because of what he tells us about them ... and perhaps because of that these "children" don't get the amount of help that they need in order to reverse their plight. But this book really brings it to light. That as well as the atrocities that have left their mark, from the Khmer Rouge.

He weaves a great, fast-moving, suspenseful detective story with so much of the feel of Bangkok and so much of the awfulness of what has taken place there. It is so current that upon reading it - later listening to NPR I heard a story truthfully addressing what the book alleged. So to me it became a powerful "fiction" novel. A shocking story with wonderful characters as well as revolting ones. And written so well that you do not feel bad afterwards.

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Robert Keeney

Great characters and writing, flawed history.

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2018

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A warning, first. This book contains stories of child rape and torture, and it chronicles some of the worst atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during their horrific reign in Cambodia. This is not light reading. Despite this, the writing is exceptional. Hallinan obviously knows Bangkok inside and out, and you find yourself rooting for Poke Rafferty and his family of: girlfriend and ex-hooker Rose and adopted? daughter Miaow as well as his friend and clean cop Arthrit. Lots of local color, great creative writing, a plot that weaves two stories as it moves along at a frenetic pace. Very hard to put down. My biggest quibble is this: The Thais tend to be good hearted if corruptible. The Farangs (foreigners) seem to be the source of almost all of the real evil. Hallinan uses a throw away paragraph to indict the U.S. as complicit in the Khmer Rouge rise to power in Cambodia. He makes a statement that U.S. bombing, killing "nuns and children" put the Cambodians on the K.R. side. I think he needs to read an unbiased history. The original "secret bombing" of Cambodia was really aimed at the North Vietnamese, who illegally invaded that country. Subsequent air attacks of the Khmer Rouge were meant to keep these Maoist monsters from taking over the country. As a fighter pilot flying out of Thailand in '73, I could talk personally with the Cambodian regular army about the predations of the K.R. as they rolled up the countryside. The torture and atrocities the K.R. committed would be multiplied when the U.S. washed its hands of this operation and the Khmer Rouge took over the entire country. The communist thrust in Cambodia goes back decades before this and It's lazy to put blame on the U.S. Having said this, I can personally attest to the warping of the Thai economy in the 60's and 70's that made it possible for a waitress working at a U.S.A.F. Officer's Club to make double that of a schoolteacher, and for a "massage girl" to make several times that. I've read two of these books and enjoy them and I hope Hallinan will lighten up a little. Maybe in one of the other books I'll get more background on Poke himself.

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Marshall

Excellent, well-written novel bring Bangkok to life

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2023

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I bought this book after a recent (my first) trip to Thailand. The book did a wonderful job of bringing Bangkok to life and showing me a side to the city that one doesn't see as a regular tourist. The characters were well-drawn and interesting. As I neared the end, I couldn't put the book down until I finished. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. Highly recommended.

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Max Read

"A mystery thriller (Looking for Trouble in Thailand)"

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2013

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Timothy Hallinan is a mystery series writer with three protagonists featured in his novels: Junior Bender, a career burglar, Philip (Poke) Rafferty, a travel writer, and Simeon Grist a detective. While the novels all entail some mystery and detective work the settings are distinctly different and the story lines intriguing and original.

"A Nail Thorough the Heart", a Poke Rafferty novel, is the second of Hallinan's works that I have reviewed: the first being "Crashed" of the Junior Bender series. The inspiration for reading this second novel of Hallinan's derives from the excellent writing that framed the previous novel "Crashed"; and I am not disappointed as Hallinan's writing skills are clearly evident in this novel as well.

Philip (Poke) Rafferty is a book writer living in Bangkok, Thailand in a modest dwelling apartment within the city. Poke is decidedly lucky, he thinks, to have Rose, whom he rescued from a seedy night life existence and who he has tried variously to capture in marriage; so far resisted, and Miaow, an eight year old girl formerly abandoned on the streets of Bangkok. Together, the trio is Poke' vision of a family, and one he wants to bind more securely including the adoption of Miaow.

As the story opens, two men are digging a hole in the back yard of the home of its wealthy inhabitant in search of a buried safe. The safe, it seems, contains something of extreme value to the owner. In the course of the theft, one of the men is killed and this becomes the seed for the growth of a deeply disturbing mystery. On a second seam, Poke is approached by his cop friend Arthit to help a young Australian woman, Clarissa Ulrich find her missing uncle Claus. This action it seems was derived from the fact that Poke had written an article about finding foreign men in Thailand who didn't want to be found; a copy from Arthit that Clarissa found most interesting. And so the two seemingly distinct occurrences begin the journey of causal connection as Poke becomes more and more involved in the attendant mysteries surrounding each of them.

Hallinan writes easily about the sights and scenes of Bangkok. His language has a familiar feeling that makes visual impressions of the people and places involved. The mystery is steeped in some loathsome activity involving unfortunate children and a chilling recollection of the atrocities perpetuated by the Khmer Rouge. Both aspects of asian culture finding their way into Hallinan's story.

This was a very engaging novel and one I would highly recommend be added to your reading list.

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Peter Simon Jones

A flawed masterpiece is still a masterpiece

Reviewed in Japan on March 1, 2011

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The more I read, the more I am convinced that an author imparts a certain amount of their actual, and physical soul into their works. We, the reader, whilst not wholly passive are simply listening to the voice of the author transmitting his or her thought to us from the page. If the reader therefore fails to grasp the depth and clarity of the story being told there are two possible explanations. Firstly, that they are not listening to the author's voice, not being attentive enough, not paying enough attention. Secondly, that the author's voice isn't clear enough to understand, their ideas not sufficiently eloquent or logical. This latter conjecture may well lead some readers to say “Well, it was the author’s fault I didn't get it!” - and assuming the author is guilty of not expressing with severe enough clarity, their narrative, then that would be a reasonable argument. However, I would argue that this is probably a lazy excuse, and that in most cases it is WE the reader who is not listening. Of course we could be attentive and hear utter nonsense - that is always the danger.

For some unknown reason I am on a bit of a BKK tip at the moment having recently read Stephen Leather’s EXCELLENT ‘Private Dancer’, Warren Olson’s entertaining ‘Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye’ and John Burdett’s apocalyptically abysmal ‘Bangkok 8: A Novel’, I find my way to Timothy Hallinan’s superb ‘A Nail Through The Heart’.

Referring back to my initial conjecture opined in paragraph one, initially I did wonder if I hadn’t made another mistake with this purchase; I did wonder if I hadn’t got something similar to Burdett’s dreadful ‘8’. The reason being that whereas a book often starts out strong and ends weakly, this story I found to be quite the opposite, insofar as when I read the first dozen-or-so pages I could hardly hear Hallinan’s voice. Was it because I wasn’t concentrating? or because he was speaking too quietly and mumbling to boot? I would suggest the latter. Maybe because this book is the first in the Poke Rafferty series and maybe because it represents a shift in direction to Hallinan’s previous series. Who knows? The fact is though that I had to read and then re-read several passages to hear his story, something I almost never have to do. Once Hallinan found his voice, however, and once he got going, I found this book to be far superior to Burdette’s in so may ways.

Although this book has two very serious flaws in the story, serious enough to warrant a re-write and a re-edit, it is however, a genuinely interesting and intriguing tale and represents something very substantial in both the genre of thrillers and novels set in BKK.

Firstly the flaws - the initial shooting of Tam, the total about-turn in the character of ‘the man who calls himself Chon’ and the bizarre fascination with the fact that Tam had an attractive wife (what on earth was that all about?) and secondly the e.-mailing of Superman’s ‘AT’ photograph to Morrison, which simply would never have happened, would not have been requested under any circumstances by a man in his position, and which would have been totally unnecessary to secure Superman a place at school; Morrison’s trusted word being more than enough.

The plusses. The characters are likable, believable, honest, recognizable, not stereotypical and for the most part very well-drawn. The plot is excellent, original, intriguing, challenging, believable, well-researched and very fast-paced. Hallinan clearly knows about both BKK and SE Asian, he writes at a good mid-way point between a tourist and a traveller, a believer and a cynic. He makes the reader want to follow the development of the characters in future books, and sets about genuinely engaging the senses. I have purchased ‘The Fourth Watcher’ and can’t wait to start reading it - I cannot remember the last time I was this excited to read a second-installment.

Finally, I personally feel this book would make a superb film for the right director, someone like Doug Liman, and hope that a studio takes an option on it and transfers it to the screen.

Annabel

A Nail through the Heart: A novel of Bangkok

Reviewed in Canada on March 24, 2013

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A very goood read - not quite as exciting a book as I first thought - For those who know of Bangkok would find this book more interesting than I did.......Annabel

Michael Bromfield

A rival for john Burdett

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2010

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John Burdett has seemingly cornered the market in Bangkok crime novels (a genre waiting to explode on the world?) and done an excellent job with a series of fascoinating novels using a half western/half Thai detective in recent years - now we have Timothy Hallinan with a half Western/half Filipino writer cum private detective and yet surprise surprise Hallinan's Rafferty despite the similarities is a convincing charater and this is an interesting novel well told.

To appeal to the mass market any contemporary Bangkok novel will involve the sex industry and retired bar girls (lets face it thats why most of the expatriates and potential readers are in Bangkok themselves!)and corrupt police and a healthy dose of violence also appear to be prerequisites but the author weaves it all together into a compelling story that is almost credible.

Almost two stories intertwine and perhaps the ending is the weakest section but the characters are convincing, the narrative well structured and I will certainly be reading the two sequels.

Amazon Customer

Hits the nail on the head.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2012

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When I picked up "A I nail through the heart" I hadn't actually read anything by Monsieur Hallinan before and having finished it I wish I had.
The lead characters Poke Rafferty, Rose and Arthit are likeable, agreeable, plausible and have a reasonable (by Bangkok standards) moral compass, Poke is a travel writer/amateur detective who with the help of Rose, a bar girl who's trying to make it outside the bar have tried to adopt a couple of damaged street kids.
Poke himself has taken on two detective assignments, one to help track down a missing Autralian/American another to help wealthy spinster track down a burglar. Sounds simple enough but in Thailand nothing is ever straightforward, the plot thickens with murder and kidnap attempts and exposes the seedy underbelly of modern Thailand.
It's a civilised and engaging read and young Timothy does have a mastery of the English language that conjures up some vivid pictures of Bangkok's simmering cauldron of humanity.
I liked it and if Thailand's your cup of tea you might like Last Seen in Bangkok ..

cheers

Varalagom

HOOKED ON THIS SERIES NOW!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2011

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Stumbled across this author and book, his first in a series with 'Poke Rafferty' as the lead character and before half finished I had already ordered the next two books of the series (and have the 4th on my Amazon.UK 'Wish List' to get). All in all this book does a pleasing job with characters, plot and suspense. In places 'some' of the dialogue is disappointing yet the overall read I found very satisfying and leaving me eager for more...Amazon.UK reviews I read for his next 2 Poke Rafferty books have been better, if not excellent (especially 3rd & 4th book in series). Delighted to have made this find! Poke is my kind of guy...

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