The Queen of Patpong: A Poke Rafferty Thriller

I have to thank the pair of reviewers who took the time to recommend this book. The Publisher's Summary sounded banal and the leading character's name triggered my eye rolling reflex. Well, "Sooprize, sooprize, sooprize," as Gomer Pyle used to say. Tim Hallinan can write! Characters, plot, action, dialogue, local color: he fires on all five cylinders and even leaves you wishing the ride had lasted a little longer. And at the risk of suffering the furies of hell, I will even presume to suggest that he writes some terrific female characters. Add to all this the brilliant way he manages to weave through the story a description of an artful high school production of "The Tempest" and you have what I found to be a quite extraordinary piece of work.

I am not quite sure what to call the book. Thriller seems much too reductive, and it is not a classic mystery, crime fiction or adventure. It is, by turns, gripping, moving, and hilarious, and it is fascinating throughout. So I urge you to get to know Poke Rafferty. And Rose, and Miaow and the women of Patpong. You might even get to like his name as I have.

I'd heard of this book so bought it yesterday, the first day it was available. I listened in one gulp. Great characters (both the "good" ones and the "bad" ones) great descriptions of the culture, and interesting plot. The reader is also excellent. Doesn't get in the way, well paced. Glad to see there are other books by this author recently added. I'll be starting another shortly. Great addition to the action/thriller collection here at audible.

Tim Hallinan has become my favorite writer in the past three years or so, and each new author I try just solidifies Tim's position. The fourth in a wonderful series, Queen is the culmination of a series which will be very hard to top. The plot tells the story of Rose, a dirt-farm town girl who can only survive by going into the Bangkok sex trade. Tim tells this story with such passion that you will fall in love with Rose by the end of the book, as well as with Miaow, the street-urchin who is adopted by Rose and Poke Rafferty, who is the nominal protagonist of the series. Tim is so funny that it's hard to believe that these are "thrillers," but he will make you LOL, repeatedly. The book is also scary, with one scene in particular that will leave you breathless. I guarantee it.
The book follows both Rose's harrowing climb and Miaow's performance in a school production of The Tempest, with such sweetness infusing every scene that you want to know these people in your own life. The scenes in the sex trade are brutal and make you want to close your eyes and ears, but you won't, because you simply must know how these three, plus Poke's best friend, Arthit, survive. The individual evil in the plot, a mercenary named Howard Horner, is so sharply drawn that your skin literally crawls when he appears. The evils of the kids' lives in the sex trade is almost unbearable, but somehow Tim makes the kids so vibrant and the women so completely real that the result is anything but one-dimensional. The women are neither whores with hearts of gold nor just throwaway tramps. Their story could not be told better if Shakespeare were living there now.
The narrator, Victor Bevine, is perfect. Every Asian voice, every American character, each scene is told so beautifully that my only fantasy is that Frank Muller could return to us and read Tim's work. There can be no higher praise, in my opinion.
Pretty soon you'll be telling your friends about these books, as I am.