For the Dead

September 1, 2014
In Hallinan’s engaging sixth thriller set in Bangkok and featuring American journalist Poke Rafferty (after 2012’s The Fear Artist), Rafferty’s adopted 13-year-old daughter, Miaow, and her 13-year-old boyfriend, Andrew Nguyen, purchase a used iPhone on which they find photos of police officers recently killed in an execution-style slaying. An ex-cop who had previously been indicted in a police-run murder-for-hire ring also appears in the photos. When shadowy assailants threaten Miaow, Rafferty reconciles with an estranged friend, the Bangkok police detective Arthit, in an attempt to bring down those behind both the killings and the assassination ring. Hallinan’s overly elaborate and indirect narrative style, along with his tendency to reveal information that his characters already possess only partially, slows the story to a glacial pace at times, but the author’s sympathetic and compelling characterization of Miaow and Andrew, as well as several street kids, makes for a harrowing, satisfying conclusion. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Bob Mecoy Literary.

October 15, 2014
The human vermin who infest Bangkok inch ever closer to travel writer Poke Rafferty's growing family.Andrew Nguyen, the boy Rafferty's adopted daughter, Miaow, has a crush on, has one hard-nosed father. Capt. Nguyen, business liaison for the Vietnamese Embassy, is not only determined that his son marry a Vietnamese woman; he's not about to buy Andrew another cellphone. So when Andrew loses his iPhone, Miaow, who knows just where to purchase stolen phones, helps him buy a replacement on the sly. The only trouble is that the phone contains photos of two cops who have very recently turned up dead, and somebody wants the phone and its virtual contents back badly enough to threaten Miaow, Andrew and Andrew's whole family. Rafferty would be the obvious person to turn to if Miaow weren't so hurt by learning that her adoptive mother, Rose, a former Patpong dancer her father rescued and married (The Fear Artist, 2012, etc.), has just become pregnant, and neither of her parents saw fit to tell her the news themselves. Juggling his latest domestic crisis as he works with Lt. Col. Arthit, his friend on the force, Rafferty connects the mystery of the dead police to a conspiracy that's been festering for years. Although the master puppeteer who's been pulling the strings seems to appear out of nowhere with suspiciously convenient timing, Rafferty's climactic confrontation with him will satisfy readers' most self-righteous desires for revenge even as it promises a rare moment of equipoise for this rewarding franchise. "You can't live for the dead," Rafferty keeps getting reminded. His latest adventure is a compelling demonstration of just how untrue that is and a stirring account of his strenuous attempts to live for the living.

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Starred review from November 1, 2014
Miaow, expat writer Poke Rafferty's adopted 13-year-old daughter, once lived on the streets of Bangkok, and she knows just what to do when her boyfriend, Andrew, loses his iPhone. She leads him to a shady vendor to buy a used, likely stolen replacement, which may hide Andrew's carelessness from his combustible father. But the phone contains photos of two disgraced former police officers, and the two, who ran a murder-for-hire service within the department, are promptly killed. Soon, Miaow and Andrew are being chased by dangerous men, and people at the very top of law enforcement are conniving to contain the damage to the famously corrupt department's reputation. Hallinan's latest builds on the success of The Queen of Patpong (2010) and The Fear Artist (2012), and once again Miaow, always a fascinating character, takes center stage. Her deepening adolescent alienation, sparked by her dissatisfaction with her appearance, her uncertain place in an international school filled with wealthy Thais and tall farangs, and her desperate childhood, is portrayed in a complex and believable way; and Poke, the series' hero, is as realistically helpless and pained as any father of a teenage daughter. For the Dead is a fine thriller set in an exotic locale, but Hallinan's insightful development of Miaow's character and the family dynamics makes this one more than just a thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)