Customer Reviews

Breathing Water: A Bangkok Thriller (Poke Rafferty Thrillers)

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I've read all of Timothy Hallinan's books, but have been really excited the last few years with his latest series featuring ex-pat and Bangkok resident Poke Rafferty. I've never been there, except through these novels. The third and newest, Breathing Water, is beautifully descriptive and evocative. There have been several Bangkok thrillers available, but none of them can place you in the Thai culture more definitively or more viscerally than Hallinan's.
In Breathing water, he has gone even further to describe Bangkok in all its beauty and ugliness; to explain it people in all their bravery and depravity; and to immerse the reader even more deeply in the taste and look of its food, the feel of its air as a character walks down a street or the sounds of its day to day activity. As an armchair reader, I was literally there.
Just as he did in the first two Bangkok novels, Hallinan weaves his plots like a tapestry artist. In Breathing water, the Byzantine and corrupt nature of Thai politics and the evil of the child-brokerage business wind together to make a can't-put-down thriller in which the hero, Poke Rafferty, races to save not only himself, but his beloved wife and daughter. And, as the plots unfold and snake around one another, Hallinan expertly shows that, once again, Poke is a guy who can do what needs to be done and that the Thais do have hope of a better world where the "haves" are not always in control and where the many street children of Bangkok, though adrift and constatly in danger, are empowered and strong and triumphant. To me, all of this is filtered through Hallinan's great love for the Thai people and his belief in their goodness and strength.
These are exciting, thrilling, yet moving novels.
I think everyone should pick up the whole set (A Nail Through the Heart, The Fourth Watcher, Breathing Water) and take a trip to Thailand. It's certainly been my pleasure to do so. In fact, now that I think about it, I might just do it again. The novels are all so layered and rich, they deserve a second read.

This is yet another of the truly great books by Tim Hallinan. It's about so many different things - Bangkok, human relationships, families, politics, economics, among others - yet it weaves all those elements together seamlessly in service to an exciting story that keeps you reading at a torrid pace. I've spent a lot of time in Bangkok over the years and there is no other writer working who conveys as deep a sense and understanding of the place as Hallinan. He's also just plain got a way with words. He strings together sentences and phrases that regularly astonish and delight me. I'm looking forward to many more books to come.

Tim Hallinan's "Breathing Water: A Bangkok Thriller," the third of the Poke Rafferty series, delivers another generous helping of complex holographic characters that range from deadly crooks, cops, and babies, to lost souls who inhabit a ghost world seen and understood only by the most compassionate young woman Hallinan has created to date. Hallinan crafts an upside down Bangkok where the powerful ostentatious and criminally rich are outwitted and overpowered by Poke and his band of least likely to succeed allies. Throughout this taut thriller Hallinan deftly weaves in a level of sensitivity and care just where it's needed. This book is a great read. I didn't want it to end and I look forward to the next one!

I love fish-out-of-water stories, so I come to the Poke Rafferty novels by Timothy Hallinan favorably pre-disposed. That, of course, is only a start. What keeps me reading is the mix of Hallinan's deep and broad literary talents, consisting of his edgy narrative voice, his sharp-as-nails characterizations, and the casual manner in which his plot can suddenly turn and grab the reader by the throat. For those belonging to the dwindling ranks of the uninitiated, Rafferty is an American expatriate who resides in Bangkok and makes his living as a writer. It is precisely this occupation that leads to his not-inconsiderable troubles in BREATHING WATER.

Hallinan opens the book with a few short chapters that are unforgettable. You more than likely will pause momentarily after reading them, check on your loved ones and say a silent prayer of thanks to whatever higher power you address for their continued safety. The author then turns to Rafferty, who, thanks to the machinations of his friend Arthit, is in the middle of a high stakes poker game. One of the players is someone who should not be there. His name is Khun Pan, a man of unimaginable wealth and power who rose from indescribable poverty in a country where it is nearly impossible to do so. Pan is hated and feared by the powers that be and adored with a mythological fervor by the country poor, who comprise the overwhelming majority of Thailand's impoverished population. The method by which Pan bridged the immeasurable gulf between the haves and the have-nots in Thailand is one of the nation's greatest contemporary mysteries.

Rafferty understands Thailand, but not as well as he thinks; he has no idea what he is getting into when, as the stake for a hand of poker, he wants the opportunity to write Pan's biography. Rafferty wins the bet, but finds that within a few hours his life is turned upside down. He is caught between two malevolent and deadly forces --- one of which does not want him to write the book under any circumstances, the other of which wants him to write the story of Pan's life, but with a highly unfavorable slant. Both sides are quick to demonstrate not only their power but also their reach, threatening Rose, Rafferty's wife, and Miaow, their nine-year-old daughter. Rafferty has nowhere to turn.

Arthit is sorely and sadly distracted by his wife's painful and debilitating illness, which is slowly but surely taking her away. To Rose, who was born in a rural village and was working as a bar girl when Rafferty first met her, Pan is a hero. Yet Rafferty finds that there is more to Pan's mysterious assent to wealth and power than appears to meet the eye. Worse, Rafferty is uncertain as to whether Pan is fully on board with the project. When Pan schedules a press conference where it is all but certain that he will make an announcement concerning his intentions to run for public office, he sets in motion a series of events that put Rafferty and his family in certain danger, in a country where the rules, and one's friends and enemies, keep changing.

Hallinan is a marvel, showing a canny and innate knowledge of Thailand borne of a long-term residency in that country. His descriptions of the streets, the people, and the fluid and multi-leveled rivers of power that rule Bangkok are such that one could almost believe that he is channeling his own experiences. There is much to love here, not the least of which is the fateful return of a character from a previous volume. BREATHING WATER is arguably the best novel in the series to date, and carries with it the promise that more of the best is yet to come.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The Poke Rafferty books just get better and better, not only because they are terrific stories that transport you to Bangkok but also because of the strength of the supporting characters: Rose, Miaow, and Arthit get more real with each book. Hallinan is also able to create an immediate and clear picture of his minor characters as well -- his ex-spies seem spot on to me. This series is what a thriller series ought to be -- compulsively readable. More, please!

Tim Hallinan's latest in his Bangkock thriller series is the best so far. It has everything I want in a good book with the added dimension of layers. I couldn't just read it once, I needed time to soak up the complexities in the characters, the subtleties in the plot, and Hallinan's masterful turns of phrase that transform an action adventure into so much more.

So, as soon as I was finished, I started from the beginning and re-read Breathing Water. There is certainly enough texture, intricacy, and heart in this book to warrant yet another read, but I'll save that for a few months hence.

Suffice it to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent with all of Hallinan's books and recommend that other readers out there indulge in the pure pleasure of his latest work, Breathing Water. After all, how can you not. You're getting at least two books for the price of one, and I'm not talking about the Amazon discount.

Hallinan does a beautiful job of putting lead character, Poke Rafferty, between a rock and a hard place. A wonderful panorama of the Bangkok scene is laid out before the reader, who can't help but becoming fully engaged in the action. A great read!

I've read all of Tim Hallinan's books. Not one of them ever let me down. And of them all, Breathing Water, in my opinion, is the best.

Part of the reason, I suppose, is that the story moves. It never slows down, never stops. Yet, at the same time, I never felt wrung out after a (usually too long because I couldn't stop reading) session with the book.

Another reason is that Hallinan's intimate knowledge of the places and underlying currents of events & history give the book genuine believability. That's part of Hallinan's genius: He creates fictional circumstances based on enough truth that they come to life. While you're in them they're real. No question. No speed bumps that cause you to say, "Oh, yeah, this is just made up."

Then there are the characters. They're clear, sharp, clever, loveable, hate-able (is that a word?), relatable. In a nutshell, they're real people, not puppets the author jerks around from scene to scene. You care about them. You laugh with them. You cry with them. And you worry about them a lot because they get into some seriously dangerous [...].

Hallinan claims the characters define themselves and the stories unfold on their own. I guess that means Hallinan lives in and observes those realities when he writes his books. I don't know what he does to get himself there, I'm just glad he does it - and is willing to let us in on the adventure.

And the best news yet: He's working on another Poke Rafferty novel. I have no idea how he can possibly write a better story than Breathing Water. I just have every confidence that he will.

I just love Timothy Hallinan's books, and particularly this Bangkok series. Sometimes the horror is so real it makes you shiver; sometimes the love is so pure it makes you cry. When I read these books I am in another world of thrilling adventure. One of my favorite series.

Zelda Barnard

The thriller gets a bad rap in the larger literary world. Scattered at every supermarket checkout lane, filled with bad guys and bullets, and typically read at a pace faster than a runaway Ferrari, such pulpy offerings are often viewed as the consummate guilty pleasure, something with which to fritter away an afternoon at the beach and toss when you're through. Only horror ranks lower in popular genre pantheon, but it has Stoker and Shelley to prop up its pedigree. It's a shame, because a number of authors have used the humble thriller not only to excite audiences but also to address big themes and do so with fine prose. Consider, for example, Timothy Hallinan's Breathing Water.

Poke Rafferty doesn't do danger for his day job. Sure, he lives in Bangkok, not exactly the safest city in the world. But he writes tour books and the occasional topical tome. Which is how he came to be sitting in this poker game with his police friend Arthit, a conman named Tip and a rigged hand of cards. It's all supposed to be fodder for his latest book: Bilk a few unsuspecting businessmen, return their cash when it's over and net an interesting premise. Only no one expected thuggish billionaire Khun Pan to join the game. Outraged over the deception, Pan challenges Poke to a private game with higher stakes. If Poke loses, he'll get run out of the county; if Pan does, he'll let him pen his biography, an honor denied to scores of other writers. Guess who ends up with the winning hand and a killer book deal? Not long after that, though, the phone calls start, unidentified people threatening Poke's family if he finishes the project -- and if he doesn't. Now Poke has to discover what secret elevated a one-time crook like Pan into the pantheon Thailand's elite.

Breathing Water contains all of the requite genre nods, such as imminent danger at every turn and a plot twistier than a Kansas tornado. But it plumbs depths by naturally melding Poke's peril with commentary on Thai politics and ethnic tensions. Also, Hallinan can turn a phrase until it spins like a top, employing unexpected similes and tongue-in-cheek humor. Awakened at an ungodly hour, Poke "wraps himself in his robe as though it were a grievance." One of Pan's associates snaps at the writer "in a voice like a pair of tin snips." And when Poke expresses incredulity at a chortling gang of thugs ("Did somebody teach all you guys to chuckle?"), the ringleader replies, "The chuckle is a perfectly acceptable form of laughter." Hard-edged and humorous, fierce and finely written, Water is refreshingly good.