A Nail Through the Heart (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: million baht, ruined hand, Madame Wing, Claus Ulrich, Uncle Claus (more...)

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)
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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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st ed/1st printing edition (June 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061255807
• ISBN-13: 978-0061255809
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #640,575 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A COMPELLING STORY, July 10, 2007

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

If you like a novel in an exotic setting with an affable, affecting, imperfect hero, spend some hours with A Nail Trhough the Heart. Author Hallinan has divided his time between California and southeast Asia for the past 20 years, thus his descriptions of Bangkok are vividly drawn, alive with authentic sights and sounds. His knowledge of the Thai people and respect for their culture ring throughout, which invites the reader to share his affection for this land.

As Hallinan has said there is a saying in Thailand, "gilding the Buddha's back." Temples throughout Thailand have large statues of Buddha covered in gold leaf. Purchased in small squares by believers, this gold leaf is pressed on the statue until it appears to be entirely covered in gold. If you look at the back of the statue, you will see that the back of it is as richly ornamented as the front. Gilding the Buddha's back means doing good in private, where it will not be noticed. Isn't that a moving thought? And, after relating this saying and its provenance Hallinan said that in treating Thai culture carefully in his book he hoped that he had in some small way gilded the Buddha's back. He has, indeed.

Our imperfect hero is Poke Rafferty, a travel writer, who has gone to Bangkok to write. He's penned a series of travel related pieces titled Looking for Trouble. Bangkok is where trouble finds him in the form of Rose, a former go-go girl with whom he falls in love, Miaow, an eight-year-old orphan who lived on the streets, and her friend, a rather frightening skinny street boy with the unlikely nickname of Superman. We learn how harsh life on the streets can be on the young.

It is Poke's hope to marry Rose and adopt Miaow. Problem is that Poke hasn't mastered the art of saying no. So, when a policeman seeks his help in finding a woman's uncle he agrees. This chase leads to a meeting with MadameWing who offers a substantial amount of money if he will help her find someone who stole from her. The money is too tempting - it would enable Poke to help Rose with her business and adopt Miaow.

However, all is not as it seems as Poke finds himself caught in a web of deceit.

Hallinan is an astute author drawing readers in with brilliantly crafted descriptions of places and personalities. As he describes a person's physical appearance, one is also given a glimpse of his or her emotional state. Although he describes Bangkok with respect, he doesn't diminish its darker side. Thus, A Nail Through the Heart is not always an easy read; it is a compelling one.

- Gail Cooke

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-Wrenchingly Beautiful, July 5, 2007

By	T. Baker (Idyllwild, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have read every novel this author has written and loved them all, but with "A Nail Through the Heart," a Bangkok tale, Timothy Hallinan has hit a new level in his writing that is simply heart-wrenchingly beautiful. With a somber and poetic use of wit, metaphor and simile, this first story in Hallinan's new Poke Rafferty series is a doozy. All the characters are so clear. All of them have such depth. And thus, long after the book is finished, they still live in my head. And further, because the prose describing Bangkok is so sharp and detailed, I feel as though I was actually there, experiencing all its beauty and its degradation; all its humanity and its juggernaut evil; and all its fatalism and its hope. This is a great story about people and far-away places and how they survive, while still trying to do the right thing.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Writer's Writer, August 3, 2007

By	Karen Kijewski (Northern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Timothy Hallinan's "A Nail Through the Heart" is a powerfully written novel set in Bangkok, a city of both beauty and degradation, where the senses are assaulted by the blare of vehicle horns, the traffic, the rush of people, the smells, the heat of the day and the neon of the night. Here the face of evil is both banal and horrific, encompassing individual depravity and the inhumanity of the Khmer Rouge regime. It is a story concerned with love and evil that ultimately asks if love can be a redemptive force, even in the face of great evil. A remarkable novel and impossible to put down, it is disturbing, challenging and beautifully plotted and written. The horrors of the past, the realities of the present and the promises of the future are seamlessly interwoven. Hallinan is a writer's writer.