Pattaya 24/7 [Paperback]

Christopher G. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

Inside a secluded, lush estate located on the edge of Pattaya, an eccentric Englishman’s gardener is found hanged. Calvino has been hired to investigate. Calvino finds himself pulled deep in the shadows of the war against drugs, into an empire of a local warlord with the trail leading to a terrorist who has caused Code Orange alerts to flash across the screen of American intelligence. In a story packed with twists and turns, Calvino traces the links from the gardener’s past to the door of men with power and influence who have everything to lose if the mystery of the gardener’s death is solved.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Inside a secluded, lush estatelocated on the edge of Pattaya, an eccentric English-man's gardener is found hanged. Calvino has been hired to investigate. Calvino finds himself pulled deep into the shadows of the war against drugs, into Code Orange alerts to flash across the screen of American intelligence.

In a story packed with twists and turns, Calvino traces the links from the gardener's past to the door of men with power and influence who have everything to lose if the mystery of the gardener's death is solved.

About the Author

Christopher G. Moore is a Canadian author of 22 novels, a non-fiction, one collection of interlocked short stories, and one book on Thai language. Oxford-educated, Moore was a law professor at the University of British Columbia for 10 years. His first book His Lordship's Arsenal was published in New York to a critical acclaim in 1985, when he decided to become a full-time writer.

Moore moved to Thailand in 1988 and from Bangkok continued to write literary and commercial fiction. He has attained somewhat of a cult status among his readers in Asia and Europe and has an increasingly strong following in North America. Moore is probably best known by his cult classics, Land of Smiles Trilogy, his behind-the-smiles study of his adopted country, Thailand, and his highly popular Vincent Calvino Private Eye series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Heaven Lake Press (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9749206665
• ISBN-13: 978-9749206669
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,250,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changes But Realistic Ones, March 17, 2005

By 

Sean Bunzick (Cape Cod,Massachusetts,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pattaya 24/7 (Paperback)

I've been enjoying Chris Moore's Vinnie Calvino for many a year now and am always excited to pick up the latest novel, Pattaya 24/7 being no different as far as my response to getting a copy goes. However, as my title implies, there have been many changes and you simply can't miss them. I discovered this within the first few pages of this magnificent story.
At the time I'd bought this novel, in November of 2004, I was already going through some personal changes of my own with my marriage to my Thai wife coming undone. This naturally didn't help my mood but one of the interesting--perhaps even scary?--observations I made quickly within Pattaya 24/7 is how much what I have personally seen of the changes in present day Thailand are completely accounted for by Chris and what they've done to change Vinnie.
Oh, Vinnie Calvino himself? Still a lovable street guy who appears tough as hell and twice as cynical but deep within, he's a caring, romantic man who does his level best to be as fair as a man like him can be in a place like Thailand.
It's the current mentality of Thai politics that Moore captures right on target and mixing this with the Muslim/terrorism aspect which is something worth watching in Thailand as well as here in the States, the reader is given the situation while also being given a frightening, strong, emotional story with all the unique and off-beat angles thrown together in the often bizarre manner that makes both Thailand and Chris Moore's works unusual but ever-desirable to experience over and over again.
As another reader pointed out, the action/adventure elements of this novel do not come out immediately but the storyline and the characterizations do more than enough to keep your attention riveted on each page as you move from the beginning to the It-Came-Much-Too-Soon Ending.
What also helps here is both Vinnie's relationship/non-relationship with his secretary/friend/maybe girlfriend? Ratana and, like Cut Out and Comfort Zone, the way he reacts to being in a setting outside of Bangkok itself--this time the somewhat sleazy but never dull beach "resort" of Pattaya.
Please take my advice and get a copy of this intoxicating novel--I honestly don't see much chance of a reader being disappointed with it. I know I wasn't!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewer spends too much time in Pattaya bar, October 6, 2005

By 

J. Petrillo (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pattaya 24/7 (Paperback)

The negative reviewer of this fine book apparently spends too much in a Pattaya bar and too little time in Pattaya. To criticize tha book because for one reason one of its main characters lives outside of the city and for another the reviewer has fond although apparently boozy recollections of the city is absurd.

The author, who I consider the finest ex-pat fiction writer in Southeast Asia of this generation, has written a book involving thouroughly recognizable characters living in modern Thailand, many of whom we have met it his previous books. As in those other novels these characters navigate their way through the exciting and often heartbreaking experiences of ex-pats in Soputheast Asia. Pattaya is the background and not the story. Thailand and the ex-pat experience is the story.

Those interested in truly breathing in the exotic and often corrupting fumes of Southeast Asia should read this book as well as Mr. Moore's othe novels, especially "Waiting for the Lady" which I consider the best novel in English to come out of this part of the world since the early part of the last century.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense at its best, January 22, 2005

By 

Joseph Louis (North America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pattaya 24/7 (Paperback)

For those who like their mysteries dark and steamy, Christopher G. Moore's Vincent Calvino suspense series is a must read. Told from the point of view of an ex-pat New Yorker turned Bangkok private eye, Moore's novels take you into the bowels of Southeast Asia, where life is cheap, greed is the norm, sex underpins even the most casual relationships, and nothing-nothing-is ever what it appears to be at first glance. Pattaya 24/7, Moore paints a compelling story of twisted love affairs, crooked power brokers, and Muslim terrorists when Calvino is hired to find the killer of a gardener found hanged on the estate of a rich, distinguished, British pianist who now makes his home in Pattaya, Thailand, the location of a recent, real-life, terrorist insurgency. -- Joseph Louis, Shamus and Arthur Ellis Awards nominee and author of Madelaine and other mysteries