Customer Reviews

Pattaya 24/7

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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.

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

Christopher G. Moore is one of the "rare few" of foreign

authors, who write about S.E.Asia's complex emotional

and cultural mindset, who actually understands the culture

and passes it on to us, mixed in with a thrilling detective

story, thanks to Vinnie Calvino.

I've read 15 of Moore's 18 works, but "Pattaya 24/7" stands above the rest. And that comment comes from a reader who thinks Moore is a writer of enormous literary significance not yet fully recognized.

This is one of those books that only the most disciplined reader can put down after just a few pages.

"Pattaya 24/7" is the latest (8 to date) of Moore's novels featuring as its hero private detective Vincent Calvino. Calvino is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of a domestic employed by a world-class concert pianist who fled fame and fortune to retire in Pattaya, Thailand's most popular seaside resort. But as is the case in each Calvino novel, nothing is as it seems. The detective finds himself immersed in a complex webs of lies, conflicting goals, and, ultimately, international terrorism. Many attempt to use him for their own dark purposes -- with varying degrees of success, a fact that makes Calvino an engaging -- and ultimately human -- character.
The plot of the novel is nothing short of brilliant. Moore seamlessly and effortlessly weaves hard facts with fiction into a coherent, believable literary cloth, such as sewing into the story's fabric recent actions by the Thai government and the annual joint Thailand-U.S. (plus invitees) military exercise Cobra Gold, which is centered in the naval port of Sattahip, near Pattaya. He also makes the bad guys members of a real terrorist organization with links to the all-too-real al-Queda network.

In other words, this is one helluva good action story. Call it "Stallone goes Shakespearean."

However, the good stuff doesn't stop there for lovers of great literature (which this is). Moore achieves a previously unrealized level of high literary art in this latest novel. That is not to say his earlier works are in any way lacking -- they are not, and are demonstrably excellent works in their own right. But in "Pattaya 24/7," Moore's literary art and craftsmanship soar. There are sentences scattered throughout the book that are a pleasure to read even in isolation from the rest of the story. (I can't cite any of them without risking giving away key elements of the tale, thus ruining it for readers.)

The climax is even better than the rest of the book. Any reader will be taut with dark excitement and fear as Calvino, together with his friend and sponsor, Colonel Pratt, of the Royal Thai Police, cross a rooftop in the crosshairs of passionless Death. The scene employs excerpts from e-mails sent out by the American Citizen Services unit of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok brilliantly as the pair move, excerpts Calvino remembers in hammering punctuation marks, accenting and heightening the almost unbearable tension of the scene as it unfolds. Wonderfully unbearable, I hasten to add.

Students of drama will recognize Calvino as Shakespearean in dimension, a character who rises to near-tragic proportions. Yet unlike a Hamlet or a Macbeth, Calvino muddles his way through a very dangerous life in spite of his limitations. His epiphanies are small and cumulative -- a fact allowing him survival in a very dangerous, hostile world. As Moore's series of novels featuring Calvino expands, his fictional hero continues to grow apace, maturing a bit more in each new appearance. He very much fits into the development of the dark hero in literature, drama, and poetry. He is a character of virtually unbounded goodness imprisoned by his own humanity.
Another indication of how well Moore has executed his literary craft in this novel is that there really is no real action until between a quarter and a third of the way through the book. Yet I had no trouble at all turning the pages. The story is film noiré at its very best -- only in print. It would translate to film wonderfully well. Think Stacy Keach's character Mike Hammer in the popular television show.

Like all Moore's fiction, "Pattya 24/7" is also an extraordinary primer on the lives of long-time expatriates in Thailand, and on Thai culture and society. In one sparkling literary gem, Moore refers to America, Calvino's homeland, as a memory to which Calvino can never return; America today is not the America he left all those years ago. And that is true for all of us who have chosen to live in self-imposed exile. We end up strangers in our own homelands, wherever they may be. Moore's writing consistently captures this central fact of the pathos surrounding all long-term expatriates' lives. Moore is a serious student of human nature, including that of our Thai hosts, and his analyses and perceptions are, in my experience, absolutely correct. I feel any foreigner coming here for any reason can only benefit from the remarkable insights Moore offers us into the inner workings of the Thai mind, the Thai heart, and the society and culture in which those minds and hearts exist.

Though irrelevant to the story, an interesting piece of information is that Calvino is Moore's fictional alter ego. Moore's own life is vastly different from his hero's in its particulars, but anyone who knows Moore, as I do, see bits of him embodied in Calvino. That makes for interesting insights into the creator.

[Note: The following review was written by a friend who lives in Pattaya, but I'm adding it here today January 18, 2006 because he couldn't manage to upload it and I can't post a second review on the same novel.]

Pattaya 24/7 is the first I have read on the Vincent Calvino series. Needless to say, I am after all the others in this series.

Christopher G. Moore has told it like it is, not backtracking on what it is like in the shadier life of the underworld in Thailand.

Although the title and cover may lead some to think it is an expose on the nightlife in Pattaya, anyone who has ever been to Thailand will know exactly what Moore is saying.

Although Moore may not yet have the worldwide exposure of Clancy or Ludlum, look out. He?s coming.

Charlie Brown
Pattaya, Thailand

This book is intricately plotted, has multidimensional charcters (Calvino and his usual cohorts), and demonstrates a keen understanding of Thai and ex-patriate culture. A real page-turner that's very satisfying.

Moore has accomplished the remarkable. He has written a deadly boring book about one of the busiest places on the planet. Sure, Pattaya is a sleazy, dangerous international flesh-pot. What's so bad about that? It is one of the few places that lives up to it's reputation. After a week there, I always say that I am never going back. But after a month away, I miss it. Bangkok has it's few tired blocks of Soi Cowboy or Soi Nana but Pattaya is all Pattaya. I will retire in Nong Khai, but I will visit Pattaya.
Moore approaches Pattaya like a careful Krung Thep dweller, from the south. He never seems to enter the city. He never goes to Walking Street or Beach Road. No Kotoeys, real bar girls, baht bus drivers, lovesick/destitute young Farangs, dead broke Russians, German women's volleyball teams, or retired Punters. In short, no real Pattaya. The flotsam and jetsam of the male species and an even stranger faction of the female species eventually washes up on Pattaya beach. Moore ignores this odd mix of humanity and focuses on one old Queen living outside of town. Why? How dull!
This is a surprise as his book "Mia Noi" is quite good. OK, not as good as anything that Jake Needham has written but acceptable reading while waiting for the next trip to the Kingdom. Do yourself a favor: Avoid this book. Go to any of the Pattaya websites and get an idea of what the city is actually like. Then go there. And bring some Tylenol.

I found Pattaya 24/7 pretty entertaining. It is a noir style detective story but what distinguishes it is the setting of Pattaya, Thailand and the many unique characters that Moore introduces. He captures a city going through intense changes and a culture that is slowly transforming but still has strong traditional elements. The plot moves along rather briskly and the mix of a murder mystery and a terrorist subplot keeps the pages turning. Some of Moore's devices, like the repeated use of "Calvino's Laws" to express some maxims that the PI Vincent Calvino lives by got old for me after a while but Calvino still emerges as a likeable character. Sort of a Sam Spade with a good heart.

I liked this book a lot. Read it because of John Burdett. Wish more of his work were easy to find.

Christopher G. Moore's style is kind of a combination of Raymond Chandler, John le Carre, and Mickey Spillane. When private eye Vincent Calvino first emerged in 1991 with the publication of Spirit House, a rapt and loyal international audience embraced him with glee. This is the eighth book in the Calvino series, and fans will not be disappointed. It is a little lunch box full of exotic tasty treats.

Here, Calvino is hired to investigate the apparent murder of a gardener on a lush island estate. He rapidly descends into a vortex of drug dealing and international terrorism. Motive, opportunity, and payoff twist and drag the reader deep into a maze of intrigue and underworld society that includes everyone from police to local thugs to world class baddies.

Those addicted to Moore's trademark character development will be very happy with this latest fix. Evocative, pungent, and utterly absorbing, the reader can virtually smell and taste the local flavors. Written in a most masculine fashion and richly compelling, this one will keep Calvino fans up all night.