Breathing Water: A Bangkok Thriller (Poke Rafferty Thrillers)

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.

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

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.

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'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.