A Nail Through the Heart: A Novel of Bangkok
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in A Nail Through the Heart: A Novel of Bangkok for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Timothy Hallinan is a tremendous writing talent. An entertaining read."--Bestsellersworld.com
Product Description
Travel writer Poke Rafferty was good at looking for trouble - so good that he made a little money writing a few offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored. But that was before Bangkok stole his heart. Now the expat American is happily playing family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and with Miaow, the wary street child he wants to adopt. Yet just when everything is beginning to work out, trouble comes looking for Poke in the guise of good intentions. First he takes in Miaow's friend, a troubled and terrifying street urchin named Superman. Then he agrees to find a distraught Aussie woman's missing uncle - and accept an old woman's generous payment to find a blackmailing thief. Suddenly he finds himself pulled into a dark side of Bangkok that he doesn't know or understand, but everything he has is suddenly under threat.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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
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
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent novel set in contemporary Bangkok. While technically a thriller, it is written with both the flair and depth that you would want from a `literary' novel. This is proper writing - it begins with a beautifully set scene: `across the river, a city of eight million shimmers like the ghost of a brushfire', and keeps up this standard, with vivid, imaginative metaphors and, of course, plenty of dark Chandleresque wise-cracking from the narrator-hero and his colleague in the Thai police. The novel's central characters are real and complex, not the 2-dimensional types who inhabit pulp thrillers.
Of course, what pulp thrillers have, and many literary novels lack, is pace and plotting. This book is not `literary' in this sense: the plot twists and turns and kept me guessing till the end. There's a particularly neat reversal in chapter 42...
Along with the literary writer's art and the thriller-plotter's craft, we get the benefit of the sensitivity to and insight into another culture of the travel writer. The author lives in Bangkok and his wife is Thai. He weaves the knowledge that this gives him gently but pervasively into the story - I didn't feel lectured, but by the end both had many mental images of Bangkok and, more valuable, the beginnings of an understanding of Buddhism and the way it influences the mindset of Thai people (and, beyond that, a reminder of how different the Eastern mindset is from that of the West).
The story itself... Well, I won't give it away. Suffice it to say it's complex, it does stack up looking back, and it takes us to some very dark places. Too dark? That depends on your taste. Unlike many `noir' thrillers, the darkness is balanced by the family life of the hero, which, though it has its tensions, is loving and honourable. Actually that's another thing I really like about this book. Light and dark, not just Kurtz-like gloom.
I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.
Of course, what pulp thrillers have, and many literary novels lack, is pace and plotting. This book is not `literary' in this sense: the plot twists and turns and kept me guessing till the end. There's a particularly neat reversal in chapter 42...
Along with the literary writer's art and the thriller-plotter's craft, we get the benefit of the sensitivity to and insight into another culture of the travel writer. The author lives in Bangkok and his wife is Thai. He weaves the knowledge that this gives him gently but pervasively into the story - I didn't feel lectured, but by the end both had many mental images of Bangkok and, more valuable, the beginnings of an understanding of Buddhism and the way it influences the mindset of Thai people (and, beyond that, a reminder of how different the Eastern mindset is from that of the West).
The story itself... Well, I won't give it away. Suffice it to say it's complex, it does stack up looking back, and it takes us to some very dark places. Too dark? That depends on your taste. Unlike many `noir' thrillers, the darkness is balanced by the family life of the hero, which, though it has its tensions, is loving and honourable. Actually that's another thing I really like about this book. Light and dark, not just Kurtz-like gloom.
I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is simply the best thriller I have read in a long time. Not only is suitably complex, a real page turner and difficult to guess where it will all end, it is well and intelligently written, has a thread of humour, despite being quite dark, and credible characters too. A joy to find this one. What really makes it is the background: set in Bangkok it really brings this extraordinary city to life in a way that is accurate (the author has lived there) and will tell you more about the people and culture than many a guide book; indeed the background and culture is integral to the story. The same lead character is in further books: "The Fourth Watcher" is at least as good if not better and I can't wait to read the third, "Breathing Water". This author and this series is a real find - very successful and well reviewed in the States, why not more evident here in UK? A must read for anyone who likes this sort of thriller, especially if you like SE Asia.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Spot on
I've never been so glad to have randomly chosen a book at the book store. Not only is this book an exciting journey with great characters, but it's the beginning of one of the most... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jack P. Baines
HOOKED ON THIS SERIES NOW!!
Stumbled across this author and book, his first in a series with 'Poke Rafferty' as the lead character and before half finished I had already ordered the next two books of the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Varalagom
Pretty good, in my view
I liked this story as Poke, an American travel-writer based in Bangkok, is enlisted to search for missing people in vastly different circumstances. Read more
Published 14 months ago by johnverp
A flawed masterpiece is still a masterpiece
The more I read, the more I am convinced that an author imparts a certain amount of their actual, and physical soul into their works. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Andrew W
A different view of what we thought we knew
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, the first of Timothy Hallinan's Bangkok thrillers, balances family, love, loyalty, and hope against evil that destroys the spirit and sacrifices innocence... Read more
Published 21 months ago by E. Crowley
The First Poke Rafferty Novel
This is the first novel in a series of 3 (soon to be 4) about a travel writer living in Bangkok with a penchant for finding trouble. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Hein Kristiansen
A rival for john Burdett
John Burdett has seemingly cornered the market in Bangkok crime novels (a genre waiting to explode on the world? Read more
Published 23 months ago by Michael Bromfield
mental bubble gum for a train journey
No doubt a decent plot with lots of twists and turns. The story also offers a squint into Bangkok living with a touch of regional history and local custom etc. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2010 by BusyB
Hallinan Nailed It
Poke Rafferty is a character that all suspense lovers will know by name after June 2007. With "A Nail Through The Heart" being the first of a Bangkok based series from Timothy... Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2007 by RJ
Bangkok nights
Reading this book brought back memories of some lyrics from the "Chess" soundtrack:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the... Read more
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2007 by Amanda Richards
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
