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Back when Poke Rafferty first arrived in Bangkok to write a travel guide, some of the old-timers in the Expat Bar on Patpong Road helped him make sense of the city. Now these men—many of whom have been living in Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War—have grown old and, in some cases, frail. When a talkative stranger named Arthur Varney turns up at the Expat Bar, they accept him without suspicion, failing to see that he’s actually using them to get to Poke.
Varney wants two things: money Poke doesn’t have and a person Poke is unwilling to hand over. It quickly becomes apparent that there’s nothing Varney won’t do to secure his goals. As his actions threaten the foundation of Poke’s life in Thailand, the aging men of the Expat Bar discover that they might still be a force to reckon with.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar-finalist Hallinan's lukewarm conclusion to the trilogy within his Poke Rafferty series finds travel writer Poke enjoying a spell of peaceful domesticity his wife, Rose, pregnant; his adopted daughter, Miaow, rehearsing for a school play; his buddies at Bangkok's Expat Bar always ready to bend an elbow. Then, an innocuous stranger walks into the bar, boring everyone with his garrulous blather, but leaves suddenly with a vague yet nonetheless unsettling threat directed at Poke. With the help of his cop friend Arthit, Poke determines the stranger is Arthur Varney, an experienced killer seeking $3.8 million he believes Poke acquired in the trilogy's opener, The Fear Artist. Poke spends most of the story trying to dodge Varney and move his family out of harm's way before an inevitable confrontation on the muggy, wet, neon-drenched streets of Bangkok. Though Hallinan's deft touch with social commentary is a plus, this entry has long stretches with little happening, and the ending lacks the author's usual punch.
