eakre's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
3.0
Poke Rafferty is a half Filipino, half Anglo American living in Bangkok. He is a writer, author of a series of travel books with the title Looking for Trouble in... wherever. This is the second book in Timothy Hallinan's series featuring this character.
Poke has put together a family of himself, his fiancee Rose, who is a former go-go dancer, and his newly adopted daughter Miaow, a former street kid. They live together in his apartment and he is looking forward to marrying Rose and living happily ever after.
His idyllic life in interrupted when the cleaning service co-owned by Rose and another woman becomes involved, through no fault of their own, in a counterfeit money scheme. The women find themselves under investigation by local police and a Secret Service Agent who is there because some of the counterfeit money is American. Poke, of course, jumps in to try to help them and gets on the wrong side of the Secret Service Agent.
So far, the plot seemed pretty straightforward, but then it took a radical twist when the long-estranged father whom he thought was dead turns up and contacts Rafferty. Poke has good reason to hate his father and tries to avoid becoming involved with him. But he is kidnapped and brought to meet the man and finds that involvement is impossible to avoid.
The father, Frank Rafferty, has a box full of rubies and fraudulent identity papers, which it turns out that he stole from one of the most dangerous criminals in China. He also has a daughter Ming-Li, Poke's half sister whom he didn't know he had. Soon we learn that that dangerous criminal is hot on Frank's trail. When a man who was a former C.I.A. asset and an acquaintance of Poke's turns up dead, having been gruesomely murdered, it is clear that the gangster will spare no effort to find and recover the items stolen from him and if that means a few more people have to die along the way, he's okay with that.
The plot gets more and more complicated as we learn that the counterfeit money is coming from an operation in North Korea. The repressive regime that runs that country like a Soprano's family business is utterly ruthless in pushing its main export of counterfeit bills.
The Chinese gangster, meanwhile, is determined to get Frank Rafferty and, in pursuit of that aim, he kidnaps Rose, Miaow, and Poke's friend Arthit's wife, Noi. In order to try to recover them, Poke and Arthit, a Bangkok policeman, must use every skill and every asset available to them.
Everything gets very complicated at this point - a little too complicated, actually. Hallinan seems to be straining a bit to keep all of these balls in the air. Perhaps if he could have brought himself to pare down some of the elements, he would have had a better structured, cleaner story.
Still, Hallinan is very good at creating an atmosphere and he brings to life the streets of Bangkok in a very believable way. I've never been there, unfortunately, but he gives us a real feel for the city and its people and especially its climate of frequent rain and hot and humid weather. One can almost feel the rain running down one's back.
Poke has put together a family of himself, his fiancee Rose, who is a former go-go dancer, and his newly adopted daughter Miaow, a former street kid. They live together in his apartment and he is looking forward to marrying Rose and living happily ever after.
His idyllic life in interrupted when the cleaning service co-owned by Rose and another woman becomes involved, through no fault of their own, in a counterfeit money scheme. The women find themselves under investigation by local police and a Secret Service Agent who is there because some of the counterfeit money is American. Poke, of course, jumps in to try to help them and gets on the wrong side of the Secret Service Agent.
So far, the plot seemed pretty straightforward, but then it took a radical twist when the long-estranged father whom he thought was dead turns up and contacts Rafferty. Poke has good reason to hate his father and tries to avoid becoming involved with him. But he is kidnapped and brought to meet the man and finds that involvement is impossible to avoid.
The father, Frank Rafferty, has a box full of rubies and fraudulent identity papers, which it turns out that he stole from one of the most dangerous criminals in China. He also has a daughter Ming-Li, Poke's half sister whom he didn't know he had. Soon we learn that that dangerous criminal is hot on Frank's trail. When a man who was a former C.I.A. asset and an acquaintance of Poke's turns up dead, having been gruesomely murdered, it is clear that the gangster will spare no effort to find and recover the items stolen from him and if that means a few more people have to die along the way, he's okay with that.
The plot gets more and more complicated as we learn that the counterfeit money is coming from an operation in North Korea. The repressive regime that runs that country like a Soprano's family business is utterly ruthless in pushing its main export of counterfeit bills.
The Chinese gangster, meanwhile, is determined to get Frank Rafferty and, in pursuit of that aim, he kidnaps Rose, Miaow, and Poke's friend Arthit's wife, Noi. In order to try to recover them, Poke and Arthit, a Bangkok policeman, must use every skill and every asset available to them.
Everything gets very complicated at this point - a little too complicated, actually. Hallinan seems to be straining a bit to keep all of these balls in the air. Perhaps if he could have brought himself to pare down some of the elements, he would have had a better structured, cleaner story.
Still, Hallinan is very good at creating an atmosphere and he brings to life the streets of Bangkok in a very believable way. I've never been there, unfortunately, but he gives us a real feel for the city and its people and especially its climate of frequent rain and hot and humid weather. One can almost feel the rain running down one's back.
pussreboots's review against another edition
4.0
The Fourth Watcher by Timothy Hallinan is the sequel to A Nail Through the Heart (which I haven't read).
The return of a father long since declared legally dead in the United States, Poke Rafferty finds himself and his family in a dangerous tug of war involving the Secret Service, a Chinese gangster and North Korean counterfeit money.
The book is set in Bangkok and the city is as much a character in the book as the human ones are. Hallinan does a good job at fleshing out the novel with lessons on Thai culture and language.
The Fourth Watcher is set in the present and oddly enough is written in the present tense. While this approach works now the immediacy of the book's narrative might make it seem dated in a few years.
The return of a father long since declared legally dead in the United States, Poke Rafferty finds himself and his family in a dangerous tug of war involving the Secret Service, a Chinese gangster and North Korean counterfeit money.
The book is set in Bangkok and the city is as much a character in the book as the human ones are. Hallinan does a good job at fleshing out the novel with lessons on Thai culture and language.
The Fourth Watcher is set in the present and oddly enough is written in the present tense. While this approach works now the immediacy of the book's narrative might make it seem dated in a few years.
vkemp's review
5.0
Poke Rafferty has decided to stop writing the travelogues that have made him famous and try his hand at something new. He is ready to settle down in Bangkok with his fiancée, Rose and his adopted daughter, Miaow. However, life has a funny way of throwing curves and Poke’s very estranged father shows up, along with a box of rubies, one of the most dangerous gangsters in China and a new sister. Add a soupcon of North Korean counterfeiting and the result is another complicated thrill ride.
catmum's review
5.0
Poke manages to get on the wrong side of Chinese Triads, the United States Secret Service and the counterfeiting ring at the highest level of the North Korean government over the course of one long weekend. Tim Hallinan makes Bangkok comes so completely to life that it is jarring to feel yourself in the middle of monsoon season one moment and then look up to see the snow falling outside the window the next. In this reader's opinion, Hallinan is the best writer out there today. Not best genre writer. Best writer.
samhouston's review
4.0
Fans of the Poke Rafferty series will, of course, know that The Fourth Watcher (2008) was Timothy Hallinan’s second entry into the series. As the novel opens, Poke has decided that his new family (Rose, the former bar girl he hopes to marry, and Miaow, the little girl he plucked off the streets of Bangkok for her own good) is the most important thing in the world to him. He wants to abandon the travel book series he’s been writing so that the three of them can settle comfortably into a stable lifestyle.
If only her were so lucky.
Rose and her business partner Peachy are finally having a bit of success with the maid service they run using former bar girls as cleaning crews. By now, with the help of Poke’s investment into the business, Rose and Peachy have given several young women the opportunity to leave the sordid lifestyle associated with Thailand’s sex trade industry. But now, the business has inadvertently become linked to what appears to be a North Korean counterfeiting ring – an operation that takes no prisoners.
And then things really get complicated. Two people from Poke’s past, one of whom he didn’t even know existed, come into his world just when he can least afford the distraction. Poke already has an American Secret Service man after him who would love nothing better than to lock him up for a good long time; now he has to deal with a reunion that will prove to be as dangerously deadly as anything he has ever faced in his life. He and Arthit, the Thai policeman who is Poke’s best friend in the world, are going to have to scramble if they are going to save the lives of those closest to them.
The real strength of the Poke Rafferty series is Hallinan’s well-developed recurring characters. Poke, Rose, Miaow, and Arthit all come with emotional baggage of their own but they meld into a unit that offers each of them exactly the emotional support, love, and friendship they need to finally make something good of their lives. It won’t be easy, but let it be known that they are still doing fine some five books (and counting, I hope) after The Fourth Watcher.
That said, because I have read the series out of order, I can also tell you that the books get even better as the series ages. This one emphasizes the “thriller” aspect of the plot to the point that it becomes a bit overcomplicated in the end. I prefer more “literary” thrillers (yes, I believe there is such a thing), and that’s exactly the direction Hallinan, over time, moves the Poke Rafferty series. Don’t miss ‘em.
If only her were so lucky.
Rose and her business partner Peachy are finally having a bit of success with the maid service they run using former bar girls as cleaning crews. By now, with the help of Poke’s investment into the business, Rose and Peachy have given several young women the opportunity to leave the sordid lifestyle associated with Thailand’s sex trade industry. But now, the business has inadvertently become linked to what appears to be a North Korean counterfeiting ring – an operation that takes no prisoners.
And then things really get complicated. Two people from Poke’s past, one of whom he didn’t even know existed, come into his world just when he can least afford the distraction. Poke already has an American Secret Service man after him who would love nothing better than to lock him up for a good long time; now he has to deal with a reunion that will prove to be as dangerously deadly as anything he has ever faced in his life. He and Arthit, the Thai policeman who is Poke’s best friend in the world, are going to have to scramble if they are going to save the lives of those closest to them.
The real strength of the Poke Rafferty series is Hallinan’s well-developed recurring characters. Poke, Rose, Miaow, and Arthit all come with emotional baggage of their own but they meld into a unit that offers each of them exactly the emotional support, love, and friendship they need to finally make something good of their lives. It won’t be easy, but let it be known that they are still doing fine some five books (and counting, I hope) after The Fourth Watcher.
That said, because I have read the series out of order, I can also tell you that the books get even better as the series ages. This one emphasizes the “thriller” aspect of the plot to the point that it becomes a bit overcomplicated in the end. I prefer more “literary” thrillers (yes, I believe there is such a thing), and that’s exactly the direction Hallinan, over time, moves the Poke Rafferty series. Don’t miss ‘em.
scherzo's review
3.0
"Just out of curiosity, why would a theoretically secret organization call itself the Secret Service?"
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