lizab's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
vkemp's review
5.0
Poke Rafferty is happy, for once. He has a lot of money, that really doesn't belong to him and life with Rose and Miaow is going well, except for the part where Miaow is a teenager and really, really annoying. Miaow's best friend, Andrew Nguyen, loses his cell phone and so Miaow and Andrew skip school in order to find a new phone before Andrew's very strict father finds out about the loss. They find a phone and buy it, but unfortunately, when they open up the pictures, they discover pictures of two police officers who have been murdered for their part in a murder-for-hire scheme. The next day, Miaow and Andrew go back to return the phone but discover the store has been destroyed by someone looking for the missing phone. Now, Miaow and Andrew are on the run from bad, bad men. Poke is scared for Miaow and he and Andrew's father go on the hunt for the men who appear to be willing to kidnap the two children. The hunt is on. As always, the plot twists are remarkable and all the characters are well-defined. I do not know how I missed reading this book in the series since I adore Tim Hallinan and all his characters.
catmum's review
5.0
One minute Miaow is trying to help her friend not get in trouble for losing yet another iPhone and the next, crazy men with knives are trying to kill them. I'm sure I've said this before, but *this* is absolutely the best entry in a series I've loved from the start. How Tim Hallinan is able to perfectly channel all that is a 13 year old is a question I'll never be able to answer, but I am oh so glad that he can.
samhouston's review
5.0
For the Dead is Timothy Hallinan’s sixth Poke Rafferty novel, and the series just keeps getting better and better. Maybe that’s because readers have grown so comfortable now with the Rafferty family (Poke; his ex-Thai bargirl wife, Rose; and Miaow, the little homeless girl they adopted as their own) or maybe it’s because Hallinan’s stories are just getting better and better – maybe it’s a bit of both. Whichever it is, every time I finish a Poke Rafferty novel, I can’t wait to get my hands on the next one.
Interestingly, the fourth book in the series (The Queen of Patpong) can be said to be Rose’s book, and this sixth one is most definitely Miaow’s. Miaow has come a long way since she was plucked off the streets by Poke and taken into his home. The bright, but socially insecure, little girl is doing well in the private school she attends, and has recently discovered that she has both a love, and a real talent, for the stage. Things are going so well for Miaow, in fact, that she also has her first serious boyfriend, a Vietnamese boy who calls himself Andrew.
That relationship, though, is about to make life very interesting for the Rafferty clan because when the kids get hold of a used iPhone to replace the one Andrew lost, they get more than they bargained for. They also get all the pictures placed there by the phone’s previous owner – and someone in those pictures wants very badly to make sure that no one ever sees them.
Poke Rafferty, ever the protective husband and father, will really have to scramble this time if he is to save his family from the powerful people desperately trying to retrieve the lost iPhone before Andrew and Miaow can show the pictures to the right policemen. Before this one is over, Poke will have called for help from some expected and from some unexpected sources. And for the first time in memory, his longtime friend with the Thai police, Arthit, will actually be on the same side as the corrupt cop to whom he reports.
Timothy Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty books never disappoint, and For the Dead is no exception. If the subgenre of “literary thriller” does not already exist, it should be created immediately because that is exactly what the Poke Rafferty books are. Although Hallinan’s plots are as intricate and exciting as those of any good thriller, what makes the Rafferty books special is the steady development and evolution of the author’s main characters. Poke, Rose, Miaow, and Arthit are wonderfully sympathetic and real to those who have already been reading the series for a while. But the lucky ones just might be those readers for whom the series is a new one because, come October 2015 and the publication of The Hot Countries, they will have seven terrific books to binge-read.
Interestingly, the fourth book in the series (The Queen of Patpong) can be said to be Rose’s book, and this sixth one is most definitely Miaow’s. Miaow has come a long way since she was plucked off the streets by Poke and taken into his home. The bright, but socially insecure, little girl is doing well in the private school she attends, and has recently discovered that she has both a love, and a real talent, for the stage. Things are going so well for Miaow, in fact, that she also has her first serious boyfriend, a Vietnamese boy who calls himself Andrew.
That relationship, though, is about to make life very interesting for the Rafferty clan because when the kids get hold of a used iPhone to replace the one Andrew lost, they get more than they bargained for. They also get all the pictures placed there by the phone’s previous owner – and someone in those pictures wants very badly to make sure that no one ever sees them.
Poke Rafferty, ever the protective husband and father, will really have to scramble this time if he is to save his family from the powerful people desperately trying to retrieve the lost iPhone before Andrew and Miaow can show the pictures to the right policemen. Before this one is over, Poke will have called for help from some expected and from some unexpected sources. And for the first time in memory, his longtime friend with the Thai police, Arthit, will actually be on the same side as the corrupt cop to whom he reports.
Timothy Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty books never disappoint, and For the Dead is no exception. If the subgenre of “literary thriller” does not already exist, it should be created immediately because that is exactly what the Poke Rafferty books are. Although Hallinan’s plots are as intricate and exciting as those of any good thriller, what makes the Rafferty books special is the steady development and evolution of the author’s main characters. Poke, Rose, Miaow, and Arthit are wonderfully sympathetic and real to those who have already been reading the series for a while. But the lucky ones just might be those readers for whom the series is a new one because, come October 2015 and the publication of The Hot Countries, they will have seven terrific books to binge-read.
borisfeldman's review
1.0
I couldn't finish the book. Just a rehash of scenes and personalities from earlier works in the series. Time to shut it down.
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