lizab's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
3.75
jmeston's review against another edition
3.0
I'm surprised to be reading a second series of Bangkok mystery thrillers. I'll see what I think when I get to the end of this one... And I liked it. Less outre than the John Burdett books, more straight ahead plotting and characters. I'll try one of his non Bangkok series next.
poedogruns's review against another edition
4.0
This is an exceptional novel, certainly deserving its Edgar nomination. Timothy Hallinan writes with a graceful ease that makes Queen of Patpong highly readable. Within a short time, Thailand literally popped off the pages. Hallinan articulated both rural and urban Thailand, vastly different worlds unto themselves, with such authority and vivid detail, I literally felt transported into a wholly new and exotic culture.[return] [return]The central story revolves around a young Thai girl's birthwright into poor village hopelessness, which by unfortunate fate, ultimately compelled her into big city prostitution. Hallinan's prespective is straighforward, the seediness of Rose's situation is always present, but not overstated. Hallinan masterfully spins the tension of that situation into a life and death showdown with a truly evil person from Rose's past.
vkemp's review
5.0
Tim Hallinan does it again. If you want to know about the steamy, seamy underbelly of Bangkok, read Hallinan's books. Rose and Miaow are out eating dinner and Poke joins them. Like a ghost from the past, Rose suddenly sees someone she thought she had killed in her previous life as a bargirl in the Patpong district, the life from which Poke rescued her. Fear enters their lives while Poke tries to protect his family as they run from a vicious killer and his sidekick, another killer. The entire middle section of the book describes, in detail, how the sex trade works in Thailand. It is a brutal, horrific picture of how poverty creates its victims. You come to understand much about Rose and who she is and how important her present life is to her. Poke enlists his allies to battle the killer trying to destroy his family. This action helps to rescue Arithit, his friend who is trying to recover from the death of his wife, Noi, in the previous book. As a relief from the action, we see Miaow playing Ariel in a school performance of "The Tempest," and begin to understand who hard it is for her to fit into her present life, too. These books are always entertaining and educational to read. Hallinan lives in Thailand which lends a depth to his writing. Run to your library and read these books; there are now four in the series.
catmum's review
5.0
First line: Old cigarette smoke, cheap perfume, sweat.
Okay, this slightly nudged out the Craig Johnson for best book read this year.
I was trying to stretch it out because Tim says the next Poke won't be out until
next year. But I hit the halfway point this morning and I read straight through
until I finished it. Best Poke yet.
An old flame of Rose's, one she thought she had killed years before, shows up
to let Rose know he intends to finish where he left off. The middle third of
the book is Rose's backstory, how she went from Issan village girl to a working
girl in the Patpong district. Hallinan does a wonderful job portraying the sex
workers as three dimensional people. And by the end of the book we also get
to see Poke, Rose and Miaow finish gelling as a family.
Okay, this slightly nudged out the Craig Johnson for best book read this year.
I was trying to stretch it out because Tim says the next Poke won't be out until
next year. But I hit the halfway point this morning and I read straight through
until I finished it. Best Poke yet.
An old flame of Rose's, one she thought she had killed years before, shows up
to let Rose know he intends to finish where he left off. The middle third of
the book is Rose's backstory, how she went from Issan village girl to a working
girl in the Patpong district. Hallinan does a wonderful job portraying the sex
workers as three dimensional people. And by the end of the book we also get
to see Poke, Rose and Miaow finish gelling as a family.
samhouston's review
4.0
With the publication of The Hot Countries in October 2015, Timothy Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty series will be seven books long. The Queen of Patpong, which is the fourth Rafferty book, is one that I particularly like because it fills in Rose’s backstory so completely that it is easy to see how she became the strong woman that she is today.
Rose, a former Thai bar girl, by this point in the series is married to Poke and they are living rather comfortably and happily with Miaow, the little homeless girl they plucked off the streets and adopted as their own. As the book begins, Poke, who originally came to Thailand to write travel books, is already aware of much of Rose’s past but even he does not know how truly horrific her story is.
All of that suddenly changes, though, when a man Rose thought (and prayed) was long dead stops by her restaurant table to pay his compliments. Before that conversation ends, Rose has stabbed the man in the hand, Poke has been manhandled and humiliated, and the whole restaurant is in an uproar. But that’s only a taste of what the intruder has in mind for Rose, Poke, and Miaow. He has big plans for the family, and if he succeeds in carrying out those plans none of them will be around to talk about it when he’s all done.
Poke’s search for Horner (Rose’s nemesis) will take him to Patpong Road, the very heart of one of the most wide-open red-light districts in the world. This is a section of Bangkok both he and Rose know well. Rose, like so many young Thai women before her, escaped the dangers of life in her home village by signing on to work in one of the infamous bars in the district. And despite not having a real comprehension of the lifestyle she was signing on for, the statuesque Rose was such an eye catcher that, by the time she left the life, she could legitimately be called “The Queen of Patpong.”
Rose Rafferty’s story is typical of those of the thousands of young Asian women who get trapped in Thailand’s sex trade every year, and make no mistake about it, this industry is both as well organized and as corrupt as any crime syndicate in the world. Timothy Hallinan has done his research, and what he describes here is both fascinating and disturbing. Sadly, because it is sometimes the only means of escape from an even worse fate planned for them by their own families, there is no shortage of young women willing to try their luck on Patpong Road.
The Queen of Patpong, however, is much more than a primer on Thailand’s sex trade. It is also a very fine thriller about three or four characters readers have come to know – and love – over the length of the series. And I have to tell you…the ending of The Queen of Patpong is one of the most satisfying of its type I have experienced in a long, long time.
Rose, a former Thai bar girl, by this point in the series is married to Poke and they are living rather comfortably and happily with Miaow, the little homeless girl they plucked off the streets and adopted as their own. As the book begins, Poke, who originally came to Thailand to write travel books, is already aware of much of Rose’s past but even he does not know how truly horrific her story is.
All of that suddenly changes, though, when a man Rose thought (and prayed) was long dead stops by her restaurant table to pay his compliments. Before that conversation ends, Rose has stabbed the man in the hand, Poke has been manhandled and humiliated, and the whole restaurant is in an uproar. But that’s only a taste of what the intruder has in mind for Rose, Poke, and Miaow. He has big plans for the family, and if he succeeds in carrying out those plans none of them will be around to talk about it when he’s all done.
Poke’s search for Horner (Rose’s nemesis) will take him to Patpong Road, the very heart of one of the most wide-open red-light districts in the world. This is a section of Bangkok both he and Rose know well. Rose, like so many young Thai women before her, escaped the dangers of life in her home village by signing on to work in one of the infamous bars in the district. And despite not having a real comprehension of the lifestyle she was signing on for, the statuesque Rose was such an eye catcher that, by the time she left the life, she could legitimately be called “The Queen of Patpong.”
Rose Rafferty’s story is typical of those of the thousands of young Asian women who get trapped in Thailand’s sex trade every year, and make no mistake about it, this industry is both as well organized and as corrupt as any crime syndicate in the world. Timothy Hallinan has done his research, and what he describes here is both fascinating and disturbing. Sadly, because it is sometimes the only means of escape from an even worse fate planned for them by their own families, there is no shortage of young women willing to try their luck on Patpong Road.
The Queen of Patpong, however, is much more than a primer on Thailand’s sex trade. It is also a very fine thriller about three or four characters readers have come to know – and love – over the length of the series. And I have to tell you…the ending of The Queen of Patpong is one of the most satisfying of its type I have experienced in a long, long time.
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