A review by vkemp
Breathing Water by Timothy Hallinan

5.0

Poke Rafferty is back. Poke and his friend, Arthit, an honest Bangkok cop, are involved in a poker game, trying to catch some criminals. Poke wins the opportunity to write the biography of Pan, a local hero who wants to run for political office, but has some skeletons in his closet that need cleaning. Poke is beset on two sides: one wants to keep him from writing the biography for fear of what it will expose about crime in Bangkok and another who demands he write the book to demonstrate that Pan is not all his mythology says he is. Poke, his wife, Rose and adopted daughter, Miaow, are the targets of several kidnapping and assassination attempts. Meanwhile, Boo, a street urchin from a previous book is back with Da and her baby, Peep, who are trying to escape the clutches of a baby-selling scheme run by another gangster in Bangkok. The excitement is non-stop.
I really enjoy the adventures of Poke Rafferty, knight in rusty armor. He always tries to do the right thing for everyone, especially his friends and family. I waited a while to read this because the next book in the series is due out shortly. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to make sense of the current political uproar in Thailand. It will give you a good understanding of what is happening and why.