“Heart-rending . . . Even fans
accustomed to Hallinan’s lurid, compassionate view of
Bangkok may have to fight back tears.”
—Kirkus Reviews
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
A sad farewell.
On April 28, the final Poke Rafferty novel,
STREET MUSIC, went on sale in ebook format at the
usual online bookstores. Production and distribution of the
hard-cover version—the most beautiful book that’s
ever had my name on it—will follow
“soon,” having fallen victim to the global virus
that ignored the prediction that “One day, it’s like
a miracle, it will disappear.” Hasn’t been quite
enough like a miracle for me. Anyway, the hard cover will be
available soon.
The decision to end the series is mine. As
much as I love these characters and their Bangkok environment,
tempus is fugiting at an alarming rate, and there are new
characters and worlds I’d like to explore before
I’m forced to turn in my keyboard.
In 2006, I opened the first book in the
series, A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, with a
scene in which an American travel writer holds his adopted
daughter’s hand as they follow his wife down a Bangkok
sidewalk, shopping for groceries. I knew that it wasn’t the
most electrifying opening in thriller history, but I wanted to say
on the very first page that this was not a novel about Bangkok in
which beautiful young Asian women threw themselves
incessantly at uninteresting white men. My line of thought was
something like wife+daughter+groceries=family.
The word family did the trick. I barely knew
who these people were, but the moment I realized they were a
family, I thought that it might be interesting to drop a
normal—if intercultural and self-assembled—family
into the world capital of instant gratification. It felt to me like the
family might serve as a friendly campfire in a world of cold neon.
And, for me, at least, it’s worked out.
I’ve put my little famly through a lot
in nine books, and they’ve put me through a lot. I already
miss them. But I do hope you’ll like STREET
MUSIC.
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