I need you to buy and read Timothy Hallinan’s book, THE YEAR OF FOOLS. When I finished it, I thought it might be the best book I’ve read this year – yes, even at this late date – and certainly the most moving, but not the most crying.
Hallinan writes three excellent series: one set in Los Angeles featuring a professional burglar named Junior Bender (which is also worth your time); the Simeon Grist series, which was on hiatus for a while but recently had an unexpected resurgence; and the Poke Rafferty thrillers set in Thailand. FOOLS’ RIVER is part of Rafferty’s canon, documenting the life of an American expatriate living in Bangkok with his wife, Rosa, and their adopted daughter, Miao. Rafferty’s last few books have gradually shifted from the Rafferty known for his travels to the teenage and always underage Miao. Indeed, it is Miao’s friendship-and very tentative romantic liaison-with Edward Dell, her high school friend, that is the main impetus for most, though not quite all, of what happens here.
Edward, who has inherited stunning looks that are wasted on young people, comes to Miao, who in turn goes to Rafferty when Edward’s father disappears. Buddy is what is known to the American community in Thailand as an “expat,” which (in Buddy’s case) is a cat on the verge of senility with a seemingly insatiable taste for the strange. Although Buddy may have disappeared, his bank accounts are being depleted at the same rate as his credit card balances are reaching stratospheric levels. Rafferty does a little checking with his police sources and discovers a pattern of similar events in Bangkok, almost all of which end with the sexpot being recycled as fish food in the canals. The reader knows something of this, as the novel’s point of view occasionally shifts to the helpless Buddy, who is held drugged and against his will in a secret location, and forced to sign checks as his bank accounts bleed to death.
While it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Buddy, for whom Edward seems to be third on his list of priorities, Edward is a strong enough character, and his friendship with Miao is enough to give the reader reason to hope that Rafferty, with the unofficial-unofficial help that can only be found in Bangkok, will help find Buddy. The clock is ticking, given that Buddy has been missing for several days, and based on experience with the time gaps between disappearances and deaths of other sex workers, his sale deadline is fast approaching.
Meanwhile, another friend of Miao’s, who unfortunately finds herself in one of the most secluded corners of Bangkok’s apparently unrestricted sex trade, is also having her own difficulties. Rafferty spends plenty of time helping her, even if Rose, who has a child, has her own problems to deal with and may come up in the next volumes of the series.
Is the clock ticking? There’s a whole room full of them in FOOLS’ RIVER, as the stories unfold over several very busy days for Rafferty and all concerned. Hallinan combines emotion and sharp characterization with an unblinking look into the cold street life of Bangkok, even as he provides a contrasting element of compassion from sources both possible and otherwise. He does this through a prose style and character development that is reminiscent of Chandleresque (there is no other term for it) in its execution.
Here is one example. About halfway through the narrative, Hallinan briefly introduces a character — the wife of one of the sex trafficking victims – and lets her rule for a few pages before she disappears, not gone but forgotten. Read the book and tell me it doesn’t come from the same Muse who whispered in Raymond Chandler’s ear. Hallinan does this time and time again in his novels, so regularly that favorable comparisons are inevitable.
This is not even the best of what FOOLS’ RIVER is. If you took a little of this and a little of that out of the book, it would make a great young adult novel. And if you have an emotionally developed teenager in your home, you might consider letting them read it so they can realize how truly good and kind their life is compared to those who live in some parts of the world. Did you give thanks this morning that you have a pair of shoes that 1) fit and 2) look good? You will after reading THE YEAR OF FOOLS. For this reason and many others, I highly recommend it.