Sunday, August 25, 2019

On My Radar: Tim Hallinan's Street Music



Tim Hallinan is one of my favorite writers. He has been ever since I picked up his first Poke Rafferty mystery, A Nail Through the Heart. He writes good, solid mysteries that keep you guessing (and worrying). He brings the culture and people of Thailand to life. He's versatile, writing another series featuring a cat burglar in Los Angeles. And he can write characters that bring you to your knees. Having met him, talked with him, and heard him talk about various incidents in his life that inspired him, Hallinan has done a lot to open my eyes to the magic that occurs when someone as talented as he starts creating stories.

I knew this book was going to be the last Poke Rafferty mystery, and although that made me a bit sad, I still had a big smile on my face when the book's particulars became available to all and sundry. Let's take a look at Street Music...


Available April 7, 2020!
Synopsis:

"The conclusion to Timothy Hallinan’s Edgar Award-nominated Poke Rafferty series set in Thailand—a ticking-clock thriller about the most dangerous facets of Bangkok’s seedy underbelly.

Poke Rafferty’s hand-made intercultural family is disrupted in unexpectedly complicated ways by the birth of his son, littering their small Bangkok apartment with emotional land mines. At the same time, the most cantankerous member of the small gang of Old Bangkok Hands who hangs out at The Expat Bar suddenly goes missing under suspicious circumstances. Engaged in the search for the missing American and the challenges of life with a newborn, Rafferty misses the fact that he’s being followed by someone who puts his whole life in Thailand at risk.
"



Having been fortunate enough to attend Tim's most recent event at my favorite bookstore, I am really looking forward to meeting a new character, the character who inspired the title of the book.

All you Hallinan fans, take note of Street Music's release date. To those who haven't met Poke Rafferty, there's no time like the present. These are marvelous books!



6 comments:

  1. Wait, what? Did I see the word 'conclusion' there, Cathy? Is this series going to end?! Well, on the one hand, good series are wrapped up effectively. On the other, I'd love it to continue...

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    1. Thanks, Margot -- that's very kind of you.

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    2. I don't think I'd ever get tired of the characters in this series, Margot, but I'm certainly looking forward to where Tim takes us next!

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    1. Thanks so much for all the kind words Cathy, both now and over the years. As much as I love these characters (and I do, deeply) tempis continues to fugit, and I feel a need to open myself to other places, other characters. I'm looking at two possible series, one set in Hollywood in 1932, just after the industry civil war over the coming of sound, which will feature a young woman named Winnie Belden, one of the thousands of hopefuls who followed their dreams to Hollywood. Most of them were exploited in various ways, by the industry and by those outside it, or went home with nothing but disappointed hopes and maybe a good story or two; they were chasing the end of the rainbow but for the vast majority of them it turned out to be the wrong end. Winnie, who sees herself as an actress, has been hired as a chorus girl by the unit at Warners that does the Busby Berkeley movies. In the Hollywood hierarchy of the day, "chorus girls" ranked just above furniture, but Winnie is always the smartest person in the room or on the sound stage. The first book will be called THE WRONG END OF THE RAINBOW. And then there's one I can't talk about much, LET IT COME DOWN, about a private eye in California who has an, um, unusual relationship to William Shakespeare. And half a dozen others. So it might turn out to be good news, too.

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    2. I've always liked the sound of the Winnie Belden book, and I see that the title has changed. Hopefully, the "moving house" scene has remained in the book. (I like the new title, by the way.) The California PI book sounds intriguing as well. Looking forward to wherever your stories take us, Tim!

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