Street Music (A Poke Rafferty Novel)
Street Music (A Poke Rafferty Novel) book cover

Street Music (A Poke Rafferty Novel)

Hardcover – May 12, 2020

Price
$19.72
Format
Hardcover
Pages
384
Publisher
Soho Crime
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1641291231
Dimensions
5.76 x 1.19 x 8.53 inches
Weight
1.21 pounds

Description

A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Novel of May Praise for Street Music "Anyone who has enjoyed a Poke Rafferty novel over the years knows that family life is at the very heart of Hallinan’s work and the complex dynamics between Poke, Rose, and Miaow are the true, beautiful mystery at work . . . It's [Street Muisc] thexa0typically dizzying, satisfying mixture from Hallinan, whose novels are reliably nuanced and compelling." —CrimeReads "Heart-rending." —Kirkus Reviews Praise for the Poke Rafferty Thrillers “You could drown in the waves of corruption that surge through Timothy Hallinan’s Bangkok mysteries.” —The New York Times Book Review “Absorbing . . . Poke proves up to correcting the wrongs he sets out to right.” — The Wall Street Journal “A fast-paced, compelling tale, but also, on every level, a fine literary read. [Hallinan’s] characters are fully drawn, his Bangkok beautifully evoked, his understanding of the complexities of the human condition so obvious and so full of compassion.” —William Kent Krueger, Edgar Award-winning author of Ordinary Grace “A bravura performance . . . that never loses the rhythm of its characters’ beating hearts.” — Booklist , Starred Review Timothy Hallinan has been nominated for the Edgar, Nero, Shamus, Macavity and Silver Dagger awards. He is the author of twenty widely praised books, including the Simeon Grist Los Angeles mysteries, the Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers and the Junior Bender Hollywood burglar novels, including Herbie’s Game, winner of the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. After years of working in the television and music industries, he now writes full-time. He lives in California and Thailand.

Features & Highlights

  • Eight years ago, Poke Rafferty, an American travel writer, and his Thai wife, Rose, adopted a Bangkok street child named Miaow, forming an unconventional intercultural family. That family has weathered extreme challenges—each of its three members carried the scars of a painful and dangerous history—but has stuck together with tenacity and love (and a little help from some friends).   Now that family is in jeopardy: the birth of Poke and Rose’s newborn son has littered their small apartment with emotional land mines, forcing Poke to question his identity as a dad and Miaow to question her identity as a daughter. At the same time, the most cantankerous member of the small gang of Old Bangkok Hands who hang out at the Expat Bar suddenly goes missing under suspicious circumstances. Engaged in the search for the missing American, Poke is caught completely off-guard when someone he thought was gone forever resurfaces—and she has the power to tear the Raffertys apart.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(69)
★★★★
25%
(58)
★★★
15%
(35)
★★
7%
(16)
23%
(52)

Most Helpful Reviews

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His worst Thai novel

Dragged on too long
1 people found this helpful
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POKE RAFFERTY'S LAST BOOK

I will miss Poke, Miaow, Rose, and all the other characters who inhabit this world. Story lines are tied up, and we learn the last bit that we will know about them. Timothy Hallinan was ahead of his time in creating strong, intelligent women. I am sorry that COVID-19 prevented the normal book tour that would have allowed us to give this series a proper sendoff.
1 people found this helpful
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A Heart-wrenching and Compelling Valedictory

Travel from the United States to Thailand is currently restricted due to the pandemic. Still, I spent half a day in Bangkok this week. How did I get there for around twenty bucks? Via Tim Hallinan’s latest novel, Street Music. A nominee for just about every crime fiction award there is, Hallinan downplays identifying the killer in this book. Yet mysteries abound. Where did protagonist Poke Rafferty’s adopted daughter come from? What’s happened to his frenemy Bob Campeau? How will the birth of his newborn son affect him? Can he support his family through his writing? On every page we are right with Poke in the tumult and sultriness of Bangkok as he tries to make it in a world half foreign to him and totally foreign to us. This is the ninth and last volume of the Poke Rafferty series. While readers will sorely miss Poke and his wife Rose, Hallinan has given them a heart-wrenching and compelling valedictory. Bravo!
1 people found this helpful
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Hallinan is a Pleasure to Read

Whether it's his Rafferty/Bangkok detective novels or his Junior Bender novels I enjoy Hallinan's stories, characters and settings. Thank you to Hallinan for his contribution to my reading life! Oh, forgot...his writing style is very easy to enjoy! Dan G.
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Excellent Finale to the Always Interesting Poke Rafferty Series

An excellent end to the Poke Rafferty series by Tim Hallinan, who neatly wraps various characters up with a conclusion worthy of the books. Not all stories carry across multiple novels as well as this one has, with believable characters, some much more likable than others but all serving their purpose to move things along. Sorry there won’t be more stories in this series but a satisfying read and well done finale that should make some readers go back to the start to see how it all began.
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Bittersweet Ending To a Series

I read this entire series and it will be sad to see it end. This book was fine, but focused too much on a new character rather than one of the many that have populated the books over the years. I would rather have spent more time with Poke and his family than was provided here so a bit of a letdown. I would add that the ending itself seemed rushed and could have had another 50 pages without sacrificing anything for effectiveness.
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Very good book

Took a long time to arrive. Have ready many books by this author and he is good.
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The “end“ of the Poke Rafferty series leaves much to be desired

Unlike all of Hallinan’s other books, which I have found to be very good reads, I found this one to be lacking in Interest and intrigue.
I was actually bored at times and ended up having to skim through some of the lingering descriptions of the “baby” factor and even some passages about Miaow’s biological mother’s life. Glad Campeau got his life in order by the ending, however!