In the wake of the tragic 2004 tsunami, travel writer Poke is trying to build a new life in Thailand with Rose, a former bar girl, and Miaow, a street child he wants to adopt. As a favor to a Thai policeman friend, Poke agrees to investigate the disappearance of the uncle of an Australian woman. It isn’t long before he discovers the man is a cruel pedophile and not the saint the niece believes him to be.

Complications mount as he takes into his home a boy known as Superman from Miaow’s past, accepts money from a wealthy woman who wants him to find a man who stole something she won’t disclose, runs afoul of two corrupt police and assorted thugs who threaten him and his family.

It’s an adrenalin-rush of a story with well-defined characters, plenty of action and a complex, engrossing plot.

Like John Burdett, Hallinan has a deep insight into Thai character and an obvious love for the people. He doesn’t gloss over or romanticize the complexity of this society which has its beauty and its warts. Those warts include the exploitation of women and sexual abuse of children, distasteful subjects which can only be dealt with by Buddhist pragmatism.

I came into Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty series backward. That is, I read the most recent novel before reading this first in the series. Knowing a bit more about the characters didn’t deplete my enjoyment of this one. I’m looking forward to the other books in the series.