Christopher G. Moore
A Killing Smile
First in the Land of Smiles Trilogy
$17.95

In 1957 Richard Mason's The World of Suzie Wong shocked the world with an exotic tale set in Hong Kong, then in 1973 Paul Theroux's Saint Jack followed with a powerful story set in Singapore, and in 1991 Christopher G. Moore's A Killing Smile has registered a tour de force with a haunting drama set in Bangkok.

A Killing Smile is a simple but deep story about the aftermath of events following the death of a successful Los Angeles attorney's wife. Lost, confused, and angry, Lawrence Baring, Esq. goes to Bangkok and confronts Tuttle--the man his wife, Sarah, had once loved.

The story follows the conflict and enveloping relationship of Baring and Tuttle in the underworld of Bangkok's Patpong, Soi Cowboy, and the late night meeting spot called HQ where spies, gangsters, diplomats, pimps, businessmen, writers, teachers, travellers gather along side the women they buy for the night. The novel is filled with twists and turns and atmosphere and absolutely fascinating characters shipwrecked in a society they vaguely understand.

Heaven Lake Press (2004), 5th ed., 270 pp.

 

“The whole effect is very real— particularly the revelation of those razor teeth back of the Smile.”
—Gore Vidal

“Moore is a master of detail . . . a pioneer, daring and inventive.”
—The Nation

“I was knocked out by the sensitivity of the writing, the textures of the characters, the many levels of feeling. The outcome is one of the finest male bonding stories I have ever come across and I kick myself that I didn’t write this novel.”
—Stirling Silliphant, Oscar winner for In the Heat of the Night

“The portrait of Tuttle as an expatriate shipwrecked in an alien tropic brings to mind Theroux's Jack Flowers.”
—The Japan Times

“In A Killing Smile Moore succeeds in translating for a Western audience the inside of how Thais think. Above all he describes with an objective, non-judgemental eye the raw pathos, the light and shadow of the world that never surfaces in the glossy tourist catalogues.”
—Fabio Novel, Thriller Magazine (Italy)

“Critically regarded as the best Western author today whose books focus on this country (e.g., A Killing Smile).”
—Bangkok Post