A
Killing Smile begins the Land of Smiles trilogy. Lawrence Baring,
a successful Los Angeles attorney, had lost his wife, Sarah. He discovers
after her suicide that Sarah had maintained a long-distance affair with
Robert Tuttle. Baring travels to Bangkok for a showdown with Tuttle
who has become a long-time resident of the Bangkok underworld.
In
this cult classic tale of betrayal and exploitation, Baring and Tuttle
circle each other inside Thai culture where language and way of life
deliver multidimensional surprises. In his quest for revenge, Baring
learns true meaning of friendship and the secrets behind the smile.
Praise
“[A
Killing Smile] set the standard of an artistic movement: Bangkok
Noir ... Brilliant observations on the Bangkok nightlife ... A creative
triumph.”
—James Newman Fiction
“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