Street Music

I just finished reading Street Music, Timothy Hallinan's final book in his Poke Rafferty adventure series. These novels features Poke Rafferty, a travel writer living in Bangkok, Thailand, who, with his wife Rose - a former bar girl - adopt a young child named Miaow, who was abandoned on the streets by her mother at the age of 5. Rafferty always winds up getting involved in all kinds of trouble, and this time is no exception. After 10 years, Miaow's mother, Hon, a street person herself, reappears, forced by a gangster to try and extort money from Rafferty. It is an exciting story, although there is a long section on Hon's life, focusing on why she abandoned Miaow, that is pretty damned depressing. Rafferty did the same thing in another book, where he had an extensive section on his wife Rose's difficult life before meeting him. Both of these episodes describe what life is like in rural northeast Thailand, and how young girls from there often wind up in Bangkok - either voluntarily or sold by their families for cash - where they are victimized and exploited. Rafferty clearly paints a portrait of a fascinating, but not very nice city. But still, I strongly recommend this book, as well as the rest of the series. The underlying story of the family that was created out of such adversity is truly heartwarming.