Timothy Hallinan – författare

Timothy Hallinan brings Bangkok, Thailand, to life in all its exotic, seedy, dangerous glory in Breathing Water, his third novel of unrelenting suspense to feature expatriate American travel writer Poke Rafferty. A breathtaking thriller in which innocence and evil, power and poverty collide on neon streets and in palatial Asian mansions, Breathing Water is Hallinan’s finest work yet, capturing the raw excitement and perilous uncertainty of the Thailand that screams from today’s headlines.

The author of the Looking for Trouble travel book series, Poke Rafferty is ready to settle down in Bangkok with his fiancée, Rose, and his newly adopted daughter, Miaow. But trouble isn''t ready to let him go; it''s back in Poke''s life with a vengeance, in the guise of his long-estranged father, Frank, the last person he ever wanted to see again. And Frank hasn''t come empty-handed, arriving with a box of rubies, a wad of fraudulent identity papers, and one of the most dangerous gangsters in China in hot pursuit. With a rogue American Secret Service agent targeting Rose for her unwitting part in a North Korean counterfeiting operation, Poke can see trouble descending from everywhere to attack those he loves—and it will take every skill he possesses to keep them, and himself, alive.

“Hallinan is a wordsmith of the first order, and he puts his great narrative skills into overdrive on this one….You won’t read a better thriller this year!”—John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of Treasure Hunt

Author Timothy Hallinan returns to Bangkok, Thailand—and plunges his protagonist, travel writer Poke Rafferty, into graver peril than ever before—in The Queen of Patpong, Hallinan’s fourth Rafferty thriller following A Nail Through the Heart, The Fourth Watcher, and Breathing Water.  Fans of John Burdett, Alexander McCall Smith, Daniel Silva, and Alan Furst who love being transported to exotic locales will be riveted when a nightmare figure from the past arrives at Poke Rafferty’s door to bring chaos and danger to the lives of the people he loves.

Introducing Junior Bender, the favorite burglar turned private investigator of Hollywood crooks

Junior Bender is a Los Angeles burglar with a magic touch. Since he first started breaking into houses at age fourteen, he''s never once been caught. But now, after twenty-two years building an exemplary career, Junior has been blackmailed by Trey Annunziato, one of the most powerful crime bosses in LA, into acting as a private investigator on the set of Trey''s porn venture, which someone keeps sabotaging. The star Trey has lined up to do all that''s unwholesome on camera is Thistle Downing, America''s beloved child star, who now lives alone in a drug-induced stupor, destitute and uninsurable. Her starring role will be the scandalous fall-from-grace gossip of rubberneckers across the country. No wonder Trey needs help keeping the production on track.

Junior knows what he should do—but doing the right thing will land him on the wrong side of LA''s scariest mob boss. With the help of his precocious twelve-year-old daughter, Rina, and his criminal sidekick, ex-getaway driver Louie the Lost, Junior will have to pull off a miracle to get out of this mess.

Junior Bender is back to untangle one of the weirdest mysteries in Tinseltown.

LA burglar Junior Bender has, unfortunately, developed a reputation as a competent private investigator for crooks. The unfortunate part about this is that, regardless of whether he solves the crime or not, someone dangerous is going to be unhappy with him—either his suspect or his employer.

Now Junior is being bullied into proving aging music-industry mogul Vinnie DiGaudio is innocent of the murder of a nasty tabloid journalist he''d threatened to kill a couple times. It doesn''t help that the dead journalist''s widow is one pretty lady, and she''s trying to get Junior to mix business with pleasure. Just as the investigation is spiraling out of control, Junior''s hard-drinking landlady begs him to solve the disappearance of her daughter, who has gotten involved with a very questionable character. And, worst news of all, both Junior''s ex-wife and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Rina, seem to have new boyfriends. What a mess.

The highly anticipated, laugh-out-loud third installment in the fan-favorite Junior Bender mysteries

There are not many people brave enough to say no to Irwin Dressler, Hollywood''s scariest mob boss turned movie king. Even though Dressler is ninety-three years old, LA burglar Junior Bender is quaking in his boots when Dressler''s henchmen haul him in for a meeting. Dressler wants Junior to solve a crime he believes was committed more than seventy years ago, when an old friend of his, once-famous starlet Dolores La Marr, had her career destroyed after compromising photos were taken of her at a Las Vegas party. Dressler wants justice for Dolores and the shining career she never had.

Junior can''t help but think the whole thing is a little crazy. After all, it''s been seventy years. Even if someone did set Dolores up for a fall from grace, they''re probably long dead now. But he can''t say no to Irwin Dressler—no one can, really—so he starts digging. What he finds is that some vendettas never die; they only get more dangerous.

It''s everyday business when Wattles, the San Fernando Valley''s top "executive crook," sets up a hit. He establishes a chain of criminals to pass along the instructions and the money, thereby ensuring that the hitter doesn''t know who hired him. Then one day Wattles finds his office safe open and a single item missing: the piece of paper listing the crooks in the chain. When people associated with the chain begin to pop up dead, the only person Wattles can turn to for help is Junior Bender, professional burglar and begrudging private eye for crooks.

But Junior already knows exactly who took Wattles'' list; the signature is obvious. It was Herbie Mott, Junior''s burglar mentor and second father—but when Junior seeks him out to discuss the matter, he finds him very unpleasantly murdered. Junior follows the links in the chain back toward the killer, and as he does, he learns disturbing things about Herbie''s hidden past. Just how much of the life he''s lived for the past twenty years has been of his own making, and how much of it was actually Herbie''s game?

The Simeon Grist private-eye novels by 2011 Edgar and Macavity Award nominee Timothy Hallinan have become cult favorites, and here is the one that started it all.

For a fee so big he can''t turn it down, Simeon Grist is hired to watchdog the kind of guy he''d usually prefer to throw through the nearest window. Toby Vane is the golden boy of prime-time television, whose gee-whiz smile and chiseled features mask a dark secret that would take the shine off for his millions of adoring female fans: every now and then he beats up a woman, and almost any woman will do. When some of the women around Toby begin to turn up dead, Simeon has to figure out whether he''s protecting a murderer—or whether one of Toby''s multitude of enemies wants to put him away forever. And when Simeon meets the beautiful Nana, the whole situation becomes very personal, very fast.

Robert B. Parker and Robert Crais fans will enjoy Edgar Award nominee Timothy Hallinan''s novels featuring overeducated private eye Simeon Grist. In this third book in the cult series, Grist takes a case that leads him to the phantom neighborhoods of Los Angeles'' lost children.

Missing thirteen-year-old Aimee Sorrell ran all the way from Kansas to be a star. But Aimee''s trail soon leads Simeon to the city morgue, the first stop on a perilous journey to find out what happens to America''s lost children when they go looking for love in all the wrong places.

Edgar Award finalist Timothy Hallinan continues his six-book Simeon Grist series with this white-knuckle mystery—a must-listen for fans of Robert B. Parker''s Spenser novels.

Simeon Grist knows LA inside and out—the sex for sale, the chic seductions, every rip-off from City Hall to Venice. So when he''s hired by a Hollywood recording company to shadow one Sally Oldfield, suspected of embezzlement, Grist discovers she''s entangled in the Church of the Eternal Moment—a million-dollar religious scam built around a twelve-year-old channeler and the voice of a man who has been dead for a millennium. When Sally turns up dead, Simeon knows he''s become the next target of a very flesh-and-blood entity waiting in the back alleys of sin and salvation to give him a brutal look at the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell—revelations he could definitely live without.

Edgar and Macavity Award nominee Timothy Hallinan''s novels featuring erudite Los Angeles private eye Simeon Grist have become cult favorites—and this fourth installment is one wild ride.

Simeon Grist is about to face off against his most terrifying adversary—a madman who''s setting fire to the homeless. As Simeon is drawn into the case, very much against his will, he realizes that the "Incinerator" has a huge advantage. Somewhere, years ago, the two of them met, and the Incinerator has been nursing hatred and resentment for years. Now, as helpless people burst into flame on Skid Row, Simeon has to scour the wastelands of Los Angeles, and his own past, looking for the face of a killer.

Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender is in the middle of burgling a house and has just gotten his hands on one of the world’s rarest stamps when the job goes terrifically wrong. After barely escaping, Junior realizes the danger is far from over. He’s gotten himself on the wrong side of a man whose name is synonymous with violence, and to save his own skin he’s set off a chain reaction of blackmail, strong-arming, and escalating crime. To pay off his underworld debts, Junior is forced to break into the house of the most powerful man in Hollywood, the shadowy, widely feared studio mogul known as King Maybe. It’s an impossible break-in, and to get out of the house alive Junior will need to use everything he’s learned, plus a few skills he knows he doesn’t possess.

Edgar and Macavity Award–nominated author Timothy Hallinan throws his erudite Los Angeles private eye into the middle of a global human-trafficking operation in this fifth book in the series. Simeon Grist does a favor for the family of his sometimes-girlfriend, Eleanor Chan, and goes looking for two children who vanished in Chinatown. He quickly learns that he’s gone straight through the looking glass and into a world where grieving parents are afraid to contact the police, where fear is the teacher and power is the law, and where helpless people are shipped from China to America and forced into lives of toil and submission.

Edgar and Macavity Award nominee Timothy Hallinan’s Simeon Grist private-eye novels have become cult favorites. This sixth series installment takes place in the West Hollywood of 1995, where the community is shaken by the brutal killing of an older man who was widely loved for his generosity and kindness. In a time when the police were largely indifferent to crimes against gay people, Simeon is hired to catch the murderer—and finds himself up against the most dangerous adversary of his career, a man who kills his victims not once but twice: once physically and once in spirit.

With an unforgettable climax and a twist you won’t see coming, The Bone Polisher is a top-notch crime novel from a highly acclaimed author.

It’s three days until Christmas and Junior Bender, Hollywood’s fast-talking fixer for the felonious, is up to his ears in shopping mall Santas, Russian mobsters, desperate holiday shoppers, and (’tis the season) murder.

The halls are decked, the deck is stacked, and here comes that jolly old elf. Junior Bender, divorced father of one and burglar extraordinaire, finds himself stuck inside the Edgerton Mall, and not just as a last-minute shopper (though he is that too). Edgerton isn’t exactly the epicenter of holiday cheer, despite its two Santas, canned Christmas music, chintzy bows, and festive lights. The mall is a fossil of an industry in decline; many of its stores are closed, and to make matters worse, there is a rampant shoplifting problem.

The murderous Russian mobster who owns the place has decided it takes a thief to catch a thief and hires Junior—under threat—to solve the shoplifting problem for him. But Junior’s surveillance operation doesn’t go well: as Christmas Eve approaches, two people are dead and it’s obvious that shoplifting is the least of the mall’s problems. To prevent further deaths, possibly including his own, Junior must confront his dread of Christmas—both present and past.

Timothy Hallinan’s private eye Simeon Grist has gone out of print and he’s pissed about it.

Simeon thought he was living a good life—solving mysteries, falling in and out of love, risking life and limb to do the right thing. Then the last Simeon Grist mystery was pulped to make newsprint, and he woke up in a room where nothing ever changed except his sense of who he was: his entire existence was a work of fiction that the real world was in the process of forgetting. And when one of his few remaining readers is murdered, Simeon discovers that he can—at great risk—step out of the pages of his books and into the world of the living. The only problem: even if he succeeds in solving the murder, winning the love of a real-life woman, and finding the man who wrote him, he could still die trying.