The Vincent Calvino Novels Series

The murder of a foreigner in Thailand kicks off this crime thriller, the first in the Shamus Award–winning series by “a terrific writer” (T. Jefferson Parker).   A farang is dead, and the Bangkok police have a confession the next morning from a young paint-thinner addict. He claims he killed Ben Hoadly, an expat Brit—but American PI Vincent Calvino has his doubts when he sees heavy bruises on the kid’s face.   In no time Calvino is working both sides, out to find the killer for Hoadly’s wealthy father, and eager to clear the addict’s name for a beautiful friend who runs a charity in the slums. With the help of his best friend, Pratt, a Shakespeare-quoting Thai police colonel, and his loyal assistant, Ratana, Calvino plunges into the dangerous world of addicts, dealers, fortune tellers, inexpensive hit men, oversexed foreigners, and professional bar girls . . .   “Intelligent and articulate, Moore offers a rich, passionate, and original take on the private eye game” in this international bestseller (January Magazine).

Shamus Award Winner: A disbarred American lawyer-turned-PI tracks down a killer: “Think Dashiell Hammett in Bangkok” (San Francisco Chronicle).   It’s the Year of the Monkey in Bangkok. But expat Vincent Calvino’s Chinese New Year celebration has been interrupted. Thai cops have fished the body of a farang—foreign—cameraman from Lumpini Park Lake, and CNN is running dramatic footage of several Burmese soldiers on the Thailand border executing students.   Calvino follows the trail of the dead man to a feature film crew, where he hits the wall of silence. On the other side of that wall, Calvino and Colonel Pratt discover an elite film unit of old Asia hands with connections to influential people in Southeast Asia. They are about to find themselves matched against a set of farangs conditioned for urban survival and willing to go for a knockout punch.   “Highly recommended to readers of hard-boiled detective fiction, including series set in Bangkok (especially John Burdett’s Sonchai Jitplecheep novels) as well as the classic American tough-guy authors (Raymond Chandler or, more recently, Robert B. Parker).” —Booklist   “When Americans discover Christopher G. Moore, they’re going to strip the bookstores bare of his work.”—T. Jefferson Parker

An expat detective navigates through seamy, steamy Bangkok in this novel in the international bestselling and Shamus Award–winning series.   When PI Vincent Calvino’s surveillance of a drug piracy ring ends in definitive video evidence, it looks like the fortunes of the American expatriate and disbarred lawyer are about to turn. But when Calvino’s client dies of a heart attack, and he finds the body of a murdered massage girl downstairs, the Thai authorities get suspicious of the farang who was in the wrong place at the wrong time . . . twice.   To make matters worse, with the dead man unlikely to pay, Calvino is forced to take on a job he doesn’t want, trailing the spouses of three expat housewives who have been rattled by “The Risk of Infidelity Index,” a handbook that ranks Bangkok as the city where men are most likely to stray. Unfortunately for Calvino, jealous wives tend to be unhappy, regardless of the results, and drug pirates aren’t the type to play nice . . .   “Underneath Bangkok society is a deeply encrusted demiworld of hope, despair, corruption, and courage that Moore . . . paints with maestrolike Dickensian strokes.” —The Seattle Times   “A terrific character . . . A terrific writer.” —T. Jefferson Parker

“A gripping tale of human trafficking, mercenaries, [and] international conspiracies . . . set against the lovely and sordid backstreets of Bangkok.” —Barry Eisler   Paying Back Jack is a gritty crime thriller in the Shamus Award–winning series featuring Vincent Calvino, a disbarred American lawyer working as a PI in the dangerous and steamy Thailand capital.   Calvino has agreed to follow the “minor wife” of a Thai politician and report on her movements. His client is Rick Casey, a shady American whose life has been darkened by the unsolved murder of his idealistic son. But what seems to be a simple surveillance job pulls Calvino into a quest for revenge, as well as a perilous web of political allegiance. Calvino narrowly escapes an attempt on his life and then avoids being framed for a murder only through the calculated lever-pulling of his best friend, Thai police colonel, Pratt. But unknown to our man in Bangkok, in an anonymous apartment tower in the center of the city, a two-man sniper team awaits its shot, a shot that will change everything . . .   “A terrific character . . . A terrific writer.” —T. Jefferson Parker