Book Review: The Risk of Infidelity Index by Christopher G. Moore

The Risk of Infidelity Index: A Vincent Calvino Crime Novel by Christopher G. Moore

P.I. Calvino makes a surveillance video of an outfit manufacturing fake drugs in Bangkok, but the lawyer who hired him for the job dies from an apparent heart attack before paying Calvino for the video.

To find out more about his dead client, Calvino takes a job from three mem farangs, foreign women, whose husbands may know more about his client. The women hire Calvino to spy on their husbands for any signs of cheating. Bangkok has a high infidelity risk factor, according to a book the women have been reading, The Risk of Infidelity Index. Calvino wheedles information from the women about their husbands who knew his dead client, finds out who's behind the fake drug making scam, and finally gets paid for his work, all while risking his life many times over and barely escaping intact.

My favorite secondary characters in the novel are Colonel Pratt, a local police officer who helps keep Calvino alive, and Calvino's office assistant, Rachana. Both are staples in the suspenseful detective series.

Publisher's description: " Vincent Calvino, disbarred American lawyer turned Bangkok PI, comes to North America at long last with a gripping novel set in a superbly textured, masterfully rendered Bangkok." The ninth novel in the PI series, it's the first printed in the U.S.,Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007.

Recommendation: For those who like detective crime fiction in international settings. I rated this four out of five stars. I also gave 4 stars to the 11th Calvino book, Paying Back Jack.

Challenge: 100 + Reading Challenge, Support your Local Library Challenge, Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge

Member of Amazon Associates 

Book Review: Paying Back Jack by Christopher G. Moore

Paying Back Jack is 11th in the detective series featuring PI Vincent Calvino. It has a complex plot about paying back old scores, in Bangkok, a city which seems like one of the most interesting but challenging places in Southeast Asia.

The novel has so many plot components that it's sometimes hard to keep track of and link all the people and their activities. There are personal scores to settle involving people who had worked in many different places - Southeast Asia, in Iraq, and in the Middle East war zones.

The intrigue starts when Calvino is hired by Casey to find the man responsible for his son's death. The case is more complex than it seems. Calvino becomes embroiled in more than he bargained for.

"Casey, the private contractor with interrogation expertise, good street contacts, and a payload of anger over a dead son, was locked in a version of the past fueled by hatred." (p. 206)

This is more than just a detective novel set in an exotic location. Moore's writing shows flashes of creative brilliance as well as insight into the local culture.

"A vapor trail of superstition hung above the table, streaking the conversations with sentiments from an old, traditional culture. For a moment, she almost felt at home."

"He was happy that she finally had what every Thai woman wished for: motherhood. To become the mother goddess was to achieve a vindication, to have climbed to a sacred platform and claimed a throne." (p. 134)

After finishing this book, I thought Moore could easily use his talents to write literary fiction.

I then discovered, thanks to a comment by blogger Mark David, that Moore has written 20 books, including short stories and nonfiction books on Thai culture and customs. In this Amazon link, Christopher G. Moore, there is a list of titles in his Vincent Calvino PI series. Moore, a Canadian, has lived in Bangkok since 1988 and has a background in law.

Paying Back Jack , hard cover, 339 pages, was printed by Grove Press in 2009.

Challenge: 100+, Support your Local Library Challenge, Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge
Member of Amazon Associates