Spirit House: A Vincent Calvino Crime Novel (Vincent Calvino Novel) | | | |
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Product Description
In the nearly twenty years he has lived in Bangkok, Christopher G. Moore has written nine novels starring Vincent Calvino, a disbarred American lawyer working as a PI in the dark and steamy Thai capital. Internationally acclaimed, the prizewinning novels have been translated into ten languages. Now Spirit House, the first novel in the series, is finally available in North America.
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 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. Spirit House is a thrilling introduction to Vincent Calvino and Christopher G. Moore’s Bangkok.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 The city of Bangkok is a central character February 12, 2010
Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Bangkok is a city I've never visited and am not likely to ever, but Christopher G. Moore certainly brings it to life for me. We definitely are shown the city's underbelly through the eyes of flawed Vincent Calvino, but we also are shown the spirituality and quality of the people living there.I won't go into the plot as many others have done that, but I will remark on the effectiveness of the character's nightmares in truly raising the hairs on the back of one's neck. Definitely a superior read.
 spirirt house. a boring bloody mess. April 18, 2009
Karen E. Brynd (windsor, wi)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
shame on me for buying it. shame on me for reading it. karen b. wisconsin
The Spirit Moved Me November 20, 2008
Joe Gillette (Brooklyn, NY)
Spirit House: A Vincent Calvino Crime Novel (Vincent Calvino Novel) Line up the next Vincent Calvino novel. Christopher Moore provides a guilt-free read in this quick moving and enjoyable crime novel. The locale is Bangkok, Thailand, the characters wonderfully cliched, and the story moves along at a rapid and fun pace. Think rawer Mike Hammer with some great international flavor. This was a free Kindle download, an obvious no brainer. The enticement worked and I will be purchasing the next.
An interesting twist on a familiar genre October 15, 2008
S. Holsinger (Southern California, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A typical, modern, conflicted "gumshoe" story is made all the more interesting by the exotic (and erotic) backdrop. If set in LA, the hero's personality would border on trite. In Bangkok, it is a stark contrast to the wasted expats, elitism of the rich, and despair of the destitute.
I found the story engaging, fast-paced, and interesting while being informative about the culture and subculture of such a famous foreign city. The plot made sense, and the characters were believable and identifiable despite being foreign. This is very much an American perspective against a foreign backdrop, and the story does a very good job at keeping the two separate.
It is at times a little rough, and most likely not for those easily offended by sexual violence or those looking for a "Murder She Wrote" mystery. If you want to explore some of the darker aspects of the human spirit from an American perspective in an international setting, and get a good mystery thrown in, and maintain some hope for humanity in the process, then this is a read for you.
WORD OF WARNING -- this book is the first of a series. I stumbled upon it accidentally by fat-fingering an order for a Christopher Moore (without the G.) novel. I would very much like to continue the series on my Kindle, but like some other series, NOT ALL ARE YET AVAILABLE FOR THE KINDLE at the time of this writing. I would strongly suggest that you check the availability of the other books in this series and weigh that in your decision. At the least, you may want to submit a request to the publisher to produce a Kindle edition of the presently unavailable volumes to avoid having to go to paper to fill in the gaps.
 The next best thing to being in Bangkok September 18, 2008
Peter Green
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm pleased to see the Calvino books by Christopher Moore coming into more widespread release. Spirit House is the first of Moore's books that I ever picked up, and it's still one of my favourites. Picking this up, I can feel like I'm back in Bangkok. Moore has a well-earned reputation for his attention to detail, to the gritty background of the Thai capitol, beyond just the bars and the general fluff that gets publicized, to the wider variety of the city that makes it such a great place to be.
That attention to detail and realism, though, is just the backdrop to what are very well plotted and riveting detective stories. Spirit House develops, in proper crime fashion, from a murder in the paper, to a case, to a puzzle, to an abattoir; with bodies cheerfully bobbing in the waters of Chao Phraya; katoeys slit to pieces; the police hovering in the wings; and a final denouement I wont give away.
And there's that image of the rat-scabbed cat on its last legs licking passionately at the thick liquid oozing out of the bottom of the junkyard truck.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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