"You might not think a story set in the Bangkok sex trade is your cup of tea, but Timothy Hallinan might change your mind with the humanity of his characters against the seamy backdrop, notably his detective Poke Rafferty."-Raleigh News & Observer

The eighth installment in Timothy Hallinan's Edgar Award-nominated ticking-clock thriller about the most dangerous facets of Bangkok's seedy underbelly.

The two most difficult days in Bangkok writer Poke Rafferty's life begin with an emergency visit from Edward Dell, the almost-boyfriend of Poke's teenage daughter, Miaow. The boy's father, Buddy, a late-middle-aged womanizer who has moved to Bangkok for happy hunting, has disappeared, and money is being siphoned out of his bank and credit card accounts.

It soon becomes apparent that Buddy is in the hands of a pair of killers who prey on Bangkok's "sexpats"; when his accounts are empty, he'll be found, like a dozen others before him, floating facedown in a Bangkok canal with a weighted cast on his unbroken leg. His money is almost gone.

Over forty-eight frantic hours, Poke does everything he can to locate Buddy before it's too late.