If you ever need to argue that crime fiction can engage social issues, delve into human relationships, provide vividly real settings, and be as attentive to the power and grace of language as literary fiction, bring Poke Rafferty with you as an expert witness. Timothy Hallinan’s series about a mixed-race American travel writer who has settled in Bangkok with a bespoke family combines thriller elements (seriously dangerous bad guys, heroic good guys, and heart-in-your-mouth action scenes) with unusual tenderness.