Tim Hallinan is our Charles Dickens in modern-day Thailand. In the latest Poke Rafferty thriller, his adopted adolescent daughter, Miaow, takes center stage, using both her wiles and hurt from her former street life to help a classmate pursued by frightening men with unknown agendas. The promise of family is what is at stake in this novel which is both thrilling and heartbreaking. If you haven’t read a Poke Rafferty novel yet, For the Dead will certainly bewitch you to take on the whole series.