A Nail through the Heart Timothy Hallinan William Morrow ISBN: 0061255807 Fiction, Thriller Reviewed by John R. Clark

This is the kind of book that makes you immediately start looking for others by the same author. It is flat-out excellent and very tightly written. Timothy Hallinan has woven together a love story about two people in a very unusual relationship, a missing person, the plight of abandoned children on the streets of Thailand, the lingering effects of the tsunami, a bit of horror from the time of the Khmer Rouge and the insidiousness of the child pornography trade in Southeast Asia. What is particularly impressive about this book is how he took all these elements, kept each one sharp and still blended them seamlessly. I was also particularly impressed with his ability to get the reader to feel the emotional impact of each element without sliding into maudlin or outrage territory.

This book certainly falls into the hard-to-put-down category and has a very realistic ending that, upon reflection seemed just right. I will be suggesting this book to a number of my patrons at the Hartland Library.

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