First in the Land of Smiles Trilogy
ISBN 974-92335-7-3
Trade paperback (C format)
2004, 270 pages
A Killing Smile begins the Land of Smiles trilogy. Lawrence Baring, a successful Los Angeles attorney, had lost his wife, Sarah. He discovers after her suicide that Sarah had maintained a long-distance affair with Robert Tuttle. Baring travels to Bangkok for a showdown with Tuttle who has become a long-time resident of the Bangkok underworld.
In this cult classic tale of betrayal and exploitation, Baring and Tuttle circle each other inside Thai culture where language and way of life deliver multidimensional surprises. In his quest for revenge, Baring learns true meaning of friendship and the secrets behind the smile.
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Praise
“[A Killing Smile] set the standard of an artistic movement: Bangkok Noir ... Brilliant observations on the Bangkok nightlife ... A creative triumph.”
—James Newman Fiction
“The whole effect is very real— particularly the revelation of those razor teeth back of the Smile.”
—Gore Vidal
“Moore is a master of detail . . . a pioneer, daring and inventive.”
—The Nation
“I was knocked out by the sensitivity of the writing, the textures of the characters, the many levels of feeling. The outcome is one of the finest male bonding stories I have ever come across and I kick myself that I didn’t write this novel.”
—Stirling Silliphant, Oscar winner for In the Heat of the Night
“The portrait of Tuttle as an expatriate shipwrecked in an alien tropic brings to mind Theroux's Jack Flowers.”
—The Japan Times
“In A Killing Smile Moore succeeds in translating for a Western audience the inside of how Thais think. Above all he describes with an objective, non-judgemental eye the raw pathos, the light and shadow of the world that never surfaces in the glossy tourist catalogues.”
—Fabio Novel, Thriller Magazine (Italy)
“Critically regarded as the best Western author today whose books focus on this country (e.g., A Killing Smile).”
—Bangkok Post