Canadian novelist Christopher G. Moore, a former law instructor from British Columbia, has been described as "The Hemingway of Bangkok." A more fitting comparison, however, might be to W. Somerset Maugham, with a bit of Elmore Leonard and Mickey Spillane thrown in for good measure.
Some of Maugham's earlier works were set in the milieu of colonial Asia, and focused on the pretentious attitudes -- and dark secrets -- of European expatriates. Thailand, a tolerant country that was spared colonization, today plays host to a resident community of farang (Westerners) who are attracted to its laid-back lifestyle, low cost of living and the fetching smiles emanating from what Moore calls the yings, an abbreviation of phuying (woman). To the respectable members of the expatriate community, these depraved types no doubt resemble modern-day versions of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," although they haven't quite sunk to the depths of living in huts surrounded by shrunken human heads on poles. Still, it's probably the last place you'd expect to find a Jewish-Italian private eye at work. Vincent "Vinee" Calvino, a disbarred lawyer from New York, runs a Bangkok detective agency. He is able to operate thanks to a powerful local benefactor. Years ago back in New York, he helped a Thai student over a crisis. Now Prachai (rendered "Pratt" to get around the Western tongue) is a colonel in the Thai Royal Police who steers occasional jobs Calvino's way, and goes to bat for him when the chips are down. As a quid pro quo, the American gumshoe serves as Pratt's eyes and ears among the local farang.
Hewn from the hard-boiled Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler model, Calvino is a tough, somewhat tarnished hero with a heart of gold. As evidenced by the ants crawling in his mostly empty refrigerator at home, he's also something of a slob. He spends evenings drinking at dingy joints, and has been known to pay the bar fine and bring home a ying for the night. Yet he is tolerated, even adored, by Ratana, his solid and caring secretary, who plays a Thai Della Street to Calvino's Perry Mason. It's plain that they love each other, and it wouldn't surprise me if Moore marries them off in some future happy ending.