First in the Land of Smiles Trilogy
ISBN 978-616-7503-43-1
Paperback (B format)
2025, 321 pages
A Killing Smile, a classic novel in Southeast Asia, is a simple but deep story about the aftermath of events following the death of a successful Los Angeles attorney's wife. Lost, confused, and angry, Lawrence Baring, Esq. goes to Bangkok and confronts Tuttle—the man his wife, Sarah, had once loved.
The story follows the conflict and enveloping relationship of Baring and Tuttle in the underworld of Bangkok's Patpong, Soi Cowboy, and the late-night meeting spot called HQ where spies, gangsters, diplomats, pimps, businessmen, writers, teachers, travelers gather alongside the women they buy for the night. The novel is filled with twists and turns and atmosphere and fascinating characters shipwrecked in a society they vaguely understand.
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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