by Thomas Schmid*

Throw the name Christopher G. Moore at any western expat in Thailand’s capital Bangkok and you’ll likely earn either an amused smirk as in, “don’t be silly, everybody knows him!”, or a dismissive scoff meaning nothing less than, “do you really think I am so ignorant that I’ve never heard of him?”.
The Canada-born novelist is indeed not only Thailand’s most prolific foreign writer, but arguably also the most widely read among his expatriate peers.
This is not to say that Christopher G. Moore’s literary output suffers from obscurity among bibliophiles abroad.
Since he has started marketing his mystery and crime novels in the United States and Europe several years ago, the author enjoys a consistently growing fan community there, too.
Up until now, his books have sold more than 300,000 copies globally.
The 56-year-old even attests to the emergence of a cult following particularly among readers in Germany, where his Cambodia-based book Zero Hour in Phnom Penh in 2004 won the acclaimed “Deutscher Krimipreis” (German Crime Novel Critics Award).
Nevertheless, Moore doesn’t aim for a place on the Mount Olympus of High Literature.
“I am a commercial novelist,” he freely admits during our meeting at a downtown Bangkok pub.
His books are conceived foremost as pleasure reading, as light yet intriguing entertainment. And he delivers beautifully.
A Bangkok resident for some 20 years, the ex-Vancouverian is perhaps best known for his Vincent Calvino Private Eye series of crime novels, which makes up the bulk of his work to date.
“Christopher G. Moore has long been a big name in crime fiction for his Vincent Calvino books, based on the exploits of an American private eye in Thailand's seedy underbelly,” wrote The Independent newspaper’s literature critic Jonathan Gibbs this month.
Calvino was first introduced in Spirit House, published locally in 1992, and has so far sleuthed his way through a total of eleven books.
“The latest Calvino adventure, The Risk of Infidelity Index, has just recently been released abroad. Spirit House, on the other hand, hit the UK market in June this year and will appear on US bookstore shelves in August,” explains Moore.
An electronic copy of the novel can be downloaded for free from Amazon.com until the end of August using the site’s complimentary reader application.
In the meantime, the tireless novelist is already busily researching the next Calvino title, Black Jack, which is scheduled for publication some time next year.
Extensive and meticulous research paired with superb writing skills are perhaps the most important aspects that let Moore’s books stand out among the plethora of expatriate-penned detritus that has swamped Thailand over the past ten years or so.
While the vast majority of these publications often consist of not much more than run-of-the-mill accounts of futile or painful relationships between the respective authors and local bargirls that are brimming with cultural misunderstandings and misconceptions, Moore’s work is different.
His hero Vincent Calvino accomplishes a carefully choreographed balancing act between eastern and western values, which is testimony to Moore’s thorough understanding of cultural differences, an ability which he has nurtured during his many years as a Bangkok resident.
“The real star of the book is Bangkok,” concluded The Daily Telegraph’s Susanna Yager in her review of The Risk of Infidelity Index.
Moore himself couldn’t agree more.
“Bangkok is one of the great cities in the world . . . and just about the only place I could think of where [foreigners] would voluntarily do almost anything to come live here,” he summarises the mysterious fascination Thailand’s capital seems to exude on people from around the world.
It is the misunderstandings that occasionally result from the clash of different cultural perceptions in The Big Weird – a nickname for Bangkok and also the title of another Calvino novel – that readily provide Moore with inspiration when he is developing stories.
Further stimulating his creative juices are the scurrile and bizarre individuals among the expat community, the goons, lovelorn sex tourists, petty criminals, smugglers, diplomats, shady businessmen and former intelligence agents who he has met during his research rounds; and still does.
“This congregation provides a wonderful opportunity for a novelist to mine for different ideas and characters (and incorporate them in a book),” he says.
Although he has been approached over the years by virtually dozens of people who claimed they had recognized themselves in one or another of his novels, Moore denies that he has ever modelled any of his characters – whether villain or hero – after anyone in particular.
They are rather a mélange of peoples’ traits, a patchwork assembled to bring his fictional characters to credible life.  
“It would be difficult to transform one single real-life individual into a book character. But as a novelist I always deem it a success when people think they recognized themselves. It shows me that they connect with my books,” he asserts.
The principal setting of most of his novels being Thailand’s capital city, Moore’s version of Bangkok has nevertheless preciously little in common with the way it is distorted in glossy brochures and advertisements by the official, government-run tourism agency.
His Bangkok is dark, grimy, chaotic, corrupt and gothic, but at the same time lively, open-minded, posh, colourful and exciting.
It is inhabited by the destitute and the affluent, the mentally deprived and the intellectually superior, the utterly unscrupulous and the indescribably righteous, the ridiculously naïve and the dangerously cunning.
Few travel guide books have, in fact, portrayed Bangkok and its multicultural population more accurately and honestly.

This intricate tapestry of good and evil is the background on which Vincent Calvino, PI, investigates and gyrates, and which lends each of Moore’s novels a morbid film noir atmosphere.
Apropos film noir: the author’s mastery at storytelling sooner or later had to be discovered by the movie industry.
Hollywood A-list actor Keanu Reeves’ production company together with well-known, Boston-based film financier Steve Samuels recently approached Moore and optioned the movie rights to ten Calvino novels.
“The idea is to do something like The Bourne Identity franchise and to produce maybe three films based on my books,” he discloses.
With Reeves himself slated to take up the lead role as Vincent Calvino, a screenplay is already in the making.
“If everything is on schedule, they’ll start shooting in Thailand next year and the movie will be released in 2010,” Moore added.
It appears that concocting the savvy private detective and setting his cases in exotic Thailand was the right decision for the former law professor.
Asked why he gave up his previous career, moved to Bangkok and became a writer, he answers with a laconic, “better parties”.
Moore’s website can be accessed at www.cgmoore.com.

* Dukas