Christopher G. Moore Discusses Books, Thailand

Tripti Chaudhary

Law professor turned author, Christopher G. Moore is the author of 23 novels, one non-fiction book, and a set of inter-locked tales; his best work being the award-winning Vincent Calvino private eye series that has been translated into a dozen languages.

Moore published his first book in 1985, titled His Lordship’s Arsenal, which was based in Canada.

Moore has lived in Thailand since 1988. One of his trilogies’ is based on his behind-the-smiles study in Thailand, known as the Land of Smiles Trilogy, which include A Killing Smile, A Bewitching Smile and A Haunting Smile.

“Moore’s flashy style successfully captures the dizzying contradictions in [Bangkok’s] vertiginous landscape.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

A special ThaiLawForum’s interview with Christopher G. Moore revealed why his stories are written in a manner many claim to be raw and how life experiences influenced his books. One of the most interesting statements made during the interview is his analogy-based reply to how law background influenced his writing. “A case is really a story, a narration, and the lawyer’s job is to try to gather with the most compelling evidence to resolve the conflict in favor of his client. So, if you look at what lawyers do, it’s not that different from a novelist. It’s about story, conflict, and resolution. And that’s what novel writing is as well.  So in some ways, legal education may be better preparation for writing novels.”

Moore prefers to do research before writing novels, and claims to talk to lawyers, judges, university students, to get a whole range of experiences of ordinary lives as “because it’s really the tales of ordinary lives and extraordinary circumstances, that makes us want to buy a book.”

Moore’s currently working on his next novel, which is scheduled to publish in January 2013, titled as the Missing in Rangoon.

Christopher G. Moore Discusses Books, Thailand

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