The
annual Cobra Gold joint military operation arrives in Pattaya dumping
thousands of US naval and marine personnel on the city. Russian Mafia
and local Chinese-Thai gangsters decide this is a good time to rob a
warehouse filled with war weapons. Duvel, a retired American, a caretaker
for his aged Thai stepmother, also looks over the well-being of foreign
expats as a member of the Pattaya Foreign Volunteer Police. Duvel, who
leads a US Navy shore patrol down Walking Street, becomes entangled
in the lives of criminals planning a warehouse heist. Meanwhile, Duvel’s
mother, with the assistance of a macaw and a Moscow escort worker, slowly
unravels the ancient secret formula of hell beer. As the double-crosses
multiply, the fate of the heist and hell beer formula is in the hands
of the winner of a Pattaya katoey beauty pageant.
Praise
“All
combine in this entertaining new release from Christopher G Moore.”
—Crime Fiction Lover
“The
plot revolves around a septuagenarian Thai lady and a macaw, the recipe
for Chinese Hell Beer, an American beer bar owner, the Russian mafia,
the local Chinese godfather and son and the American Marines on the
Cobra Gold exercises. Keeping the plot moving along is a Moscow hooker
with ambition. And there is plenty happening.
Christopher
Moore is an excellent story teller. [He] keeps your interest going all
the way through. The plot has many twists and turns, and Moore manages
to keep more than three balls in the air at one time.... Anyone who
knows Pattaya will finally put the book down with a large smile on their
face, if not a real guffaw.”
—Lang Reid, Pattaya Mail
“The
Wisdom of Beer is a hilarious portrait of a Thai Chinese family
struggling with both its history and its future as their attempts
to exploit a priceless family secret intersect with the paths of a
Russian arms trafficker.”
—John Burdett
“The
Wisdom of Beer is a uniquely hilarious romp from the pen of one
of Thailand’s top story tellers.”
—Colin Cotterill