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
“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
