The Cultural Detective

For more than twenty years, Christopher G. Moore has been writing about the history, culture and politics of Southeast Asia, in particular Thailand. The Cultural Detective is a behind-the-scene view into Moore's writing life.

In this selection of essays, Moore discusses with the humor and insight that he has become famous for. He draws widely on anthropology, neurology, psychology, ethnography, history and recent political conflicts.

Readers new to Moore's work will find an entertaining and discerning author worth getting to know better, while fans will recognize an echo of his essayist's voice and perspective from his novels.

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Table of Contents

PART I: Perspectives on Crime Fiction Writing
Writing Novels inside the Hive Mind
Bangkok as Bletchley Park
Sir Frank Kermode and Shigeo Tokuda Scholar and Porn Star
The Making of a Villain
The Language Barrier: The March of Time
Constructing Reality: What We Pay Attention to
Marketing God and the Hell Problem
The Theory of Mind in Fiction
Getting Things Wrong 38
The Creative Process of Converting Words into Pictures
When Room 101 Became a Forensic Museum
The Accident
Henning Mankell: When a Crime Writer Becomes Part of the Story
What Works Better for War: Fiction or Non-fiction
Bio Sketch into the Making of a Writer

PART II: Clues to Solving Cultural Mysteries

The Deference Culture
The Polite Society
The Culture of Complaining
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Auspicious Date
A Thai Ghost Story: The Land of Ghosts, Spirits and Demons 92
The Duck in My Kitchen
Asian Women as Wife Trophy Material
Losing Your Sense of Time
Flight Distance
Friends in Strange Lands
The Schadenfreude Chronicles Criminals and Terrorists
Torture and Secret Prisons
The Stolen Saudi Jewels
Balloon Chasers
No Need to Remove Your Shoes
The Rise of the Highchair in the East
The Nature of Crime
Where Do We Come from? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
Information Assessment and Information Monopolies

PART III: Observations from the Frontlines

Bangkok at the Crossroad of History
Law of the Jungle
Hands in the Sky above Bangkok
PandaLive TV and Soldiers on Skytrain May 17, 2010, Rama IV Barricades
The Fire Outside My Window, The Fire Inside My Heart
Bangkok War Zone: The Morning After
Report on Foreign Eyes
The Making and Casting of the Movie "Thailand": A Messy Script War

...to be continued...