For the Dead - Timothy Hallinan - 4 - Chapter 1 - The River

Jul 30, 2026

Uploaded by Aurora

For the Dead follows Rose as she awakens in a cold, uncanny world by a river that seems wrong in both color and speed. Disoriented and unable to find the sun, she searches for her identity through fragments of dreams and the persistent sense that something enormous is coming from upstream. The opening chapter establishes an investigative, murder-linked tone through glimpses of interrogation-style inquiry, moral uncertainty, and the eerie atmosphere surrounding what the river delivers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages343

Reading Time8 h 48 min

AccessFree to download

Part One: We All Float …

Chapter 1: The River

Chapter 2: Exquisite Politeness

Chapter 3: The Forest

Part Two: …Until We Sink

Chapter 16: Allergic

Chapter 17: You Can Come Back Now

Chapter 18: The Fence

Part Three: Drowning Girls

Chapter 24: One Girl Down There Somewhere

Chapter 25: I’ve Changed, But I Haven’t Changed Into Anything

Chapter 26: Her Mother Was Beautiful

Part Four: Aim and Ignite

Chapter 36: There’s No Way They’ve Been Allowed to Go Anywhere

Chapter 45: The Light in the Window

Afterword

Also by Timothy Hallinan The Poke Raʃerty Series A Nail Through the Heart The Fourth Watcher Breathing Water The Queen of Patpong The Fear Artist The Junior Bender Series Crashed Little Elvises The Fame Thief Herbie’s Game The Simeon Grist Series The Four Last Things Everything but the Squeal Skin Deep Incinerator The Man With No Time The Bone Polisher [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Copyright © 2014 by Timothy Hallinan All rights reserved. Published by Soho Press, Inc. 853 Broadway New York, NY 10003 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hallinan, Timothy. For the dead / Timothy Hallinan. pages ; cm HC ISBN 978-1-61695-114-6 PB ISBN 978-1-61695-616-5 eISBN 978-1-61695-115-3 1. Travel writers—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 3. Police corruption—Thailand—Fiction. 4. Bangkok (Thailand)—Fiction. I. Title. PS3558.A3923F67 2014 813’.54—dc23 2014019052 v3.1 [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) FOR MUNYIN CHOY, ONE MORE TIME AND TO RALPHIE, WITH THANKS [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Contents Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Part One: We All Float … Chapter 1: The River Chapter 2: Exquisite Politeness Chapter 3: The Forest Chapter 4: Goop Is Uninformative Chapter 5: One Hundred Twelve Grams Chapter 6: Going Down Chapter 7: If You Are Me, Maybe Four Thousand Seven Hundred Chapter 8: You Can’t Live for the Dead Chapter 9: Flat as Buttons Chapter 10: I Feel Like We Should Take Care of Her Chapter 11: Human Fractals Chapter 12: Home Chapter 13: Door Number Two Chapter 14: Fifty Inches Is a Swimming Pool Chapter 15: Something Outside Herself Part Two:…Until We Sink Chapter 16: Allergic Chapter 17: You Can Come Back Now Chapter 18: The Fence Chapter 19: An Empty Envelope Chapter 20: And a Few Who Want to See It Worked Out Wrong Chapter 21: You Don’t Know Anything Chapter 22: The Opposite of a Cover-up Chapter 23: Sunday Part Three: Drowning Girls Chapter 24: One Girl Down There Somewhere Chapter 25: I’ve Changed, But I Haven’t Changed Into Anything Chapter 26: Her Mother Was Beautiful Chapter 27: Some Sort of Long-term Solution Chapter 28: The Cord Chapter 29: Adrift Chapter 30: Question Time Chapter 31: Hooked and Landed Chapter 32: Teams Chapter 33: Lighter Than Air and Apparently Combustible Chapter 34: Reading the Night Chapter 35: They Repaired His Moral Compass Part Four: Aim and Ignite Chapter 36: There’s No Way They’ve Been Allowed to Go Anywhere Chapter 37: I Don’t Care If It’s a Zebra Chapter 38: It’ll Have Holes Worn in It in Twenty-four Hours Chapter 39: The One Wearing Hand-Me-Downs Chapter 40: Overcoat of Rage Chapter 41: The Best Scene in the Play Chapter 42: A Diʃerent Magnitude of Darkness Chapter 43: Gravel in a Clothes Dryer Chapter 44: He Can’t Shelter Them Indeɹnitely Chapter 45: The Light in the Window Chapter 46: A Lot Here We Wouldn’t Want to Lose Afterword [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Part One WE ALL FLOAT … [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) 1 The River THE RIVER IS wider than it should be and it’s the wrong color. Instead of its usual reddish brown, a gift of the topsoil it steals from the rice farmers upstream, it’s a cold, metallic gray-green, the color of thesea beneath clouds. And it runs faster than it should, fast enough to whip up curving rills of white foam where the water quickens over the tops of stones. Although the sky is a bottomless, unblemished blue, the girl can’t ɹnd the sun. She sits on the green bank, shadowless, watching the river’s ɻow, not knowing her name and not very bothered by it. Several names come to her, and they all seem to be hers, but she knows she only has one. If she could see her face, she thinks, if she knew how old she is, she’d know which name to accept. The landscape oʃers no clues or indications. There’s noth

FAQs

Where does the story begin and what is Rose’s first defining experience?

The story begins with Rose by the river, watching its unnatural gray-green flow while she cannot find the sun. She wakes shivering and ties her confusion to dreams and repeated routines with Poke.

What do Rose’s thoughts about her mother suggest in the opening chapter?

Rose repeatedly wonders whether her mother should come to her, but the chapter implies the river and her dream fragments drive the uncertainty. Her sense that she is being brought something arrives alongside that question.

How does the opening chapter build suspense around the river?

The river’s abnormal color, speed, and the way it seems to carry something upstream-to-downstream create an ominous presence. Rose’s quiet recognition that something enormous is coming amplifies the tension before any explanation appears.

Jul 30, 2026

Uploaded by Aurora