Helpful Score: 1
Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep returns in full form in this third installment of the Bangkok series. Five years after Bangkok 8, Sonchai calls FBI Special Agent Kimberley Jones into town when he receives a high quality snuff film featuring his one time lover, the bewitching prostitute Damrong whose spirit now plague him--and most of the male suspects for orchestrating her death on film. Unlike the Sonchai of Bangkok Tattoo, he is less disparaging of farangs (perhaps because he is working with 'the FBI' again?) but as deeply meditative as ever. His intuitive investigating again leads the reader through Bangkok's underbelly, this time with a focus on the porn industry, with some diversions into Cambodia and the supernatural realm. Burdett again delivers enough local character to make the supernatural angle possible to Western minds--along with enough insight to elevate Bangkok Haunts to a guilty pleasure above a mere Third World police procedural.
Helpful Score: 1
This series of books is so exciting and gives a good insight into the Thai life. Very interesting, hard to put down.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
Helpful Score: 1
To read John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep mysteries is to immerse yourself in the culture and mindset of Thailand. Westerners are not always understood or appreciated there, but if you're thick-skinned enough to withstand a bit of cultural bashing, you will be paid back in some marvelous reading.
Sonchai is a police detective in Bangkok. Now living happily with Chanya, a former prostitute who's pregnant with his child, Sonchai at one time had had a passionate affair with a Cambodian beauty named Damrong. When he comes across a copy of a snuff film in which Damrong is murdered, he joins with American FBI agent Kimberley Jones to find the killer. While Sonchai's superior, Colonel Vikorn, has his detective set up a porn film business, the list of suspects in Damrong's murder grows to include a banker, a teacher, a Buddhist, and an exclusive men's club called the Parthenon.
Once again-- as with the previous two books in the series-- I was immersed in the culture of Thailand, which is fascinating and so different from my own. I have to admit that one of the reasons why I enjoy these books so much is because I have the chance to see my own culture through the eyes of others.
I enjoyed the convoluted plot, the further machinations of the wily Colonel Vikorn, and the glimpse across the border into Cambodia. Ultimately, however, the book fell flat for me because of the murder victim, Damrong. I felt only great indifference toward her, which really dampened my enjoyment of the book.
Although this book wasn't exactly my cup of tea, your mileage could definitely vary-- and the first two books in the series, Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo are both superb. The fourth book in the series, The Godfather of Kathmandu, will be released in January, 2010, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
There are many mystery series based in other countries. Usually the setting only serves to provide a whiff of the exotic, without nudging the reader fully into another culture. John Burdett's Thailand not only provides an exotic setting, the reader is dragged out of his comfortable chair and out into the streets of Bangkok-- out into a world where the people have different customs, a different religion, and an entirely different way of seeing the world. John Burdett takes the reader out of his comfort zone and makes him think about more than just whodunit, and I like that.
Sonchai is a police detective in Bangkok. Now living happily with Chanya, a former prostitute who's pregnant with his child, Sonchai at one time had had a passionate affair with a Cambodian beauty named Damrong. When he comes across a copy of a snuff film in which Damrong is murdered, he joins with American FBI agent Kimberley Jones to find the killer. While Sonchai's superior, Colonel Vikorn, has his detective set up a porn film business, the list of suspects in Damrong's murder grows to include a banker, a teacher, a Buddhist, and an exclusive men's club called the Parthenon.
Once again-- as with the previous two books in the series-- I was immersed in the culture of Thailand, which is fascinating and so different from my own. I have to admit that one of the reasons why I enjoy these books so much is because I have the chance to see my own culture through the eyes of others.
I enjoyed the convoluted plot, the further machinations of the wily Colonel Vikorn, and the glimpse across the border into Cambodia. Ultimately, however, the book fell flat for me because of the murder victim, Damrong. I felt only great indifference toward her, which really dampened my enjoyment of the book.
Although this book wasn't exactly my cup of tea, your mileage could definitely vary-- and the first two books in the series, Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo are both superb. The fourth book in the series, The Godfather of Kathmandu, will be released in January, 2010, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
There are many mystery series based in other countries. Usually the setting only serves to provide a whiff of the exotic, without nudging the reader fully into another culture. John Burdett's Thailand not only provides an exotic setting, the reader is dragged out of his comfortable chair and out into the streets of Bangkok-- out into a world where the people have different customs, a different religion, and an entirely different way of seeing the world. John Burdett takes the reader out of his comfort zone and makes him think about more than just whodunit, and I like that.
