Bangkok 8
A Royal Thai Detective Novel (1)
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4.1 • 183 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A thriller with attitude to spare, Bangkok 8 is a sexy, razor-edged, often darkly hilarious novel set in one of the world’s most exotic cities.
Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep—a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.—is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner’s murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai’s quest for vengeance takes him into a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Part mystery, part thriller and part exploration of Thai attitudes toward sex, this accomplished first novel by Burdett (A Personal History of Thirst; The Last Six Million Seconds) delivers both entertainment and depth. The narrator, a Buddhist cop named Sonchai Jitplecheep, finds himself plunged into a dangerous investigation of the deaths by snakebite of his partner Pichai Apiradee and U.S. Embassy Sgt. William Bradley. Sonchai is an unusual character on several levels, from the mysteries of his violent past to his conversations with the ghost of Pichai. His ambiguous feelings toward Kimberley Jones, an American FBI agent brought in to work the case, reflect his upbringing as the child of a Thai mother and an unknown American father. Above all else, however, Sonchai's Buddhism permeates the text. An encounter with an embassy official, for example, leads to this unexpected reverie: " is blithely unaware that she once accompanied me across a courtyard of startlingly similar dimensions, thousands of years ago." As Sonchai's investigation brings him closer to Bradley's companion, a woman known as Fatima, and the rich American jade dealer Sylvester Warren, his quest for revenge becomes muddied by the strangeness of his discoveries. The mix of detective work, Bangkok street life, the Thai sex trade and drug smuggling forms a powerful m lange of images and insight. Despite an anti-climactic last chapter, the novel's structure is solid. Sonchai's fatalism, wry humor and dogged determination his ability to be both vulnerable and strong make him one of the more memorable characters in recent novel-length fiction. Readers expecting a traditional mystery structure would be advised to look elsewhere, but those who want something new will find Burdett's novel an intriguing, fresh take on noir.
Customer Reviews
A riveting mystery of crime and of the soul
From the first page I knew I would enjoy this book. John Burdett does a great job writing a novel using the comparison made by Sonchai of Western logic compared with Eastern intuition. I loved the structure of Sonchai's mind, constantly detecting not only with classic pluck, research and interviews, but the communication with past lives, lost loved ones, and the teachings of Buddha. So personal was the narrative, and involving people from Sonchai's work and personal life, past and present, that it could have easily been a traditional novel instead of a mystery. This is writing that helps you instantly know things about characters---barring the mystery's revelations, of course. I loved the insight into the Western mind, in many aspects, but, especially, sexuality and corruption. This novel truly demonstrates how alien a culture can seem and how judgmental one can be when encountering it.
This novel was also very funny. You never know when impending doom becomes an uncontrollable guffaw. Also, seeing as how Sonchai's name really IS unique to the ears of Westerners, the old joke of his name frequently getting mispronounced does not get old.
In contrast to the humor, is the underlying sense of tragedy, and I don't mean an American perception of what tragedy or poverty entails for a Thai, but the characters' own perception of their unhappiness. The novel can be cerebral at time, diverging into monologues, but they are always riveting. And, unlike John Twelve Hawks' trilogy, the exposition needed to explain Sonchai's, and through him, any Thai's worldview, never seemed to break the mood, break character, or take us out of this captivating narrative. I don't know why I'm not giving this 5 stars. Maybe if there was a 4 ½.
Pberg
A Buddhist take on cops and robbers turn the genre on it's head. The effort of detective Sonchai to see the world in compassionate terms changes all expectations. This book is both intelligent and thought provoking.
Authentic Thailand
I lived in Thailand for about nine years and I was really surprised a farang could nail the subtleties of Thai culture, religion, sex and corruption as well as he did.
Aside from that, it’s a great story and a delight to read.