Bangkok Haunts
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4.0 • 39 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the devout Buddhist Royal Thai Police detective who led us through the best sellers Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo, returns in this blistering novel.Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkok's District 8, but nothing like the snuff film he's just been sent anonymously. Furiously fast-paced and laced through with an erotic ghost story that gives a new dark twist to the life of our hero, Bangkok Haunts more than lives up to the smart and darkly funny originality of its predecessors.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Burdett's superb third mystery-thriller to feature Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep (after Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo), Jitpleecheep shows old friend Kimberley Jones, an American FBI agent, a vicious snuff film he's received depicting the murder of an ex-lover of his named Damrong. Jitpleecheep and Jones maintain their complex platonic relationship as, helped by Jitpleecheep's assistant Lek, they pursue Damrong's killers. The trail leads them to an important banker, an American teacher, a Buddhist and an exclusive men's club called the Parthenon. Jitpleecheep, who now lives with Chanya, a former prostitute pregnant with his child, is visited in an erotic way by Damrong's ghost, while his corrupt superior, police colonel Vikorn, orders Jitpleecheep to help start a porn film business. Expertly juggling elements that in lesser hands would become confused or hackneyed, Burdett has created a haunting, powerful story that transcends genre. 75,000 first printing; 6-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
A spooky, and gory ghost story that is the most exotic and appalling so far
Another satisfying Sonchai detective story. I won't go into the plot--you can read the book description for that, but this spooky and gory ghost story was the most exotic and appalling installment of the series so far.
Also present is the laissez-faire wit of the previous two books, including: Sonchai relaying Vikorn's business proposal to Yammy, the (now requisite) jibe on Western economics, culture, hypocrisy, farangs, original sin, katoeys, funeral casinos, and more. Delightful. This humor gives the novel a greatly needed buoyancy and makes them darkly comic with all the atrocities going on.
And, although I'm not a fan of sound bites placed in novels, I loved Sonchai's matter-of-factness in terms of all this, including, once again, his views on sexuality. Such frankness can be refreshing in a time of political-correctness.
I am kind of tired of Vikorn fighting Sonchai all the time, but it doesn't look like he's ever going anywhere--Sonchai's eternal "frenemy". At least, he can do things right, like in the first interview with Tanakan.
I have downloaded the next two, and can't wait to read them.