Bangkok Haunts

[Guest BKKvisitor]

FROM NY TIMES:

 

 

With “Bangkok Haunts” John Burdett has now written three delicious detective yarns set in Bangkok’s underbelly, and the only thing that seems more far-fetched than some of his plots is that Hollywood has yet to put any of them on the screen.

 

Granted, Sonchai Jitpleecheep doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue like, say, James Bond. But Mr. Burdett’s half-Thai, half-farang (Thai for Westerners) Buddhist cop hero is made for Hollywood. Bring on the wide-angle shots of Bangkok street chaos and the broody, shadowed silhouettes in houses of ill repute. And how about the Kalashnikov-toting monk, the pre-op transsexual assistant, the beautiful, demonic hooker and the grisly plot twist that will have you reconsidering those cuddly nature-show portrayals of elephants?

 

No self-respecting thriller novelist dispenses with the treasured clichés of the genre. It’s what the writer does with them that counts, and Mr. Burdett doles his out with a witty, idiosyncratic flair, indulging readers’ taste for the exotic, even as he lets them smile knowingly at others’ less-enlightened tastes. “Right, farang?” as Sonchai would say.

 

The previous novel in the series, “Bangkok Tattoo,” had Sonchai and his wonderfully corrupt boss, Colonel Vikorn, dipping their toes in geopolitics, as Mr. Burdett introduced a half-baked Al Qaeda plotline; even the author didn’t seem to buy into his own invention. Thankfully, “Bangkok Haunts” avoids such nonsense, plunging back into the loopy, superstitious chaos of urban Thailand.

 

As another messy tangle of interconnected plots unravels, without anybody paying it undue attention, Mr. Burdett saves his best moments for on-the-fly details that do more than supply the requisite colorful detail, hinting at a writer with a generous affection for Thai culture. He does much better with Thais than Westerners, especially Americans, and especially the love-starved, high-strung F.B.I. agent Kimberley Jones, a hopelessly irritating stock character in need of a kill-off if ever there was one.

 

Describing the Bangkok driving experience, which seems to be equal parts gridlock and hail-Mary maneuvers at insane speeds, Sonchai explains: “I should mention that there are two ways of avoiding death on our roads: pop pong and pop gun. Pop gun signifies the usual dreary ineffective stuff like wearing a seatbelt and not driving too fast; we generally prefer pop pong, with its inviolable spiritual protection. Done properly, pop pong not only protects your life, it can also deal out severe punishments to those who threaten it.”

 

Mr. Burdett also offers drool-inducing descriptions of the local cuisine (this is the kind of book you can imagine Anthony Bourdain taking with him on one of his culinary globe trots for the Discovery Channel), riffs on Buddhism (which was “never designed to build caring communities or create social welfare programs”) and primers on the sex-change trends among his countrymen: “In a nutshell, the ancient system, by which a Thai man has to worry about Everything while his Thai wife gets to live on a more hospitable planet at his expense, may be breaking down.”

 

Of course the vaunted state of wedded bliss doesn’t often figure into Mr. Burdett’s plot twists. It’s true Sonchai is now married to Chanya, the main prostitute in “Bangkok Tattoo,” a somewhat troubling development for the hero of a detective series, especially when a returning love interest turns him into an adulterer. But Mr. Burdett neatly sidesteps this potential character blemish through magical means.

 

Is it technically adultery when the woman involved is a powerful, malevolent spirit who bends all men to her will? No, it’s a win-win situation, in which readers get their dose of tortured, it-can’t-end-well-for-them sex scenes, and Sonchai gets to come out smelling like a rose.

 

But even if we have to deal with the now-wholesome Chanya (pregnant, no less) until Mr. Burdett can figure out how to fix that narrative faux pas and render his hero footloose again, there are plenty of unreformed characters to distract.

 

There’s Sonchai’s mother, for example, a retired prostitute now running the Old Man’s Club. Another bright spot is Yammy, a Japanese artiste whiling away his time shooting highbrow skin flicks until he can work his way deep enough into the drug trade to secure financing for a real art-house film. As he writes in one of his increasingly desperate text messages to Sonchai: “I’ve found a mule so I won’t have to carry myself. Please talk to the Colonel. I don’t think I can take much more of this. I must practice my art.”

 

But my deepest affections are reserved for Vikorn, with his larcenous schemes and his smirks “of undiluted triumphalism,” and Lek, the transsexual in process. Even though “the more he takes of the estrogen, the less defense he possesses against idle flattery,” Lek remains a dedicated assistant. Sauntering up to his boss’s desk one afternoon, he “has something of the weary professional about him,” despite long hair, a hint of rouge on his cheeks and a “yaa dum aromatherapy inhaler” stuck in one nostril.

 

“ ‘I’ve been chasing leads all day,’ he explains, switching nostrils, ‘and it’s hot and stinky.’ ”

 

There are fine points to be quibbled over if one wants to be a bore but, really, what more can you ask from summer reading than passages such as this? “Bangkok Haunts” is a book to be gobbled up at top speed, preferably while wearing sunglasses and drinking through a twisty straw. The inhaler is optional.

[Guest wowpow]

"The best-selling Thailand-based novels of British author John Burdett are poised for the big screen after being snapped up by a Hollywood production company, it was reported Wednesday. Film rights for Burdett's "Bangkok 8" -- featuring incorruptible hero detective Sonchai Jitleecheep -- have been purchased by Millennium Films, entertainment journal Daily Variety reported. No further details were available but director James McTeigue, who directed cult film "V for Vendetta" has been lined up for the movie, which may be the first in a series, Variety reported. Burdett is a former Hong Kong-based lawyer who has forged a successful writing career. "Bangkok 8" was published to acclaim in 2003 and is the first of three detective novels set in the Thai capital." (AFP)

 

I found Bangkok Haunts a tad dull compared with his two previous books which thrilled and impressed wit the author's deep knowledge of Thai culture. Perhaps I was expecting too much?

[Guest]

Thanks for the reviews guys. I just ordered 3 of his books from Amazon.com and will let you know how I like them. Should I read them in order of when written or does it matter?

[Guest BKKvisitor]

I'd definitely go in order of publication. Although Bangkok 8 remains my favorite, I enjoyed them all.