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When this book came in, I looked at the die cut dust jacket and said "Chess" The neon and lights reminded me of the song "One Night in Bangkok" from that show . Then I took off the wrapper and said "Miss Saigon" The book is bound in illustrated boards, showing a bar girl dancing, just as Kim did to support herself, The Engineer, and Tam after they escaped from Viet Nam. I decided to try the book. I could always send it on to someone else if I didn't like it. The beginning is pretty horrible. Two cops Pichai and Sonchai are following a black US Marine, driving a grey Mercedes. They lose him in traffic but a radio message tells them to go to a bridge where they will find the car they are seeking. They get there minutes too late. The car has been sealed from the outside and a giant python is trying to ingest the Marine. The woman with multicolored hair that had been in the car with him is no where to be seen. They get the door open and a cobra, high on methamphetamine, kills Pichai, who is Sonchai's soul brother. The two cops, perhaps the only two honest cops in Bangkok, devout buddhits, had killed someone. They spent time in a monastery, and the Abbott said that the only way they could cleanse their karma was to become honest policemen. The holy man called his brother, a police colonel in charge of one of the districts of Bangkok and had him hire the two men. Sonchai, a devout Buddhist, who lives a spartan existence, must avenge Pichai's death. He takes us on a tour of the districts of the city that he has known since childhood. He is the son of a bar girl and an unknown GI, but his mother has made sure that the men she lived with were able to give Sonchai a veneer of civilization as well a several languages, including English. She cannot understand how she raised such a devout and honest son. But she is proud of him in her way. The book is written in first person present tense which adds to the claustrophobia. We only see what Sonchai sees. We only know what he knows. There is also humor, especially in Sonchai's dealings with his now retired mother. The author has written 2 other novels. Both are out of print. I think he has a winner in this one.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, June 2003
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