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BANGKOK 8
by John Burdett
Corgi, August 2004
432 pages
6.99GBP
ISBN: 0552771406


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It would be interesting to know if John Burdett's novel about the capital of Thailand has prompted many crime fiction readers to visit that wonderful city. While the protagonist is nominally Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the city itself seems even more vividly portrayed than the arhat (a Buddhist saint) policeman.

Burdett has hit upon one of the strangest murder weapons in recent fiction. Marine Bill Bradley is found by Jitpleecheep and his inseparable friend and policeman partner Pichai. In the short time which elapses between their losing sight of the marine's car, which they have been following, and finding the car containing the dead marine, someone has jammed the outside handles after releasing cobras and a python (caught attempting to devour Bradley's head) into the hapless man's vehicle.

One of the puzzles to be solved in the murder is how the cobras could have been drugged so exactly, as well as how the python could have been manipulated into its attack. Pichai becomes an unlooked-for casualty of the crime, an added reason for Sonchai to uncover the identity of the now double murderer.

Pichai, with Sonchai's help, had murdered a yaa baa dealer in their joint youth. They were packed off to a monastery where the abbot had forbidden them the profitable sideline of corruption. Pichai had to neutralise the awful karma the murder would have inflicted on him, by becoming an arhat. The abbot arranged with his brother, Police Colonel Vikorn of District 8 of the city Krung Thep (the indigenous name for Bangkok) to employ the two young men as detectives.

Since they are forbidden corruption, hence are unable to make donations to the common pot, the duo must make up for the lack in other ways. Sonchai is an accomplished linguist, thanks to his mother's liaisons (Nong is a retired bar girl) with men of different nationalities, so is able to be of benefit to his colleagues by acting as a translator.

Sonchai is partnered with FBI agent Kimberley Jones. The two cut an eccentric path of detection throughout the eccentric city. They uncover Bradley's liaison with a statuesque beauty who is, like Sonchai, half American, although with an African-American sire. They also discover that Bradley has close ties to an American jeweller on whom jade exerts a strong fascination.

Some Thai women have an innate business sense. Thus, Nong was able to sell her body in order to bring up her son, then later sees the value of taking business courses on the Net in order to set up a profitable venture, the Old Men's Club. She and Vikorn (all Burdett's Thai police see corruption as a business which can only advance the wealth of the Thai economy) become partners in the venture, to Sonchai's initial dismay.

The novel is heavily larded with Buddhist philosophy. Sonchai has glimpses into the past lives of those whom he meets and understands the karma overshadowing them from previous lives which affect their present lives. A strong dollop of the supernatural should do nothing to pollute the reader's interest in the intriguing tale. For those interested in some of the seamy side of the city, there is even an account of the transsexual 'lady boys' who are transformed there.

At first the question of the total authenticity of the tale by the British lawyer-turned-writer worked to prevent me from enjoying the story to its fullest extent but I soon forgot the doubts and easily enjoyed the book on its own terms. Sonchai, Nong and Bangkok are characters whose return must be eagerly awaited by all who read this vivid novel of South East Asia.

Reviewed by Denise Pickles, July 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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