Bangkok 8: A Royal Thai Detective Novel (1) Paperback – July 13, 2004

A unique mystery-thriller unlike anything I have ever read, Bangkok 8 is the first of a series starring Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, who in the opener is following, with his cop partner Pichai, a shady American marine sergeant in Bangkok, when the marine is - right in front of them, in a car bolted shut - slaughtered by a nasty nest of cobras trapped with him in his Mercedes. When Pichai is also killed in the ensuing chaos, Sonchai - a devout Buddhist arhat - makes it his life's mission to not only find out what happened, but to himself kill Pichai's murderer to avenge his partner's death. But the deeper Sonchai digs, even with the help of attractive FBI agent Kimberley Jones, the more the increasingly twisted trail seems to lead toward an American jeweler with untold wealth and influence - influence that extends even over Sonchai's own superiors in the police force. As said, I have never read a novel like Bangkok 8; never read a piece of fiction that so solidified in me the essence of a people, culture, way of life - even religion - as this novel does of Thailand, tying it all into not just Sonchai and those he encounters and where he goes, but even the mystery itself. It's a book that makes you think deeply, yet also has touches of dark humor and plenty of thrills; even conversations between characters, at length, never come off boring or as filler, as the characters are so exceptionally well-drawn - what they have to say so revealing of them or the story - you must read word for word. Sorry for the gushing, but yet again: have simply never read anything like Bangkok 8. And I certainly can't remember when I was last so absorbed in a book that, while reading it, I completely forgot about the real world surrounding me. *****

First Sentence: The African American marine in the gray Mercedes will soon die of bites from Naja siamensis, but we don't know that yet, Pichai and I (the future is impenetrable, says the Buddha).Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is the son of a Thai retired prostitute and a white man, whose identity his mother won't divulge. Sonchai and Pichai, his partner, best friend and soul-mate, have been assigned to follow a U.S. Marine sergeant. In tailing the sergeant, they lose him for a bit, but then see his car. When they arrive, they see the sergeant, his head half engulfed by a python and being bitten by cobras. In trying to rescue him, Pichai is bitten and killed. Sonchai swears death to the killer.This was a fascinating book. It has wonderful imagery and humor. I loved the injections of Buddhist philosophy, particularly the attitude toward death. Reincarnation is an accepted fact of being, made even more interesting by Sonchai's ability to see other's past lives. But best is that the author provides a real look at Thai life and culture, not just that as seen by tourists. .The story is told from Sonchai's point of view and it really is as much, if not more, his story than a traditional police procedural. Not only is Sonchai set apart from those around him because of being of mixed blood, but because, in a country where corruption is accepted, he is arhat (meritorious) and doesn't accept bribes or sleep with women.I found the story a little hard to follow at times, but at no time was I tempted to stop. I found the ending completely appropriate to the story.

The thing I enjoyed most about this unusual novel is that it works on multiple levels, certainly as a thriller, but also as a modern morality tale and, more subtly, as a spoof of American noir detective stories a la Dashiel Hammet and Raymond Chandler. The hero is a Thai policeman who is, not incidentally, a devout Buddhist and who finds himself in the thick of a tangled plot by a debauched American mogul who is hung up on jade and a lethal --at least for the women involved --sexual fetish.While the overall subject matter of the plot is most definitely not funny, John Burdett somehow manages to weave some very comic asides and angles into the plot, most of them revolving around the cultural and religious differences between the Thai police hero and several American FBI agents. The agents, as one might expect, are so very Western in their thinking that half of the time they haven't a clue as to what the Thais are saying to them outright, let alone the motivations of the Thai characters.Yet the Thai characters are not portrayed simplistically as superior to the Westerners. Indeed, some of them -- notably the mother of the policeman hero -- are quite decadent, although practically so. Burnett seems to want us to understand that the mother comes from a place, both geographically and intellectually, which requires certain utilitarian attitudes if one is to survive. She accepts that reality and works within it, rather than gnash her teeth over things she cannot change, as the Western characters are wont to do. This holds true for her detective son as well, a meditator and serious believer who nevertheless manages to avoid throwing up his hands and surrendering to fatalism.I won't attempt a cogent summary of the plot, since it is too bizarre to wrap into a sentence or two. But it all makes sense in the end and it leaves the reader with some serious things to ponder -- about love, loyalty and the way culture shapes them both. I am eager to move on to the next novel in this startling and inventive series.

A thriller by name, but far too fragmented to hold together as such. There is some very good, entertaining writing in the first half of the novel, with excellent conflict between the main players, and we are shown tantalizing parts of the Thailand we don't know. The Buddhism bit is overcooked, the death by snake plot way too silly and the second half of the story deteriorates into long, learned descriptions of sex change operations and depressed crocodiles. I'd long since given up by then. I still have no idea of who dun wot.