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| Bangkok Tattoo | 
 enlarge | Author: John Burdett
Publisher: Corgi Adult
Category: Book
Buy New: $13.63
New (1) Used (8) from $4.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  66 reviews
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0552771414
EAN: 9780552771412
ASIN: 0552771414
Publication Date: July 3, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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| Customer Reviews: Read 61 more reviews...
 "Killing customers isn't good for business" May 10, 2005
41 out of 46 found this review helpful
Chanya, the most profitable lady at the Old Man's Club, is holed up with an opium pipe, her blood-soaked clothes decorating the stairs to her room. A couple of streets away lies is the mutilated corpse of a farang (foreigner) and a single rose in a plastic mug of water. The Thai Royal Police Colonel Vikorn dictates Chanya's statement, phrasing it in such a way as to cover all possibilities when blame is cast. Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep artfully transcribes Vikorn's report, because that is how things are done here in District 8. Unfortunately, the mutilated corpse is CIA and the victim's ID carries inherent problems. The murder could be blamed on Al Qaeda, but how do you justify a terrorist/castration murder?
In Bangkok, where pragmatism rules the day, the Colonel is also a gangster and the police often supplement their salaries by working in brothels. Such is Sonchai's case, policeman by day, dedicated papasan by night. Sonchai is following the path of the Buddha, but constantly challenged by Vikorn's manner of doing business. A Muslim shows up at the club where Sonchai is overseeing the girls as they attach themselves to customers. Disdainful, the Muslim, Mustafa, unfolds a picture of the dead man, then leaves his card. Mustafa's father is an imam, who welcomes the detective, explaining that his network has been tracking the CIA agent. Now the imam is worried about being blamed for the murder, a convenient answer to everyone's problems.
What is so fascinating about this novel is the total immersion in Thai culture, from Buddhist practices to ancient rituals, alongside the very practical approach to the vagaries of human sexuality. This is a country that happily accepts all its differences, a finely tuned morality tempered with understanding for the many challenges that face the people who coexist in a difficult world. To read it is to think it, to experience life surrounded by the exoticism of Eastern values and thought processes. Throughout, advice is narrated to the "farang" reader, explaining the easy order of business in Thailand, "Farang, tell your evangelists not to bundle salvation with the work ethic. It really doesn't play in the tropics."
Bangkok Tattoo is a complicated slice of drama, an angst-ridden CIA agent hopelessly in love, tormented by his duty and religious beliefs vs. his amorous obsession; the Americans' interminable quest to tie every violent act to a subversive plot by Al Qaeda to undermine the moral of the American people; the naturally pragmatic and corrupt system of the accommodations of the Thai personality; and a group of Muslims trying to avert an excuse for war in their part of the country, hyper-aware that they are the bogeymen du jour. The ubiquitous Sonchai watches all unfold, reporting to Vikorn, yearning for Chanya, a dutiful son and conscientious policeman. Sprinkle in a Japanese tattoo artist, the community of katoeys (transsexuals-in-progress), a couple of gruesome murders that include castration and flaying, a dash of karma and mix well. This is the perfect recipe for a spicy Eastern mystery that is uniquely satisfying. Luan Gaines/2005.
 Are you up for this, farang? May 23, 2005
25 out of 30 found this review helpful
"Cynical" seems a wan description of the world of Sonchai Jitpleecheep. Many readers will have a hard time with Sonchai, who advocates prostitution as a worthwhile way for poor Thai girls to get rich quick, and who doesn't bother to conceal his utter contempt for post-911 America and Americans. If you hold your Western morality dearly, better skip this one.
On the other hand, if you're up for a stylish, sexy, rollicking good read with oodles and oodles of plot, dripping with exotica of every description, then welcome to Sonchai's world. Sonchai's mom, an ex-hooker turned clubowner, and the ever-inventive Colonel Vikorn (with his limo blasting "Ride of the Valkyries" through its sound system at all times) are characters who will make you laugh out loud--that is, when you're not squirming over the moral dilemmas they pose (and then leap past, with the greatest of ease). You may think you've read it all on the moral ambiguity front, but Burdett takes all those wised-up detective stories and raises the stakes to another level entirely. When you find yourself rooting for a young male cop to be successful in his sex-change operation, you'll know Burdett has gotten into your head. It's a great ride! Enjoy!
 Where's Sonchai? August 11, 2006
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
Like a lot of other reviewers, I read and loved Bangkok 8. What a great read. I was surprised to find- after I finished it, that it wasn't written by a Thai. Sonchai was a real person to me.
Now I read Bangkok Tattoo and I wonder what happened to Sonchai? What comes through is a Brit slamming the U.S. and the west in general through the voice of Sonchai.
What's the purpose of having the CIA being the fools in the story? The female boss of the CIA officers is a lesbian? Why's that? Why isn't MI6 the object of ridicule? Why is the word "farang" in every other sentence? I get it- I get it...it's a derogatory word for westerners, right?
I hope Burdett keeps writing in the series. I also hopes he lets Sonchai act like a Thai Buddhist and not like some political commentator on the Chris Matthews show.
Sonchai Jitpleecheep is back on the Case June 22, 2005
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
In John Burdett's first novel, Bangkok 8, he introduces his protagonist, Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of The Royal Thai Police District 8, a Buddhist with a strange sense of humour when it comes to "farang", the white westerner, and an uncanny ability to see peoples past lives when he first meets them, and a sixth sense, usually dreaming about the case in question, communicated through his dead partner. Sonchai is certainly a bizarre character, a part time pimp for his ex prostitute mother, working their highly successful brothel in the seamy red light district of Bangkok, "The Old Man's Club", and partners in the business with his boss, Colonel Vikorn, the cunning Thai gangster and head of the city's police force. It's business as usual until one of their top working girls, Chayna, comes stumbling back into the club drenched in blood, to discover her "john" back at the hotel room, castrated and skinned. When questioned, the poor girl is stoned on opium, forcing Vikorn and Sonchai to write the confession for her, and quickly get her out of town, because the victim, unfortunately, is CIA.
Bangkok Tattoo is a very entertaining read because the cast of characters, prostitutes, pimps, transvestites, drug dealers, Japanese gangsters, Chinese diplomats, are all written extremely well and highly unusual, making the story out of the ordinary, down right strange at times, and enormously interesting.
Sonchai Jitpleecheep does not care much for "farang", using this word countless times throughout the narrative. (A bit too much) In a word, he believes all westerner's are schizophrenic, media drenched, materialistic, lacking any spirituality, puritanical and hypocritical, and exceedingly stupid. The CIA characters are bumbling and for the most part, lost; and the Old Man's Club clientele are middle-aged sex deprived ex hippies that require Viagra to have a good time. There's not one "farang" in the entire book with any redeeming qualities whatsoever, but I guess that's part of the novel's charm.
I found this novel to be much better than Burdett's last effort. He was finding himself in Bangkok 8, and has settled into the characters with Bangkok Tattoo. He's much more comfortable with his style and it definitely shows in the writing.
If you like the crime/thriller genre from a slightly bent perspective, from eastern Thai Buddhist eyes, you'll like this book. A fast-paced, entertaining read.
 Watch your step in Krung Thep June 10, 2006
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
Sometimes a writer, just like an actor or athlete, reads to many of his own reviews and begins to believe them. Burdett has a talent for the understated satire, that the British do so well. The problem is that sometimes, the wrong person is editing a book and lets satire go over the line to clownishness.
Unlike Bangkok 8, where Burdett showed the patients and soft touch of an artist (say a Van Gogh), in Bangkok Tattoo he's more like a housepainter trying to cover up a badly damaged wall. IMHO he doesn't understand that sometimes less is more.
The stories here are almost inconsequential and he keeps trying to break through the 'fourth wall' like Groucho Marx winking at the audience. This work so much reminds me of Chevy Chase after he left SNL; in his subsequent movies, he spent way to much time mugging at the camera (like he was saying: Look how funny I am).
Burdett spends a lot of time saying look how cynical, but funny and dryly witty I can be. Oh Yeah! For a Brit ex-pat he seems to take a great relish in making fun of the American's. I guess that in the part of Bangkok he hangs out in there aren't any drunken Brits, Aussies or Kiwis...wonder which part that is?
John..go back and read the first book before you think of writing a third...and don't.
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