As Sonchai himself notes at one point, "This isn't a whodunit, is it?" And, no, it isn't, but author John Burdett (A Personal History of Thirst, The Last Six Million Seconds) infuses the plot with enough suspense, detail, and dry Asian insight to keep readers rapt as the story careens about the bars and brothels of Thailand's flesh trade, through its cut-rate plastic surgery parlors, and ends in a climax with a fittingly Buddhist twist. Bangkok 8 is highly recommended for readers in the mood for Thai. --Benjamin Reese

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A thriller with attitude to spare, Bangkok 8 is a sexy, razor-edged, often darkly hilarious novel set in one of the world’s most exotic cities.

Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep—a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.—is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner’s murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai’s quest for vengeance takes him into a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined.

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Electrifying, darkly comic, razor-edged -- a thriller unlike any other.

Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake -- a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras.

Two cops -- the only two in the city not on the take -- arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep -- a devout Buddhist, equally versed in the sacred and the profane -- son of a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. and a Thai bar girl whose subsequent international clientele contributed richly to Sonchai's sophistication.

Now, his partner dead, Sonchai is doubly compelled to find the murderer, to maneuver through the world he knows all to well -- illicit drugs, prostitution, infinite corruption -- and into a realm he has never before encountered: the moneyed underbelly of the city, where desire rules and the human body is no less custom-designable than a raw hunk of jade. And where Sonchai tracks the killer -- and a predator of an even more sinister variety.

Thick with the authentic -- and hallucinogenic -- atmosphere of Bangkok, crowded with astonishing characters, uniquely smart and skeptical, literary and wildly readable, Bangkok 8 is one of a kind.

I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the relatively weak ending.


Far more than a thriller   November 1, 2005
 18 out of 22 found this review helpful

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.


Common Thriller in Uncommon Setting   July 14, 2005
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

A Thai detective and his partner in Bangkok are assigned to follow around an American marine sergeant for reasons unknown to them. They lose him in traffic, then catch up to him in time to see him being devoured by a python which somehow made it into his car. His partner runs to help, and in turn is attacked by a dozen or so cobras, which, needless to say, kill him. Don't worry, no plot giveaways here, all of this happens in the first chapter.

This kind of thing is pretty typical of the thriller genre. Start off with a bizarre, grisly murder, then sit back and watch as the smart-aleck/wise-cracking/clever/anti-establishment/unscrupulous/alcoholic (take your pick) detective unravels the diabolical murder and reveals corruption at the highest levels of society/government/police/CIA/FBI/business/clergy (take your pick). Terrible and unusual things happen along the way, the hero detective is almost killed a few times, a sexy agent he is ambivalent about is assigned to help him, and the ending is shocking, just shocking.

That's how it usually works and that's how it works here, but the novel rises a little bit above the genre due to its locale, which is Bangkok, and the author's thorough knowledge of it. The plot is sprinkled liberally with discussions about the differences between the east and west and Buddhism and Christianity. It's pretty interesting, occasionally humorous, and only rarely condescending, unlike a lot of other novels with subject matter of this type, which gleefully and spitefully describe how pathetic and meaningless our empty little lives are here in the west.

The scene description is excellent. We get the full load of Bangkok and its denizens and the way they live. It all rings true. The detective himself is the progeny of a Thai prostitute and an American serviceman he never knew, so there is also a load of talk about the prostitution industry, which Bangkok is justly or unjustly famous for, and some of it is quite thought-provoking. "Prostitutes do not make good wives as a rule, but it has nothing to do with fidelity. Usually, the last things such girls want is an extra-marital affair, in which they would probably be expected to play the sex goddess all over again. What they want is the right to be irritable and charmless, which they lost the moment they started in the game." Never thought of that. And there is a whole bunch of stuff just like it in the novel.

But, in the end, it's a thriller, no more, no less; told by a likeable narrator, to be sure, with an ability to convey his unusual locale and his unusual lifestyle. But eventually the bodies and improbabilities start piling up, as does the reader's desire to get to the end of this.