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Bangkok Haunts
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$13.95
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$11.16
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Manufacturer: Vintage Books
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781400097067
ISBN: 1400097061
Label: Vintage Books
Manufacturer: Vintage Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2008-06-10
Publisher: Vintage Books
Release Date: 2008-06-10
Studio: Vintage Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the devout Buddhist Royal Thai Police detective who led us through the best sellers Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo, returns in this blistering novel.
Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkok's District 8, but nothing like the snuff film he's just been sent anonymously. Furiously fast-paced and laced through with an erotic ghost story that gives a new dark twist to the life of our hero, Bangkok Haunts more than lives up to the smart and darkly funny originality of its predecessors.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A murder mystery featuring a buddhist pimp cop, who would have guessed?
Comment: ... that it would be so fun! My mother recommended this, and I ripped my way through it. Not for the squeamish, or for folks who insist on a purley negative view of the sex industry. But I found the plot complicated enough to be fun and the characters deep and loveable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Police Procedural - Thai Style
Comment: Thailand, poverty stricken and seething with mysticism, is the brilliant setting for this police procedural - Thai style. When mesmerizing prostitute Damrong becomes the star of a well produced snuff film, Detective Sonchai Jitplecheep calls in his farang (westerner) friend - "almost" lover Kimberly Jones - to help him find the killer, and Eastern and Western cultures are brought face to face.
Sonchai moonlights as part owner of a brothel run by his mother, whose frank philosophy has her say, "who we are in the next life is determined by how generous we are in this one, not by what market forces bend us to do." When Damrong worked in the brothel, she seduced Sonchai so thoroughly that he reached the point where his feelings for her switched from objective admiration to the psychosis of possession. She then unceremoniously dropped him. And now, years later, he's married with a child on the way, but the DVD containing the snuff film has been delivered to him and he is on the case. Damrong might be dead, but she's NOT gone. Very soon her ghost begins to visit his dreams, and every night, in his bed beside his sleeping wife, she has her way with him until he wakes, trembling and spent.
Bangkok Lights is all levels below delicious levels. The author's depictions of the activities of the undead are vivid and believable, and the Buddhist concept of Reincarnation is made to feel very real indeed. As the story progresses and each development reveals a bit more of Damrong's story, the reader becomes so immersed in the mysteries he forgets that he doesn't believe in ghosts, demons, or other lifes. I loved this one. Five Stars.
Art Tirrell is the author of The Secret Ever Keeps
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lurid Plotting Mixed with Interesting Cultural Insights
Comment: I more or less liked Burdett's first Thai thriller (Bangkok 8), but felt that the second (Bangkok Tattoo) left quite a bit to be desired -- so much so that I didn't plan on reading this third in his series featuring Thai policeman Sonchai Jitpleecheep. However, I did eventually pick it up, and found it to be pretty much in line with the other two: strong on atmosphere and Thai culture, weak on plotting and pacing.
Burdett is great at capturing Bangkok and other parts of Thailand (in this book, the story makes excursions to Isan province and Phnom Phen, Cambodia). However, it's unfortunate that he does so with some of the most outlandishly lurid plots I've come across. In this case, the story revolves around a snuff film featuring a former employee and lover of Sonchai. Naturally, he feels compelled to investigate and bring the film's backers to justice -- even as his superior (Colonel Vikorn) has him overseeing a high-end porn film operation.
As in the first two books in the series, the story brims with explanations of Thai culture and how it's different from the West. This is interesting material which is unfortunately undercut by a rather snide, condescending tone. As in the other books, pretty much every farang (white foreigner) is revealed to be a bumbling idiot or soulless jackal. FBI agent Kimberly Jones makes another appearance (although her presence seems completely artificial in terms of how the FBI actually works), acting as a proxy for the reader, so that Sonchai has someone to explain cultural differences to. More engaging is Sochai's deputy, a katoey named Lek, who is getting close to having his sex change operation.
The plot is full of vivid (if somewhat cartoonish) supporting characters and scenes. There's an exclusive sex club, ghosts, sex with ghosts, ex-Khmer Rouge thugs, elephants stomping on people, HiSo (high society) multimillionaires, and a mysterious monk (whose identity is easily guessed by the reader long before Sonchai clues in). Then there is the supernatural element -- present in the previous two books, and even more front-and-center here. The climax features a spirit entering another person's body and taking control of it to do battle with Sochai -- complete with levitation. If you don't mind that, great, but personally, I prefer the more restrained mysticism of Colin Cotterhill's Laotian-set mysteries (see The Coroner's Lunch).
Ultimately, despite all the flourishes, the book feels pretty much like the other two in the series. Improbable plots and groan-inducing climaxes juxtaposed with some interesting cultural fodder. I doubt I'll be reading another in the series, but then again, I said that last time...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bangkok does Haunt!
Comment: Once again, Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of The Royal Thai Police Force is back with a bang. After reading, 'Bangkok 8' and 'Bangkok Tattoo', I was looking forward to a great read. And, the author John Burdett does not let you down. Yes, he does it again. Detective Sonchai is a shareholder and part-time worker at his mom's brothel co-owned with his superior, Colonel Vikron of District 8. One day he receives an anonymous brutal porn video by mail about his mom's employee, Damrong, in which she get's killed. Sonchai had a brief affair with her. He get's on the journey to find the truth about her death. 'Bangkok Haunts' takes you to the adult industry in Thailand and explains you how it works. There is a buddhist touch to the way it operates in Thailand. Great read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: more Thai stories
Comment: and if you like Thai stories or want to learn more about Thailand in an engrossing and interesting well researched slice of Bangkok. This book won't dissappoint. Although it is probably the weakest of the three. Bangkok 8 had the best story line but Bangkok Tatoo was the best of the three for all around interesting.
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