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Bangkok Haunts
by John Burdett
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Knopf (2007-06-05)
ISBN: 0307263185
EAN: 9780307263186
Dewy Decimal #: 823.914
Hardcover: 320 pages
Edition: 1
Release Date: 2007-06-05
SKU: 08040031
Condition: Very Good Very Good
Comments: First Edition. Hardback in very good plus condition with no markings. Owners name on flyleaf. Dust jacket in very good condition with minor shelf wear. Tight binding and clear crisp text. Very nice book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
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 new novel.
Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkok’s District 8, but nothing like the video he’s just been sent anonymously: “Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now.”
He’s watching a snuff film. And the person dying before his disbelieving eyes is Damrong—a woman he once loved obsessively and, now it becomes clear, endlessly. And there is something more: something at the end of the film that leaves Sonchai both figuratively and literally haunted.
While his investigation will lead him through the office of the ever-scheming police captain, Vikorn (“Don’t spoil a great case with too much perfectionism,” he advises Sonchai); in and out of the influence of a perhaps psychotic wandering monk; and eventually into the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men’s club in Bangkok (whose members will do anything to protect their identities, and to explore their most secret fantasies), it also leads him to his own simple bedroom where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his dreams deliver him up to Damrong . . .
Ferociously smart and funny, 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 does exactly that from first page to last.
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Customer Reviews
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Bangkok does Haunt!
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-09-06
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 to 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 explans you how it works. There is a buddhist touch to the way it operates in Thailand. Great read.
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more Thai stories
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-09-04
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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Book review
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-08-25
Great story. I've spent a lot of time in Thailand and it brings back many memories. High suspense and well written.
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Wonderful setting and pace. Fantastic, bizzarre characters. Screwy plot.
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-07-21
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
John Burdett's "Bangkok 8" and "Bangkok Tattoo" introduced us to Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the cop behind those bright neon bookcovers.
Sonchai is your basic incorruptible and introspective half Thai Buddhist detective in Bangkok. Like a good son, he helps mom run a fairly undistinguished cathouse and generally keeps his hands off the help. A memorable guy in a chaotic, corrupt, and seemingly well-named city.
In "Haunts" Sonchai encounters a hooker who redefines femme fatale, vicious Khmer Rouge mercenaries, a slimey limey lawyer, some murderous elephants, a headcase FBI agent, an American high school teacher in way over his balding head, a drug-dealing Japanese filmmaker released from prison to shoot skin flicks, a bad guy billionaire, and a monk with multiple personalities who hangs out in Internet cafes. Back again are his charmingly corrupt boss Vikhorn, his now pregnant wife, and his pre-op transgendered partner. If you liked Fellini's Satryicon or the bar scene in Star Wars (I did), you will feel right at home.
And what is not to like about the human whitewater of Bangkok? Burdett loves it, as do two other lawyers I know who have retired there to write (hey, if the writer's block gets too tough, there is always high quality, low cost beaches, food, and sex -- so how can you lose?)
You can't -- which is why "Haunts" is a fun summer read, despite Burdett's irritating tendency to patronize westerners and non-Buddhists.
But the story is fantasy, not mystery. It is JK Rowling, not Michael Connelly -- Harry Potter, not Harry Bosch. Sonchai's occidental "intuition" conveniently leads him to the next set of clues. He assumes that people share identical nightmares. Ghosts make random convenient appearances (and are captured on film by the local forensic pathologist, who finds this unexceptional in a cameo appearance as an otherwise normal human being). Our hero's climatic escape from flying demons, KR psychopaths, and elephants trained to torture is the equivalent of polyjuice potion -- a gimmmick that lets the author end the book by cheating his readers.
It's great stuff if you are twelve -- although most books for twelve year olds have fewer snuff flicks, porn kings, and hot sex with ghosts. "Haunts" is the Thai equivalent of a French movie -- perfect if you can live off of characters and scenery but a lot to swallow if you care about the coherence of the story.
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Loved It, But I Don't Know Why
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-07-11
Burdett takes the reader on a fascinating tour of Bangkok, both live Bangkok and dead Bangkok. In other words, a lot of this book takes place on the "other side", which is not to imply this is a science fiction work. No, Burdett carefully and skillfully weaves Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife into his gritty account of earthly Bangkok. The plot is creatively complex and rich in personalities and setting. So many worlds come together here: the living and the dead, the East and the West, the honest and the dishonest...and so on. I found the ending a little contrived -- you could see where this book would end pages in advance -- but there were many surprises along the way to that ending. A fascinating book.
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