Bangkok Addiction

Welcome back to Bangkok and the multi-layered world of Sonchai Jitpleecheep, John Burdett’s half-farang and fully-charming police officer who solves murder mysteries in his hometown of Bangkok, while educating us on Buddhism, capitalism, and the Thai way of life. Jitpleecheep is a swell dresser who meditates with sincerity, fights crime with alacrity, and has a sweet spot for every down-and-outer he meets. In The Godfather of Kathmandu, Jitpleecheep investigates the bizarre murder of a hugely fat American who, as it turns out, has had more done to his head than just a mere case of cannibalism, while also serving as unwilling consigliere to his boss Vikorn’s illegal empire.

Six years have passed since we last hung out with Jitpleecheep in Bangkok Haunts and much has changed, but even more has become even more so of what it was before. Burdett deals in extremes but with such ease and humor that we believe every bit of it. Jitpleecheep’s Buddhism, always a force in his life, has become dominant, especially under the influence of a Tibetan man he meets in the course of the murder investigation; Vikorn’s aspirations have grown even grander; the cast of characters that Jitpleecheep must content with are even more wild and crazy than ever before; the sex, more earth-moving; the drugs more mind-blowing; the personal conflicts more soul-hurting; the east versus west mind-sets, more illuminated; and the final resolution, more masterful, combining other-worldly motivation with political activism, western capitalism, eastern mysticism, and human greed.

The Godfather of Kathmandu packs in a full dose of Buddhism for beginners along with a must-know history on the interconnections of Tibet, Thailand, China, and the United States. Burdett incorporates reincarnation, telepathy, altruism, mysticism, tantrism, gender identity, and nationalism into an awesome plot that is thrilling, fun, disturbing, and completely engaging.