Wild About Bangkok

John Burdett’s mystery series set in contemporary Thailand and starring Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a devout Buddhist and incorruptible but wholly human police detective, are marvelous. Yesterday I read Bangkok Haunts, Burdett’s most recent, published in 2007. The Godfather of Kathmandu comes out in October of this year and I hope Burdett just keep going with more of these great mysteries. They are as addictive as yaa baa (a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine, very popular in Thailand), stoking both your heart and your mind, but so much better for you.

Burdett’s books combine fast-paced, lurid, and sometimes just chillingly gross action (the plot of Bangkok Haunts turns on a snuff film) with sequences of calm indulgences (massages, walks through crowded bazaars, meditation, incredible meals in hovel-like surroundings). Through it all we are favored with Jitpleecheep’s thoughtful introspection on reincarnation, karma, love, justice, duty, pain, and pleasure, and the huge differences between how West and East understand all these aspects of living and dying.

Burdett has achieved the difficult art of the series: he writes each novel with a vibrantly new plot (nothing is formulaic) but always with the reassurance of having our wonderful man Jitpleecheep on the job. We are sure to be given a wild ride that appeals to both sides of our brains, the physical (action) and the spiritual (meaning of everything). Hence the addiction. One taste and you will be hooked.