Tag: Sonchai Jitpleecheep

Day 254: Vulture Peak

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Cover for Vulture PeakBurdett’s Bangkok series is dark, but Vulture Peak is much more twisted than the others. Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police is ordered by his powerful superior, Colonel Vikom, to investigate a triple murder in a luxurious villa on Vulture Peak, a steep hill above the seaside town of Phuket.

Sonchai realizes that this investigation is linked to Vikom’s stated intention of wiping out trafficking in body parts, part of his campaign for governor of Bangkok. But Sonchai is puzzled by two things: he has never heard before that Thailand is a center of trafficking for body parts and he doesn’t understand why Vikom wants to be governor. Still, it is certainly true that the three bodies have been harvested of every possible organ, including their faces.

Sonchai believes the murders are connected to a trip he took at Colonel Vikom’s command a few weeks before, during which he was posing as an organ merchant. He was dispatched to Dubai to meet Lily and Polly Yip, a pair of Chinese twins who are rich, spoiled, and very odd–and engaged in organ trafficking.

Soon Sonchai is enmeshed in a complicated case that involves trips to Hong Kong and Shanghai, possible involvement of Colonel Vikom’s biggest rival General Zinna, a wandering lunatic with a badly disfigured face who is raping women in Bangkok, and a schizophrenic Chinese cop.

As usual, the pace is fast, the atmosphere is edgy, the characters are interesting, and the insight into Thai and Buddhist culture fascinating.

Day 216: Bangkok 8

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Cover for Bangkok 8Previously, I gave a bemused review to Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett. I wish I had started the series with Bangkok 8, the book I am reviewing today, because it provides a lot of context. In this book, we are introduced to Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a half-caste Bangkok cop. He and his partner Pichai are lifelong friends and arhat, devout Buddhists and uncorrupted police officers in a city where corruption is rife.

Sonchai and Pichai have been ordered to follow William Bradley, a retired marine. He picks up a beautiful woman before they lose him in traffic. Later, they find him in his car, where the doors have been jammed shut and a python is attempting to eat his head. After they open the door, they discover too late that his car has been filled with cobras. Pichai is bitten in the eye and dies. Sonchai then vows to find and kill the person responsible.

He is soon requested to meet with the FBI, who are investigating a powerful American associate of Bradley’s–a jeweler named Sylvester Warren who supplies magnificent gems and artifacts to the wealthy of the world. The FBI agents believe that Warren hired Bradley to import jade and commission replicas of ancient sculptures so that Warren can sell them as authentic. However, Warren’s connections make him too powerful to touch either in the US or in Thailand.

The woman who was on the motorcycle proves difficult to locate or identify, even though she is strikingly tall and has unusual multi-colored hair. As Sonchai investigates further, he finds a tangle of secrets and dark deeds.

This novel provides a lot of background about Sonchai and is full of rich descriptions of the city and its occupants. It is also darkly funny. Burdett does an excellent job of conveying the flavor of the city. The mystery is dark and complex, involving the sex industry, drug smuggling, and connections to the Russian mafia and Cambodian thugs, but it is also entertaining. Sonchai’s insights into, for example, the other characters’ past lives, lend additional spice to the mix. This series is not a traditional one but offers something fresh.

Day 87: Bangkok Haunts

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Cover of Bangkok HauntsBangkok Haunts is unlike any mystery I have ever read.  I heard about the series by John Burdett and wanted to try it but think perhaps it might have been best to start with the first one. (Bangkok Haunts is the third.) I had an ambivalent reaction to it but am willing to try reading another one.

Sonchai Jitpleecheep is a devout Buddhist detective who tries to remain relatively straight in what is, according to one of the characters in the book, the world’s most corrupt police force. I say relatively because his mother is the proprietor of a brothel, where he helps out. He also keeps being pulled into the illegal schemes of his powerful boss, police captain Vikom.

A vicious snuff film is sent to Sonchai anonymously. He is horrified to see that the victim is Damrong, a prostitute with whom he was obsessed until she left him. Damrong’s ghost begins haunting him at night, even though he is living happily with his pregnant girlfriend. Sonchai is determined to bring Damrong’s murderers and those involved in the film to justice, even though Vikom is more interested in blackmail.

The novel’s Byzantine plot involves sorcery, Buddhist monks, an elite gentlemen’s club, Cambodian thugs, and some seriously disturbed individuals. For such dark material, the first person narration is oddly light in tone. However, the atmosphere and insights into Thai beliefs, modern life, and customs are rich and fascinating.

I did not buy at all the subplot about Sonchai’s FBI friend Kimberley Jones, who becomes obsessed with his assistant Lek. Lek is saving up for a sex-change operation, but Kimberley falls madly in love with him and keeps calling Sonchai to talk about how wrong the operation would be and to demand he talk Lek out of it. I can’t imagine that a woman who has fought her way into the FBI would be this susceptible and irrational–and unprofessional.

This novel is not for everyone, but I definitely think the unusual series is worth another look.