Bangkok Tattoo
by:
John Burdett (author)
Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police returns in his riveting and smokily atmospheric new thriller.A farang–a foreigner–has been murdered, his body horribly mutilated, at the Bangkok brothel co-owned by Sonchai’s mother and his boss. The dead man was a CIA agent. To make matters...
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Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police returns in his riveting and smokily atmospheric new thriller.A farang–a foreigner–has been murdered, his body horribly mutilated, at the Bangkok brothel co-owned by Sonchai’s mother and his boss. The dead man was a CIA agent. To make matters worse, the apparent culprit is sweet-natured Chanya, the brothel’s top earner and a woman whom the devoutly Buddhist sleuth has loved for several lifetimes. How can Sonchai solve this crime without sending Chanya to prison? How can he engage in a cover-up without endangering his karma? And how will he ever get to the bottom of a case whose interested parties include American spooks, Muslim fundamentalists, and gangsters from three countries? As addictive as opium, as hot as Sriracha chili sauce, and bursting with surprises, Bangkok Tattoo will leave its mark on you.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781400032914 (1400032911)
ASIN: 1400032911
Publish date: July 11th 2006
Publisher: Vintage
Pages no: 320
Edition language: English
Category:
Novels,
Travel,
Cultural,
Book Club,
Mystery,
Detective,
Contemporary,
Asia,
Thriller,
Mystery Thriller,
Crime
Series: Sonchai Jitpleecheep (#2)
Interesting mystery, not so much for the plot, but for the setting. The main character in this mystery is Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police, the son of a prostitute turned brothel owner and an American stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. Told through Sonchai's eyes, this stor...
I liked this a bit less than Bangkok 8, mostly because I got tired of being called farang (the Thai equivalent of "gringo"). Still a good story, though.
I didn't like this sequel as well as I liked the first one. This one was meandering, hard to follow, and lapsed into lecturing at times. I do like Sonchai, and the other characters are certainly interesting. I enjoy the vicarious Thai cultural experience, too. I'll probably read the next one.
The second of Burdett's novels featuring Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. This adventure opens with the apparent murder of a john by a prostitute employed by Sonchai's mother. What the book does well is to illustrate the Buddhist principle that what we take as reality is illusory. As the narrative un...