Mysteries of the East

John Burdett

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The Sonchai Jitpleecheep novels of John Burdett

Title	Date originally published	eBook available?	In print?
Bangkok 8	2003	Yes	Yes
Bangkok Tattoo	2006	Yes	Yes
Bangkok Haunts	2007	Yes	Yes

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Reviews of Sonchai Jitpleecheep

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Review of Bangkok 8

John Burdett's Bangkok 8 just might be the perfect "Asian detective story." It has a decent mystery (but no big deal), the chief character is a detective, there's wee bit of love interest, and we learn lots and lots and lots about Thailand.

My own exposure to Thailand was during the Vietnam War, and I was therefore one of the people upon whom the story line is based (the detective is one of my children, so to speak). I didn't see that much of it, actually, but what I remember I remember dramatically. It was not my kind of Asia. China and Japan are my kind of Asia, but it was good—very good—to broaden my vision of the inscrutable East.

Burdett's novel begins dramatically—always a good idea (and it reminds me of one of Lisa See's Liu Hulan novels, where our heroine shoots a mother carrying a baby right in the middle of Tian'anmen), and thankfully doesn't dissolve into a shoot'em-up with gangs blasting away other gangs, etc.
Neither is it a novel commissioned by the Thai government (whatever that is, these days) to encourage tourism. All of Asia is corrupt (even Japan), and if you don't understand how that works, you're going to have a miserable time. Asians are very practical people, and as we see often in the novel, even the principles of the Buddha have to be seen in modern terms.

We are intolerant of corruption (however much it might exist in our society), and we spoil some of those who come here from corrupt lands. A co-worker is from Nigeria, and she says that she can no longer get a seat on an airplane leaving Nigeria, even though she has a ticket. Her sister has to step in and pay the necessary bribe. My co-worker has become so spoiled by American principle that she cannot bend a bit in memory of the good old days.

Burdett writes very well, and I'm glad to see that he has continued from this 2003 novel. I look forward to reading subsequent efforts.

Review of Bangkok Tattoo

John Burdett's Bangkok Tattoo continues with the tales of the Eurasian Thai detective who shall go by the name Sonchai (all Thai names seem to require a minimum of 20 letters). His mom's whorehouse for elderly Western men started off with a bang but then ran into some troubles I don't recall. Still operational, it is somewhat more traditional than intended. Sonchai still runs it while hanging on to his job as a Bangkok policeman, but then routine duties are not what these books are about, and plenty of non-routines events enliven the overall narrative.

We get a definite love interest, this time, and a suggestion that she will be with us in the next novel, too (Bangkok Haunts). In general, our education regarding the business of sex continues, and we learn a great deal.

There is a bit on local politics, as the fundamental story line involves a kind of war between the district chief police official (Sonchai's boss) and an Army general. Both are totally gangsters, and use their formidable resources to run drug-running businesses and anything else from which dollars or baht can be earned.

And, as always, the story is told by Sonchai from his Buddhist perspective. One might say his particularly Asian Buddhist perspective, but then Buddhism is an Asian religion, so the only curious thing is that the author is a Brit.

"Why am I still here?...Same reason the other guys couldn't go back. All over Southeast Asia there are American men who never go home. We simply can't. Because when we look into the eyees of your people, we see something, call it what you like. Soul? The human mind before fragmentation? Something sacred we farang habitually amputate like tonsils because we don't understand its function? Maybe it's your damned Buddhism. But we see something. Now tell me this, Detective. When you look into the eyes of farang, what do you see?

When I fail to reply, he sniggers. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

The idea for the fundamental story line might have been taken from the 1996 film The Pillow Book.

Review of Bangkok Haunts

Burdett's Bangkok Haunts explores pretty much the same territory as the previous two novels in the series, but looks more deeply into the Buddhist nature of both Sonchai the detective and, probably, the society at large.

Sonchai and Chanya's child should be born before the next novel starts. This domestic angle has been strong in this book, and it's not clear how he'll use it in future. For example, the thread that had begun whereby Sonchai's biological father was scheduled to arrive in Thailand hardly gets mentioned in this novel, but is acknowledged once (he's a no-show).

Use of the word 'haunt' in the title reflects the main story convention—haunting by ghosts and how we'll all be in an afterlife or new life soon enough.

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