Bangkok 8 by John Burdett (Vintage)
John Burdett’s crime thriller, Bangkok 8, takes all the cliches you can think of about Thailand and Bangkok in particular, and creates one of the most hilarious mysteries that blends traditional Thai culture with the fast paced life of the 21st century. There are corrupt cops, Buddhist practitioners, bar girls and kathoeys, which are best described as transgenders. There are also Khmer thugs, drug dealers, the gem trade and snakes, lots of them.
This is the first book in a series featuring former yaa-baa, the Thai word for methamphetamine, user-turned detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the son of a Thai bar girl and an American Vietnam War vet he has never met. His mother refuses to give him any information about his father. Sonchai’s partner in crime is Pichai. After killing their yaa-baa dealer, their mothers were able to get them an interview with an abbot of a forest monastery in the far north of Thailand. After six months, the abbot told them they were going to mend their karma by becoming honest cops.
The abbot’s youngest brother is a cop named Vikorn who is the chief of District 8 in Krung Thep, more commonly known as Bangkok. Corruption wasn’t allowed to Sonchai and Pichai and If the two friends want “to escape the murderer’s hell, they would not only have to be honest cops but they would have to be arhat cops.” Simply put, an arhat is someone who has attained the goal of enlightenment.
Sonchai and his partner have been assigned to follow an American marine driving a black Mercedes-Benz. The two lose the car for a moment but when they rediscover it, the marine is alone and doesn’t seem to be moving. Sonchai’s partner checks the car only to discover a large python is wrapped around the marine and is busily trying to swallow his head. There are also many cobras in the car and one of them has bitten Pichai in the eye causing his death.
Sonchai is now determined to find who is responsible for his partner’s death and makes the claim that he will kill whoever was behind it. As the victim was a citizen of the United States and a Marine, Sonchai is told he would be working with an American FBI agent who turns out to be a beautiful woman named Kimberly Jones and who seems to be taken in my Sonchai’s charm.
The further the two investigate, they discover the marine’s name is Bradley and finds that he is involved in the trading and selling of jade, more precisely, forged artworks of jade. It also seems that Bradley was involved in the illicit drug trade as well. If it wasn’t for the death of Sonchai’s partner, it would have been an open and shut case of a drug deal gone bad but the deeper Sonchai and Jones dig, the more the plot thickens as it leads to a man who is friends with Presidents and Senators and he is someone who has a dirty habit that’s not fit for print.
The uninitiated reader may find offense at Burdett’s description of the Royal Thai Police Force which in his novel is ninety-nine percent corrupt with only Sonchai and his former partner being the only two true honest cops. Burdett says in his foreword, “I hope that any Thai cop who comes across these frivolous pages will see humor rather than slight. This is an entertainment within a very Western genre and nothing more. No offense is intended.”
I’m not a Thai cop but even I can see that his story is full of humor and is not to be taken seriously and you can’t help but want to read about Sonchai’s next adventure. ~Ernie Hoyt