Bangkok Tatoo by John Burdett

“Tattoos are cool, but be careful who might want them”

Overview: This high-octane thriller is set in Bangkok's sex trade district. The half-Thai/half-American who has never met his GI dad narrates the storyline, peppering it with references to his devout Buddhism. There's a serial killer on the loose and he's taking a very unique souvenir from his vics, but the plot is really well imagined. It will keep you guessing until the last twenty pages. Highly recommended if you like spy novels or depraved mysteries.

I loved this book, being the second in the series by John Burdett. I think it's better edited/written than the first, and the main character's conflict between his Buddhist karma and the pressures of corruption inherent in his job are really fun/strong.

John Burdett seems to have stumbled onto an excellent premise when he combines the conventions of hard-boiled crime novels with the exotic Thai locales and Buddhist philosophy in Bangkok Tattoo and, presumably, the other books in the series.

Like any good story taking place in Thailand, this book is written on a number of planes of existence. It is a mystery, it is a trip into Thai culture, it is an insight into Buddhism, and certainly a front-row seat into the Bangkok flesh trade. The main character (Sonchai) is likable, and we share his struggle as he attempts to resist the corruption of the corporeal world on his path to enlightenment.

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett

“In Bangkok’s underbelly, everything seems to relate back to Buddha”

A unique mystery-thriller, unlike anything I have ever read, Bangkok 8 is the first of a series starring Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep.

As I said, I have never read a novel like Bangkok 8; never read a piece of fiction that so solidified in me the essence of a people, culture, way of life - even religion - as this novel does of Thailand, tying it all into not just Sonchai and those he encounters and where he goes, but even the mystery itself.

It's a book that makes you think deeply, yet also has touches of dark humor and plenty of thrills; even conversations between characters, at length, never come off boring or as filler, as the characters are so exceptionally well-drawn — what they have to say so revealing of them or the story — you must read word for word. I have simply never read anything like Bangkok 8. And I certainly can't remember when I was last so absorbed in a book that, while reading it, I completely forgot about the real world surrounding me.