324 pages into this book I read this line: "Survival on earth (sic) is our true god, or we would have migrated to less challenging planets millennia ago." Actually Mr. Burdett, no. No 'we' wouldn't have. This sounds like a lofty sentiment, but really today in 2010, in 2006 or so when this book takes place or in 1000 BCE we have no choice but to stay here on this planet and go on with our lives. It's not choice, it's reality. Normally I don't give a shit when authors spout nonsensical shit. I know they do it because they think it makes their characters sound deep, but by page 324 in this book I had enough of the bullshit seeping through just about every page that is being passed off as enlightened wisdom. No, this isn't enlightened wisdom, it is bullshit. I have no basis except for the words he has chosen to put in this particular book, but I am going to take a stab in the dark and say that John Burdett is one of those assholes that thinks he is so enlightened and deep because of some Eastern Philosophy that marvels at with wide-open eyes and a clamped shut mind. In his defense for being close-minded, I'm going to swing my knife around for another hit in the dark and guess that John Burdett has done more than his fair share of drugs, you know smoked a whole lot of the wacky-tabaccy and that rather than being close-minded he's rather smoked up most of the synaptic connections that make up critical faculties. Why do I say this? Because he sounds like a whole lot of burned out dumb hippies that I've known in my life. This book is a slightly less than engaging mystery crammed full of didactic 'dialogue'. I'm being facetious, the mystery is engaging, but only for the last 70 pages or so, before that the book is just scene after scene of this detective interacting with people so that the superior enlightened philosophy and lifestyle of Thailand can be expounded to the reader. Which is all good and stuff, but first of all from the little I've read of Buddhism I think the author is at times talking out of is ass, as in the case of his description of vispassana meditation (which makes me doubt other 'facts' the author might be making that I'm ignorant about), and second of all it's really tough to describe a culture as being morally superior in just about every way to the West and then also have the barbarity that takes place in the book. Over and over again the reader is treated to diatribes against the way the West reduces people to products, but the author / narrator has very few qualms about prostitution, which one imagines from him is something poor women think is really awesome!! Prostitution doesn't seem to be an enlightened fact of life, it is a basic commodity relationship where a person is reduced to a product that is exchanged for money. It is exploitation and commodification no matter what kind of shiny happy / alternative / edgy spin you put on it. Maybe it is the lesser of evils a person can deal with in the alienation / commodification reality, but it still reduces people to things. But, that isn't the way the author see's things. He does at times have some horrific shit happen to prostitutes, but he tempers anything bad that happens by describing the system of women having to whore themselves out as being 'compassionate', well compassionate to men who might get aroused and need a quick handjob to release that arousal; something that is apparently oppressing the West; the need for sexual self-control. My own prejudices are being clear though, which is ok because I'm one of those retard Westerners who believe in Aristotelean logic, or as Burdett says over and over again, believers in X can not be Not X. Burdett hates the oppressiveness of basic logic and ridicules it quite a few times. He might ridicule basic logic, but I ridicule him about basic anatomy. Women don't have Adams Apples you fucking idiot! I know it's Thailand and there are trannies and all of that, but the two times makes this 'mistake' it's on characters who are definitely women, unless if I'm just sticking to too much of my Western Logic to think that because a person is described as a genetic woman that she must still be one a paragraph later. And trust me, Burdett would certainly point out if a character were a tranny, he loves writing about them and they help make up the local color. Speaking of color. There is a term, farang that is a xenophobic word meaning foreigner. It's kind of an insult the way it's used in this book. But sometimes it's just used as foreigner. The term is used all the time in the book, and this brings me to the last thing that I'm going to complain about. Writers who are lazy in creating their setting and make a book exotic by taking one or two foreign terms and using them all the time so that the reader is constantly reminded of where they are. Burdett uses this farang term over and over again, like three or four times a page. Couldn't he have just used foreigner? I mean, there are lots of other words all over the book that I'm sure have Thai versions of them, what makes this one term special? It's kind of like if I were writing a story that takes place in Mexico and I wanted to make sure that you didn't forget I have Mexicans talking in the story so I keep using having them say Amigo. Yes, Mexicans say amigo, but they also say every word in Spanish. It's sloppy and lazy to use this kind of crutch in your writing. I have more problems with this book. Sixty pages or so I enjoyed but the other 280 were awful. This is trash. Overwritten trash that gives the feeling of being smart because the author keeps lecturing the reader and putting too many words into sentences, like I am going here because I can fool you into thinking that putting lots of words, and some excessive and unnecessary clauses, into my writing you will be smacked around into confusion and think I am smarter than I really am, is it working? Why this is published to rave reviews I don't know. Maybe because bestselling genre fiction is so poorly written that this seems bearable? I don't know. I think the exotic local fools people into thinking the book is smarter than it really is. Or maybe because the reviewers who rave about this like that there is still a place where a man can go and exploit young women for little amounts of money.
BANGKOK HAUNTS is the third book in the series set in Bangkok and featuring Sonchai Jitpleecheep as the protagonist. Jitpleecheep is a police detective who has a side job working as a security guard in his mother's whorehouse. He is married to a former prostitute, who is just about to give birth to their first child. Lest I paint too idyllic a picture, Sonchai is also fooling around with the ghost of a former lover. He's been reintroduced to her after viewing a snuff film in which she is the victim. And now her ghost is haunting him, as well as others, holding them as sexual hostages until her death is avenged.Damrong is one of those women who enchants men and who is extremely skilled at the sexual arts. When Sonchai was a younger man, he deluded himself into thinking that they were in love; the truth is that Damrong was pretty much incapable of that emotion and used her wiles to get what she wanted for herself and her family. As a child, Damrong was victimized; as an adult, she was always in control of every situation. It's horrifying for Sonchai to see her being killed in a video; however, his investigation reveals that all is not as it seems in a twist that makes a pretzel look straight.Sonchai is aided in his investigation by Kimberly Jones, an FBI agent who he refers to as "The FBI" and his transvestite partner, Lek, with whom The FBI is infatuated. Jitpleecheep reports to Captain Vikorn, who is as corrupt as they come. I had a lot of difficulty understanding Vikorn and his actions. On the one hand, he showed no hesitation at participating in various illegal activities. On the other, he at times acted as a police authority. I never understood why he went one way or the other.After having enjoyed the second book in this series, BANGKOK TATTOO, I was very disappointed in BANGKOK HAUNTS. Far too much of the narrative was focused on sexual acts. Certainly that's understandable in a book where the protagonist works security in a whorehouse and is married to a prostitute and in a place where the sexual industry dominates. However, it seemed to me that Burdett could have spent more energy on looking at the characters' inner lives than on their sexual performance. I was sorry to see that Jitpleecheep treated his pregnant wife rather cavalierly. As a result, I didn't like him as much as I did in earlier books.I also felt that the paranormal elements of the book were overdone. I found myself more willing to accept this in the earlier two books, where the supernatural is part of the innate cultural beliefs. However, in HAUNTS, Burdett goes too far, with the character of Damrong visiting various men in their dreams and engaging in powerful sex. At one point, she is swirling around causing cataclysmic orgasms and little ole realistic me just couldn't accept that. If he could have done away with some of the mysticism, I would have been a far happier reader. It's not only Damrong the Vengeful Ghost, there is soul switching and spirits caught on videotape and more.The one thing that Burdett does extremely well is delineate the differences between Thai and western culture. It is fascinating to learn about Thai beliefs and attitudes. Perhaps it is my western mind that made it so difficult for me to accept the sexuality and mysticism that was imbued into the narrative.
What do You think about Bangkok Haunts (2007)?
Real disapointment. I liked Bangkok 8 very much, but Bangkok Tatto and Bangkok Haunts are really, really bad. The author is using familiar themes form first novel but with less and less skill. The plot simply doesn't hold, it is pathetically absurd - almost everything in the book happene deus ex machina - which demonstrates author's inability with building a good plot. And the topics of Sonchai's internal monologue (bitching about the West failures, thainess, magic powers and revenge of isaan whores, 'buddhism' - as imagined by the author etc.) are really stretched and feel worn out here. Pity.
—Robert
I'd read Bangkok 8 by Burdett, a number of years ago but, for one reason or another had not read any of the subsequent books in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series. I now know what I've missed. This effort is even better than Bangkok 8. The characters are more interesting, the plot is more finely drawn and the over-all style of the book shows Burdett's growth as a writer.In this story, Sonchai, is sent, anonymously, a pornographic snuff flick that features an ex-girl friend as the victim. Along with his assistant Lek, a Katoey or transvestite, he works to solve the crime and in the process angers his boss, becomes involved in three additional murders, and ends up in a Cambodian compound as a prisoner. The character of Sonchai is one of the more interesting in detective fiction. Half Thai, half Western, raised as a Thai, he is a devout Bhuddist and contrary to Thai Police norms, refuses bribes. His boss is a totally corrupt but politically wise commander and because Sonchai solves crimes, he keeps him around. The other characters that populate this book are all equally fascinating.Burdett's descriptions of Bangkok are right on. I say that having spent a great deal of time there. His descriptions of Thai culture are also extremely accurate, at least as far as a farang (foreigner) such as myself can determine. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep any reader hooked as I was. It is an extremely difficult book to put down.
—Ed
I realize that I jumped into this series at book #3, but that did not hurt my enjoyment of this fascinating story at all. I recently read The City and the City by China Mieville, and the similarities are intriguing.Like The City and The City this is at its core a hard-boiled murder mystery. However, while Mr. Mieville makes up the cultural and historical differences between two unique cities, Mr. Burdett simply contrasts the Thai world-view in Bangkok to that of the west. Perhaps this is a 3rd-person viewpoint of two similar, but different cities that are portrayed from the first-person perspective in The City and The City.I really have no idea if half of what Mr. Burdett describes about the life, religion, society and philosophy is real, or fable, or completely made up, but I thought it made for a fascinating read. (I do plan to research some of it though, such as the Elephant Game.)Bordering perhaps on Asian (Buddhist?) mysticism, there was still a real mystery to be solved, with all the usual suspects, informants, twists and politics. Sonchai Jitpleecheep (great name!) was the primary police investigator, and as one of the few honest men left in the police force, he presented an interesting character to lead us through the story.The broad concept of money for sex filters through the story in many ways. There is even a fascinating article from the New York Times added as an appendix, and referenced by Sonchai early in the book. Erotica Inc.—a Special Report: Technology Sent Wall Street into Market for Pornography a>A great read, and perhaps just a little too pulp for 5 stars, but I will be picking up the other books in this series.
—Jim
