Rick Kleffel (Bangkok Haunts)
“Even emotional anguish is another misleading phenomenon,” Sonchai
Jitpleecheep tells us in John Burdett’s latest novel, ‘Bangkok Haunts’.
Alas, that level of awareness is beyond Sonchai himself, and he could
use some extra equipoise. Burdett, on the other hand, seems to have
found his own version of that high state of being, at least when it
comes to writing his strikingly original novels set in Bangkok. Voice
carries all in fiction. Every book is a one-sided conversation, and the
author who expects us to pay attention had best have a captivating means
of expression. For John Burdett, that happens when he channels Sonchai
Jitpleecheep, a devout Buddhist and Royal Thai Police detective. It
pretty much does not matter what Sonchai says; his language is engaging,
funny, intelligent and animated by a penetrating intelligence. But in creating his character, Burdett has managed to immerse himself and his
readers in a world that is alien, foreign, familiar and compelling.
Sonchai’s vision of the world around him guarantees that the story will
be as involving as the voice that tells it.