The central crime in “Bangkok Haunts” is the murder by strangulation of a prostitute whom Sonchai once was nuts about. He learns of Damrong Baker’s ghastly demise from a snuff film sent to him anonymously. His quest to find the killer is complicated by obstacles thrown up by, among others, Sonchai’s boss, Col. Vikorn. He doesn’t want any HiSo types prosecuted, and he instructs Sonchai, “Don’t spoil a great case with too much perfectionism.” Instead, Vikorn would rather that Sonchai helped him supplement his booming illegal methamphetamine business by expanding into video pornography.

Burdett’s big finish this time features a deus-ex-machina rescue that’s less plausible than his ghostly visitations and their shrewd psycho-cultural underpinnings. What never falter are Sonchai’s captivating, sometimes teasing voice — he often addresses the reader as “farang” (the Thai word for Westerner) and Burdett’s affectionate take on everything visiting farangs find fascinatingly upside down and backward in Thailand.

There’s a memorable comic scene in which an Australian with a big beer gut, who is marrying into a Thai family, sits quietly eating oysters while the women in the family enjoy a good laugh over the bride’s description of the couple’s necessarily acrobatic sex life. Talk of sex is open and jolly among the Thais in the Sonchai books, while an exchange between Col. Vikorn and a wealthy banker over a possible bribe is camouflaged as a discussion about the value of an antique vase. In Burdett’s always amazing Thailand, euphemism is reserved for the sinister.

Richard Lipez

Pages: 1 2 3