Bangkok thriller is thoroughly literate and decadent

And now for something completely different. No, really different. In “Bangkok Haunts,” emerging thriller superstar John Burdett has crafted a mid-air collision between two often contradictory literary sensibilities: those who seek the experience of losing themselves in language and milieu as rich and intoxicating as a Bangkok opium den, and those who want a dark little stroll on the wild side. One reader has a picture of John Updike on her den wall, the other a movie poster from “91/2 Weeks.” It’s rare when the two sides meet, but the author of two previous thrillers set in Thailand (”Bangkok Tattoo,” and “Bangkok 8″) manages home runs from both sides of the plate with a story as compelling as it is unfathomable. One has only to learn the name of the novel’s hero to get the idea: Sonchai Jitpleecheep. Read that again and consider the sheer audacity of the possibilities. Sonchai is a crafty Bangkok police detective working the mean streets of the world’s armpit of decadence, assisted by his cross-dressing protg and comforted by his pregnant wife, who knows little of the bewitching and satanically diabolical hooker to whom he once, and to some extent forever, gave his heart.
The story opens with a pitch that smacks down any preconception of the boundaries of police fiction: “Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species.” Enough said, perhaps, but Burdett has plenty of surprises in the wings.

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