Spicy, Saucy, Subtle, Seasoned: A Thai Meal of Mystery

With “Bangkok Haunts” John Burdett has now written three delicious detective yarns set in Bangkok’s underbelly, and the only thing that seems more far-fetched than some of his plots is that Hollywood has yet to put any of them on the screen. Granted, Sonchai Jitpleecheep doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue like, say, James Bond. But Mr. Burdett’s half-Thai, half-farang (Thai for Westerners) Buddhist cop hero is made for Hollywood. Bring on the wide-angle shots of Bangkok street chaos and the broody, shadowed silhouettes in houses of ill repute. And how about the Kalashnikov-toting monk, the pre-op transsexual assistant, the beautiful, demonic hooker and the grisly plot twist that will have you reconsidering those cuddly nature-show portrayals of elephants?

No self-respecting thriller novelist dispenses with the treasured clichés of the genre. It’s what the writer does with them that counts, and Mr. Burdett doles his out with a witty, idiosyncratic flair, indulging readers’ taste for the exotic, even as he lets them smile knowingly at others’ less-enlightened tastes. “Right, farang?” as Sonchai would say. Of course the vaunted state of wedded bliss doesn’t often figure into Mr. Burdett’s plot twists. It’s true Sonchai is now married to Chanya, the main prostitute in “Bangkok Tattoo,” a somewhat troubling development for the hero of a detective series, especially when a returning love interest turns him into an adulterer. But Mr. Burdett neatly sidesteps this potential character blemish through magical means.

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