Is it technically adultery when the woman involved is a powerful, malevolent spirit who bends all men to her will? No, it’s a win-win situation, in which readers get their dose of tortured, it-can’t-end-well-for-them sex scenes, and Sonchai gets to come out smelling like a rose. But even if we have to deal with the now-wholesome Chanya (pregnant, no less) until Mr. Burdett can figure out how to fix that narrative faux pas and render his hero footloose again, there are plenty of unreformed characters to distract. …my deepest affections are reserved for Vikorn, with his larcenous schemes and his smirks “of undiluted triumphalism,” and Lek, the transsexual in process. Even though “the more he takes of the estrogen, the less defense he possesses against idle flattery,” Lek remains a dedicated assistant. Sauntering up to his boss’s desk one afternoon, he “has something of the weary professional about him,” despite long hair, a hint of rouge on his cheeks and a “yaa dum aromatherapy inhaler” stuck in one nostril.

” ‘I’ve been chasing leads all day,’ he explains, switching nostrils, ‘and it’s hot and stinky.’ “There are fine points to be quibbled over if one wants to be a bore but, really, what more can you ask from summer reading than passages such as this? “Bangkok Haunts” is a book to be gobbled up at top speed, preferably while wearing sunglasses and drinking through a twisty straw. The inhaler is optional.

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