The Sun Post - John Hood (Bangkok Haunts)
A Higher Pulp
John Burdett Takes the Low Road to Enlightenment
Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now.
If that line doesn’t get your giddy-up in a go-go, you’re in the wrong place. Actually, like the fetching young victim who starts our story (more on her later), you’re in the wrong place at just the right time. It’s gonna be dark; it’s gonna be dirty; it’s gonna be downright dangerous. And, trust me, you wouldn’t want it any other way.
Not that you have a choice. This ain’t Burger King, baby, this is Bangkok, specifically Bangkok Haunts (Knopf $24.95), and here the way is paved by a pulpist named John Burdett, one of those whip-smart wiseasses who’s gonna give the crooked to you straight, whether you ordered it or not.
And give it he does, with delicious relentlessness. Sure, as crime stories go, Haunts is honed from the usual narrative suspects — a dame, a murder, a villain and a protagonist determined to avenge. Unlike most crime stories, though, this yarn is anything but prototypical, and in no respects is it more atypical than through its hero, Sonchai Jitpleecheep.