Sonchai Jitpleecheep, pot-smoking Bangkok cop, devout Buddhist and occasional crime abettor, begins his fourth adventure in one of the city?s most popular red light districts, where a wealthy American filmmaker has been murdered in the style of the Hannibal Lecter books on his shelf. Continue Reading…

Page 69 begins: “The victim?s name was Frank Charles. He owned a luxury condominium on Soi 8.”

We are at the crime scene where a gigantic American lays disemboweled on a flop house bed with the top of his skull removed. The speaker is a colleague of Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the narrator: a Eurasian who spends much of his professional life bridging the gap between Thai and farang (Western) culture.
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John Burdett opens The Godfather of Kathmandu, his fourth book featuring Bangkok police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, with his conflicted Buddhist hero viewing the disemboweled and trepanned body of Hollywood director Frank Charles through a detached marijuana haze. Continue Reading…

�Readers of what might be termed John Burdett’s Bangkok Trilogy – “Bangkok 8,” “Bangkok Tattoo” and “Bangkok Haunts” – know that he is adept at getting under the skin of the eponymous Thai capital, where he makes his home. Continue Reading…

Jitpleecheep Rides Again

Readers who are looking for some good news to start the New Year need look no further than Kathmandu. You’ll find it proves to be a lot closer than you expected, since the newest novel by John Burdett, ‘The Godfather of Kathmandu’ (Alfred A. Knopf / Random House ; January 12, 2010 ; $25.95) should be available quite soon. Continue Reading…