Las Vegas is the expression, in glitter and concrete, of America’s brittle
and mutating id. This is not the argument of Charles Bock’s exceptional
Beautiful Children, so much as the fact from which he explores the survival
strategies - usually doomed - of the citizen-mutants themselves. (more…)

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.

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BANGKOK, Oct. 24 — As John Burdett ambles down a street packed with girlie bars, he passes two women in skimpy outfits waving their hands excitedly and calling out, “John! John!”
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As John Burdett ambles down a street packed with girly bars he passes two women in skimpy outfits waving their hands excitedly and calling out, “John! John!” (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)