Search - Bangkok Haunts (Sonchai Jitpleecheep Bk 3)

Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep returns in full form in this third installment of the Bangkok series. Five years after Bangkok 8, Sonchai calls FBI Special Agent Kimberley Jones into town when he receives a high quality snuff film featuring his one time lover, the bewitching prostitute Damrong whose spirit now plague him--and most of the male suspects for orchestrating her death on film. Unlike the Sonchai of Bangkok Tattoo, he is less disparaging of farangs (perhaps because he is working with 'the FBI' again?) but as deeply meditative as ever. His intuitive investigating again leads the reader through Bangkok's underbelly, this time with a focus on the porn industry, with some diversions into Cambodia and the supernatural realm. Burdett again delivers enough local character to make the supernatural angle possible to Western minds--along with enough insight to elevate Bangkok Haunts to a guilty pleasure above a mere Third World police procedural.

I liked this installment in the Bangkok series featuring detective Sonjai Jitpleecheep. I especially liked how Burdett, through Sonjai's narration, brings the reader into different worlds and cultures. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Godfather of Kathmandu.