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Book Review of Bangkok Tattoo

Bangkok Tattoo
reviewed on + 289 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Sonchai Jitpleecheep returns from Bangkok 8 to narrate another thriller set in the title city, but this story has a considerably different feel. As before, it starts with a bang: the top sex worker in the Old Man's Club (jointly owned by his mother, boss, and himself) returns from a call bloodied and stoned on opium. The murdered client turns out to be CIA, and soon we find ourselves following Sonchai to Thailand's porous southern Muslim border as a part of a cover-up that involves drugs, al-Qaeda and American spies. We are reunited with a cast of colorful characters, but Sonchai functions as a slightly more jaded narrator to his farang audience, coordinating the telling of his beloved prostitute Chanya's story rather than bringing us along for the action. Nonetheless, a fun continuation with Sonchai whose title will eventually make sense.