Bangkok Haunts

324 pages into this book I read this line: "Survival on earth (sic) is our true god, or we would have migrated to less challenging planets millennia ago." Actually Mr. Burdett, no. No 'we' wouldn't have. This sounds like a lofty sentiment, but really today in 2010, in 2006 or so when this book takes......more

John Burdett is not a great writer to be sure... but an engaging one. You feel he's pushing you through his roller coasters instead of taking you along for the ride. The dialogue is catastrophically didactic and screams for an Editor with steel toed shit-kicker to tattoo John's arse. The damn thing......more

So, this series at this point gets a bit iffy, because accumulating, there is a LOT of degradation of women in these books (this one's about a horrifying porn/snuff film, this plot). I was really drawn in, though, by the analysis and characters studies in this book, and the theme of karma and redemp......more

This, the third in the continuing saga of Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a half-Thai/half-American former-monk-turned-cop in Bangkok, shows both the strengths and weaknesses of this series in spades. This time, however, its flirtation with weirdness takes it right over the edge. The setup is deceptively strai......more

Probably the best in the series, certainly a much more linear story than the previous two and a more traditional mystery that unfolds in the typically satisfying ways of the genre. This one's also quite a bit more supernatural and mystical than the previous two. Although the whole series has flirted......more