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Bangkok 8 (Sonchai Jitpleecheep #1)

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 4,438 ratings · 684 reviews

A thriller with attitude to spare, Bangkok 8 is a sexy, razor-edged, often darkly hilarious novel set in one of the world’s most exotic cities.

Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within momen...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published July 13th 2004 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2003)

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Mar 15, 2009 RandomAnthony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bangkok 8 reads like the bastard offspring of a yaa baa-fueled brainstorming session between James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, and a Buddhist monk gathered around a manual typewriter in a South Asian bar with slowly rotating ceiling fans in the late afternoon, about four hours before the impossibly beautiful whores (who may or may not be women) come out for karaoke and transaction.

Also, any book that features a male Thai Buddhist cop drunk and pole dancing to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” within...more

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Sep 07, 2007 Naeem rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: political-economy-novels

The novel Platform got me interested in the cultural political economy of sexual tourism, sexual encounter, and the sex service industry.

Then I heard about John Burdett's 4 novels (3 are out, he is writing the 4th one) based in Bangkok. Each is a detective story. The main character is what I call a "mixo" -- thai mother, african-american father. His mother is a retried sex worker, and he is a non-currupt detective who following the 8 fold path of Buddhism. The setting and plot are set within th...more

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Jul 22, 2007 Brendan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We’re all exasperated with the police at one time or another. But in Bangkok, the pique is simply more acute.

“I used to buy whole trays of Rolex watches for police officers,” the city’s top sex tycoon complained to The New York Times recently. “I used to carry cash in black plastic bags for them. But they are still harassing me.”

In John Burdett’s thriller Bangkok 8, the half-Thai, half-American, all-Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep -- as dry and charming as a good martini -- explains the...more We’re all exasperated with the police at one time or another. But in Bangkok, the pique is simply more acute.

“I used to buy whole trays of Rolex watches for police officers,” the city’s top sex tycoon complained to The New York Times recently. “I used to carry cash in black plastic bags for them. But they are still harassing me.”

In John Burdett’s thriller Bangkok 8, the half-Thai, half-American, all-Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep -- as dry and charming as a good martini -- explains the mores of this place the locals call Krung Thep:

“You must understand, the Royal Thai Police Force has always been way ahead of its time. It’s run like a modern industry, every cop is a profit center.”

Jitpleecheep’s good-natured defense of the corruption that surrounds his city’s thriving drug and sex trades is for the benefit of FBI agent Kimberley Jones (whom he likes to refer to as “the FBI,” as in “The FBI has a good figure . . .”).
Gun-loving and sexually frustrated, Jones is in Bangkok to 1) assist in Jitpleecheep’s investigation into the murder of an American marine whose car suddenly and mysteriously fills with venomous snakes; 2) provide an unlikely romantic interest for the hyper-meditative Jitplecheep; and 3) play the dumb Westerner, to whom Jitpleecheep can expound on the Asian way of doing things.

It’s a set-up that could go one of two ways: cheap or deep. Burdett threatens the former with sometimes-cartoonish cultural exaggerations -- Jones parading around in a T-shirt that reads, “So many men, so little time,” Jitpleecheep musing, “On the way to my own hovel I meditate on my penis.”
What redeems the periodic nonsense is the fact that Jitpleecheep is such a fascinating character. Although he has taken a religious pledge to refuse bribes, he is bent on revenging his beloved partner, Pichai, who was killed by a cobra at the scene of the crime. When his detective work takes him deep into Bangkok’s red light district, he considers anew his Thai mother’s participation in the oldest profession, the consequences of which turn out to be unexpectedly fortuitous. And he pushes her to finally reveal the identity of his father.

Burdett’s novel conjures a wonderfully complex and humane Bangkok, a Third World city as overwhelmed by its own corruption as by its many visitors seeking drugs and sex. But what makes Bangkok 8 such a wonderful read is Jitpleecheep’s nearly pitch-perfect narration. He is at once hilarious, poignant and Buddha-obsessed, a man not simply caught between two cultural worlds, but two metaphysical ones, as well:

“In meditation there is a point where the world literally collapses, providing a glimpse of the reality which lies behind. I am experiencing the collapse but not the salvation. The city falls and rebuilds itself over and over while I wait in the heat.”(less)

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Nov 26, 2007 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed-from-library

With a bang (or, rather, a venomous bite) John Burdett introduces us to the spiritual, yet corrupt, world of Bangkok policing, with the murder-by-drug-crazed-cobra of an expat African-American Army office in Bangkok. The attack also kills a police officer, and his partner/spiritual brother, seeks his killer. This reveals a colorful world of expat decadence, business-oriented prostitutes, corrupt cops, spicy food, Buddhism, hospitals specializing in transsexual operations, the jade trade, and som...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Tara rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who are really into thailand

i liked this book, but wasn't ultimately totally satisfied with it. i usually like to finish a fluff-type book like this with a feeling like "ahhhhhh that was good," but at the end of this one i just kinda felt like "meh."

i really liked reading about thailand/bangkok, given my obsession with the region, so that was cool. but the characters didn't really have a lot of depth (and were sometimes pretty implausible), and i wanted the plot to have more twists and turns and be more exciting.

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Mar 11, 2013 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: 1

Shelves: mystery-asia, police

Excellent introduction to John Burdett's Sonchaii Jitpleecheep mysteries. Set in a very exotic locale of Bangkok Thailand with so many interesting things going on; great characters, I loved the relationship betw Sonchaii and the FBI agent. I kept wanting them to get together. One of the strangest murders I've ever read; so much interplay between cultures, the American, Thai, Buddhism, etc. Fascinating story. Loved it very much. I will read more.

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Jan 11, 2008 Osho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: southeast-asia, 2008

This is the first of three currently available mysteries whose protagonist is Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a half-white, Buddhist Thai detective with a bar girl mother. Most of the action takes place in Bangkok.

What's most enjoyable about this mystery is how the narrator sees and describes the world from a cultural perspective that is likely to be very different from the Western reader's construct. This is highlighted by his interactions with the FBI agent assigned to work with him. Their assumptions f...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was not what I expected. I thought it would be a thriller, or a detective novel. Rather, it is an insightful look into the sex & crime culture in Bangkok Thailand. The author writes (through the voice of the narrator) "This isn't a whodunit, is it? More like a whatwillshedonext." That's a perfect description of this book. You figure out the details of the crime as you read, but more importantly, you understand WHY things happen. And the WHY is in the context of the deep, philosophi...more

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Jan 05, 2008 Yulia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: criminal-intent

dare i say, after nearly proclaiming book rape for having to read "bangkok haunts," i went easily and pleasantly through this, the first in the bangkok series. it's lighter on the preachiness and has fewer embarrassingly didactic monologues, and i was nicely surprised that, in this novel, unlike "bangkok haunts," burdett actually justifies the social and criminal threat in the information held by the blackmailer(s) against the foreign big wig. so yes, if you're up for a thriller bundled in a cul...more

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Mar 31, 2008 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sarah by: Friends of the Library sale

I am so thoroughly amazed at this book. I had read interesting reviews about it, so when I saw this next to the next book (Bangkok Tattoo) at the Friends of the Library sale, I jumped on it.

Allow me to preface by saying that I love good crime noir book- one where the heroes are as flawed as some of the bad guys and things are gritty and the subject matter is dark. I also adore reading about other cultures where you are so enmeshed that it feels a little like culture shock when you turn the page...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Matt Carrell rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found Bangkok 8 in a bookshop at Suvarnabhumi Airport as I was waiting for a flight back to London. Unfortunately I did not start reading it straight away. That’s why I still had about an hour’s reading to do when we were only 30 minutes short of Heathrow Airport. For the first time in my life, I was praying for my flight to go into a holding pattern, I could not wait to find out what happened. It was one of those books you start to read more slowly as you get to the end, you just don’t want i...more

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Mar 04, 2011 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, thailand

Police detective Sonchai and his partner Pichai are following a black American ex-marine. They catch up to him just after he has been killed by an assortment of drug crazed snakes--one of which also kills Pichai. Thus begins Thai detective Sonchai's first adventure as a virtuous Buddhist cop who must uncover the truth and seek justice. This is complicated by his view of Karma and his visions into past lives, which both explains and complicates the present. Sonchai teams us with a female investig...more

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May 05, 2013 Bogdan rated it 5 of 5 stars

такой детектив очень давно хотелось прочитать. не потому, что он слишком уж похож на криминальный сюжет, который мог бы выйти из-под пера восточного, в частности – тайского – писателя, а именно потому, что из-за избыточной «похожести» понимаешь, что к тайскому авторству он не имеет ни малейшего отношения. потому что слишком полно он исполняет запрос читателя и соответствует требованию содержать в книге то, что так хочется именно там прочитать.

если завязкой в романе является смерть американского...more такой детектив очень давно хотелось прочитать. не потому, что он слишком уж похож на криминальный сюжет, который мог бы выйти из-под пера восточного, в частности – тайского – писателя, а именно потому, что из-за избыточной «похожести» понимаешь, что к тайскому авторству он не имеет ни малейшего отношения. потому что слишком полно он исполняет запрос читателя и соответствует требованию содержать в книге то, что так хочется именно там прочитать.

если завязкой в романе является смерть американского военнослужащего в автомобиле, где его голову пытается проглотить питон, а сам он весь опутан ядовитыми змеями, которых предварительно накачали наркотиками (самое часто повторяемое в тексте слово – яа-баа, именно тот самый наркотик), ожидать спокойного развития событий как-то не представляется возможным. точно так же – как и развития по знакомым американско-западным образцам. особенно, если расследование пытается вести (соответствуя местным особенностям национального делопроизводства) тайский же полицейский детектив с нежным именем сончай джитпличип – благослови бог ласковые тайские имена с количеством слогов, неумолимо стремящимся к бесконечности! пусть даже помогать-мешать детективу пытается американка, приехавшая в помощь, потому как дело касается американского военнослужащего. все равно, вокруг – бангкок, восьмой район (хотя события выходят далеко за его пределы), поэтому ничего похожего на европейское или американское расследование не выйдет. как не будет даже ничего приблизительно похожего на «детектива с» и «детектива б»: гонконг – тот же восток, но он другой, и события разворачиваются совершенно по другим принципам (хотя – на каких-то страницах меня просто преследовало воспоминание о начале первой части «чункинского экспресса» - этом невероятно поэтичном введении в восточный мультикультурализм).

яа-баа – где до этого можно было слышать/читать это название? как ни странно, у западного же писателя: жан-кристоф гранже, «черная линия». у него фигурирует этот сносящий крышу наркотик, пускай не становится настолько всеобемлющим и всепримиряющим средством – настолько, насколько он фигурирует в этом романе наравне с медитацией, в которую время от времени погружается главный герой (когда внутренним взором не прозревает предыдущие воплощения окружающих его людей). яа-баа становится определенным «клеем», который соединяет все то, что ты знаешь, но хочешь прочитать/услышать от рассказчика, одевшего на себя шкуру 32-летнего бангкокского детектива, попавшего в полицию после того, как практически попался на соучастии в убийстве, отсиживался в монастыре, а после чего принял обет бедности, безбрачия, чистоты помыслов и стремления в конце-концов выйти на путь к будде, и поэтому оценивающем всё случающееся с позиции отстраненности, не лишенной, правда, большой доли иронии. буддизм – вообще очень ироничная штука..

кроме наркотиков и буддизма есть еще несколько топосов, вокруг которых кружит роман, наполняя читателя знанием местных реалий: это кухня, шовинизм и проституция. есть еду, в которой вред, микробы, неприятный вкус не отгорожены огненной стеной перца чили – это не по-тайски. поэтому когда герой раздумывает в возможных путях его исподволь-вестернизации, он не забывает и о перце чили, перестать есть который было бы сродни утрате истинного пути. шовинизм (на который, как ни странно, впервые обратил внимание безмерно тупой фильм «гаруда») предстает некоей абсолютной константой, без которой невозможно вообразить себе тайское общество. полицейский-полукровка сончай сталкивается с такой же полукровкой-красавицей фатимой, оба – в определенной степени изгои именно из-за наличия в крови примесей других национальностей, у сончая – белой, у фатимы – черной. ну уж а проституция – это в романе просто безбрежное море, в котором тонут все остальные события – юесконечные клубы, бары, массажные, мамасан, папасан, дискотеки, пиво, вагинальное метание дротиков, «пеня» которую платят а то, чтобы «девочку танцевать»: такое впечатление, что кроме этого нет никакой другой инфраструктуры в обществе. мать сончая, нонг – тоже бывшая проститутка, работавшая не только в тайланде, но и покатавшаяся со своими кавалерами-на-час по всему миру, прихватив тогда еще маленького сончая, который нахватался знаний обо всем, в первую очередь о языках.

как будто бы мало и этого – автор насыщает страницы романа разнообразной криминальной малиной и клюквой местного пошиба: это торговля наркотиками и самогоном, особенности поступления живого товара в бангкокские и паттайские бордели, поставки нефрита китайцами из бирмы, лаосские преступники, кхмерские наемники, лаосский опиум, дальневосточные российские проститутки и их «урки». сказать, что здесь – всякой твари по паре – будет большим преуменьшением. роман воплощает собой то, чем является для западного более-менее знающего субъекта «золотой треугольник», мир жёлтой тьмы, коварства, распутства и при этом незамутненной чистоты, которая предполагает наличие молельного дома, окруженного разноцветными украшенными лингамами рядом с самой продвинутой современной гостиницей. наркотики, выпивка, девочки, мототакси, сплошной угар, тайцы, малайцы, лаосцы, кхмеры, китайцы чиу-чоу, народность керен, европейцы, американцы, вавилонское столпотворение, нескончаемое пиршество плоти со своими традициями, привычками, легкостью и обещанием рая. не это ли так хочет прочитать читатель, поверхностно знакомый с этими «вратами рая» и желающий в них входить снова и снова. продажные полицейские, руководящиеся своей особенной непонятной западному уму моралью, посещение храма, адская тюрьма, не менее адские трущобы, окружающие закрытые кондоминиумы – роман полностью погружает в атмосферу, в которой на страницах книги можно найти всё – включая даже едкую иронию по поводу украинского посольства и стойкости и выносливости сибирячек на рынке местных интернациональных удовольствий.

такого «радостного» и приятного во всех отношениях чтения у меня уже давно не было!(less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

There’s a lot to like about this book: an engaging lead character, a tricky and well paced plot, some cross-cultural moral ambiguities, and a superb backdrop.

Sergeant William Bradley of the U.S. Marine Corp is murdered in his car in plain view in Bangkok, Thailand. The witnesses, however, are moonshine-producing squatters who aren’t exactly forthcoming with their memories. The murder weapons—several cobras and a particularly large python—are also an enigma: how did they get in the car and decide...more There’s a lot to like about this book: an engaging lead character, a tricky and well paced plot, some cross-cultural moral ambiguities, and a superb backdrop.

Sergeant William Bradley of the U.S. Marine Corp is murdered in his car in plain view in Bangkok, Thailand. The witnesses, however, are moonshine-producing squatters who aren’t exactly forthcoming with their memories. The murder weapons—several cobras and a particularly large python—are also an enigma: how did they get in the car and decide to attack their victim with such unanimity and purpose?

Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep and his partner and best friend Pichai Apiradee have been trailing Bradley. They’re the first on the scene. It falls to the detectives to kill the rampaging snakes, and Pichai is fatally bitten in the encounter. Pichai and Sonchai have been in and out of trouble together since childhood, and Sonchai vows to revenge the death of his “soul brother.”

Sonchai is a great lead character. In Burdett’s telling, he’s about the only honest cop in the Royal Thai Police Department. He’s a loyal Buddhist and isn’t reluctant at all to use religious principles like reincarnation and karma in his detective work. Sonchai is also the child of a Bangkok prostitute, now living in retirement, who may be somewhat unwilling to give up on her old life.

The FBI provide Sonchai some assistance in the person of Kimberly Jones. Her partnership with the Thai detective provides Burdett an opportunity to explore East-West differences. It’s interesting at first, but once the novelty wears off, Jones isn’t really a very intriguing character. In Burdett’s hands, she mostly just a plot device.

As Sonchai and Jones track their suspects around Bangkok, the city really comes alive. True, we’re mostly exposed to the seemier side of town, but it’s easy to be entranced by Burdett’s loving description of the city and its people. Few of his settings would be on my vacation itinerary, but he does a great job wrapping words around Bangkok’s vitality.

My major quarrel with the book is with the homiletic stance Burdett takes toward Western sexuality. To hear him tell it, the East has all the fun (and all the sexual wisdom), and Westerners are all uptight morons. Contrast his sexual sermons with his much more subtle and effective description of Buddhist spirituality.

In all, however, this is a superb police thriller: exotic, daring, engaging, and full of life.(less)

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Oct 12, 2012 Joseph Halpern rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I think of Bangkok 8 I think of all the great literary novels set in foreign lands that have been criticised of overt racism and colonial indifference to smaller foreigh nations and their inhabitants. I think of all the movies and books deemed as classics by Western culture but are met with disgust and cries of racial insensitivity. Two examples that come to mind are Heart of Darkness and Bruce Lee's reaction to Breakfast at Tiffany's in the bio-pic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. I think of t...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries, international

Having stumbled on this series in my local library with Book 4 (The Godfather of Kathmandu), I became addicted. I put a request into the library for the remaining 4, and voila, they called. Now I'm racing thru them all, which is not hard. Burdett is a natural in the most fundamental tools of the genre storyteller, plot, atmosphere, character. We love these crazy Thai cops, whores, corrupt officials, and take pleasure in the dissing of the enemies, most of whom are from the United States or China...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Georgette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Several months after my multi-sport vacation to Thailand this book came out. I was riveted from the first page. It is a real thriller. This is a brief synopsis that I will admit to "lifting" from Amazon.com:
"A thriller with attitude to spare, Bangkok 8 is a sexy, razor-edged, often darkly hilarious novel set in one of the world’s most exotic cities.

Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Amon...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was your classic 3.5 star book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it had a few minor issues. Namely, one of the main characters - the beautiful FBI agent Kimberly Jones - was as 2D as it gets, and you could practically smell the popcorn and see the big screen her character was intended for. Also, for a thriller, it had a solid mystery but surprisingly few action scenes, and the climax was more plot than action. But the plot was interesting, the pace lively, and the main character and many of...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Darrell Reimer rated it 5 of 5 stars

The older I get, the more prone I am to borrowing from the library before I put down money for a book. I was especially hesitant to pick up John Burdett's Bangkok 8, fearing it would be the lurid and grotty sort of “Neon Noir” that British male authors seem to revel in: a cascade of depravity concluding with collapse. (James Ellroy, who writes the sort of novels I most dislike, calls this book, "The last, most compelling word in thrillers.") But the premise held appeal: a murder to solve, anothe...more The older I get, the more prone I am to borrowing from the library before I put down money for a book. I was especially hesitant to pick up John Burdett's Bangkok 8, fearing it would be the lurid and grotty sort of “Neon Noir” that British male authors seem to revel in: a cascade of depravity concluding with collapse. (James Ellroy, who writes the sort of novels I most dislike, calls this book, "The last, most compelling word in thrillers.") But the premise held appeal: a murder to solve, another to avenge, both leading deep inside the clandestine world of the illicit jade trade. Lo and behold, the local library had a copy. The price was right!

Around the 200 page mark is a scene that led me to three crucial realizations. It takes place in the back parlour of a bar owned by a Russian pimp. It is a wide-ranging conversation involving the Russian, the book's detective narrator and his American partner, and several of the Russian's bar-girls, and it is fueled by vodka. Here's a snippet, early in the game:

“Every Thai cop apart from Sonchai is a world-class businessman. You simply can't beat them. If I'm not careful they hire the girls, then fine me the price of the the girl—for trafficking in women—less ten percent for my expenses. Not Sonchai,” says Iamskoy, about me. “He's an even worse businessman than me. That must be why I like him, he doesn't make me feel inferior.”

“I wondered,” I say, sipping more vodka.

“That and the fact that he's even more of a head case than me. You should have heard our last conversation. It was like Hindu science fiction. I guess he didn't enjoy it as much as I did, though, because he stayed away three years.”

“You passed out after insulting the Buddha.”

“I did? Why didn't you shoot me?”

“I didn't think you were alive.”

“Anyway, what did I say?”

“You said that Gautama Buddha was the greatest salesman in history.”

To Jones: “I was right. He was selling nothing.”

The group explores and debates the plasticity of identity — religious, national, cultural, individual, sexual, even gender — the various interlocutors monologing with greater passion as the scene builds. I was completely entranced, and realized: 1) I no longer cared if the narrator exacted his vow of vengeance, because I didn't want the book to end; 2) I hadn't read a scene of such compelling, plot-forwarding dialogue among a group of people since Dashiell Hammett or Robertson Davies, and 3) Hold on a sec: Robertson Davies?!

Yes, indeedy. Burdett is adept at playing playing with mystery, in every sense of the word, wreaking a subtle mischief on reader expectations. The chapters are short and easily consumed, but the sense of immersion they provide is exceedingly deep. I took frequent stops, to consider how a once-alien point-of-view had just been ingested as clear common sense. Burdett accomplishes that most valuable of novelistic achievements: making the foreign seem not just explicable, but familiar.

And now I must return this copy of the book to the library, while I wait for my copy to arrive in the mail — so that I can reread this fabulous book with a keener eye, and sharpened pencil.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Sep 29, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, crime-noir

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett is a bookI devoured in a couple of days. It is a compelling mystery with excellent use of local culture and customs to add color to the novel. It is literally overflowing with lurid and accurate details of Bangkok. He also manages to convey a lot about Buddhism. I liked how he used a radio call in talk show with a sociologist host to make observations and analysis about Thai culture and societal problems, rather than giving long speeches to characters. I like the fact t...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Sheila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cultural, current_issues, mystery, suspense, spiritual

East meets West, everyday violence meets a touch of the paranormal (or at least the obscure), and good solid detective work is underscored with Buddhism, drugs and alcohol to create a fascinating feast in John Burdett’s Bangkok 8.

My husband really enjoyed this novel and recommended I should read it—a good recommendation, since I enjoyed it. My husband likes things logical, and the mystery at the heart of this novel is very logically resolved, though neither of us managed to guess the complete re...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Sean Cronin rated it 4 of 5 stars

The police detective and brothel owner (with his mother) Sanchai Jitpleecheep hates to accept money from the foreign sex tourists who use his country as whorehouse. But Sanchai says of his country, Thailand and his city, Bangkok, "Krung Thep, means City of Angles, but we are happy to call it Bangkok if it helps to separate a farang from his money." Farang is a derisive term for a westerner.
The book is told with this sarcastic, and self-loathing, tone. It's refreshing in a hard-boiled mystery nov...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bangkok 8, by John Burdett, takes the reader deep into of Bangkok, along with narrator-cop Sonjai Jitpleecheep. Some have compared the book, one of a series, to Elmore Leonard. I think of it as being closer to Tony Hillerman's forays into the Navajo culture of the Southwestern United States. We are thrust into a culture familiar in so many ways, yet far removed from anything most of us have ever known. In fact, I had to ask myself halfway through the novel if anyone in Thailand led a "normal" li...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was an awful lot better than expected, and I say that thinking that the last hundred pages, the last third or so, were pretty duff.... This is the semi-famous millenial crime thriller set in Bangkok, with a Buddhist detective who's also the son of a retired prostitute. The set-up, played like that, sounds kind of gimmicky, but what works in this book is how bred into the series that lifestyle, or maybe way of thinking, is integrated into the novel. There are passages that really are ju...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A flight from Indonesia to Bangkok via Singapore is probably about the perfect time and place to pick up the murder mystery. Lucky me. The story is set in the streets of present day Bangkok. It offers the reader a compelling and stark view of this city of over 10 million inhabitants from an insider's point of view. The story line seemed less important than the confrontation between the western mind and the Buddhist Asian mind. Burrdett does a grand job examining western precepts from the perspec...more

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Oct 23, 2009 Amber Lazelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Shocking and amazing.

From the first three pages (the entirety of the first chapter) this book had me hooked.

A man named Sonchai is in the car with his police officer partner and childhood friend (they were drug dealers together when they were children, and his friend's mother listened in the next room as Sonchai's mother had her virginity literally purchansed by a tourist when she was thirteen) get a call to investigate a car parked by the river. There is an African American man sitting in the...more

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Apr 09, 2009 LJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary_post_1945, male_author, mystery, mysterybookclub, police_procedural, thailand

First Sentence: The African American marine in the gray Mercedes will soon die of bites from Naja siamensis, but we don’t know that yet, Pichai and I (the future is impenetrable, says the Buddha).

Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is the son of a Thai retired prostitute and a white man, whose identity his mother won’t divulge. Sonchai and Pichai, his partner, best friend and soul-mate, have been assigned to follow a U.S. Marine sergeant. In tailing the sergeant, they lose him for a bit, but then see...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Booknblues rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love to read for the journey and the adventure of it and Bangkok 8 by John Burdett certainly provides an exciting adventure to, you guessed it, Bangkok. This is the first of a mystery series about Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep and it is a great start, with an interesting main character, a great setting and a tantalizing mystery.

Sonchai is a mixed race Thai raised by his Thai mother who was a prostitute and an unknown American father. After having some trouble in his youth he was sent...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-series-bk-1, the-butler-did-it, x-2003s, reviewed

Asian fiction has become somewhat glorified in recent years. Personally, I blame the rise of manga and rags-to-riches tales like Memoirs of a Geisha that cloak your more typical bodice-ripper plots in shrouds of Oriental mystique far better suited to the closed-minded 19th century mindset than the present day. My God, when I found out that they had cast Chinese ladies to play the Geisha ... well, let's just say that I still bear the marks from my computer keyboard on my face, I faceboarded with...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Evangeline rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book gave me some insight into Thailand's sex industry and helped me understand a bit better, at an emotional level, why some girls choose to go into prostitution. I thought the short exposition on gender was quite interesting too, and anything presented in work of fiction is generally way more accessible (except for Sophie's World) than something from an academic article. But I didn't find it very thrilling, perhaps because the main character, Sonchai, was never really in any danger at any...more

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About John Burdett

John Burdett is a novelist and former lawyer. He was born in England and worked in Hong Kong; he now lives in Thailand and France.

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Quotes from Bangkok 8

“Don't ask me when I first mastered the obvious.” — 7 people liked it

“I don't want enlightenment, I want him. Sorry Buddha, I loved him more than you.” — 5 people liked it

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Bangkok 8 (Sonchai Jitpleecheep #1)

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