Bangkok 8: A Novel
by John BurdettSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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Read in November, 2004
recommends it for:
people who like their mysteries located in exotic locales, Thailand, Bangkok, Southeast Asia.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Fascinating thriller from a fascinating city, December 20, 2004
Bangkok 8 is a fascinating thriller from a fascinating city that has surprisingly seldom been the setting for a thriller. In this book, Bangkok is more than just a setting. The author, although himself a farang, depicts the city vividly through the eyes of a Bangkok cop, Sonchai Jitpleecheep. The reader gets drawn into the dark and frantic, yet so sunny an...more
Fascinating thriller from a fascinating city, December 20, 2004
Bangkok 8 is a fascinating thriller from a fascinating city that has surprisingly seldom been the setting for a thriller. In this book, Bangkok is more than just a setting. The author, although himself a farang, depicts the city vividly through the eyes of a Bangkok cop, Sonchai Jitpleecheep. The reader gets drawn into the dark and frantic, yet so sunny an...more
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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 once complained to The New York Times. “I used to carry cash in black plastic bags for them. But they are still harassing me.”
In John Burdett’s new thriller Bangkok 8, the half-Thai, half-American, all-Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep—as dry and charming as a good marti...more
“I used to buy whole trays of Rolex watches for police officers,” the city’s top sex tycoon once complained to The New York Times. “I used to carry cash in black plastic bags for them. But they are still harassing me.”
In John Burdett’s new thriller Bangkok 8, the half-Thai, half-American, all-Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep—as dry and charming as a good marti...more
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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 plo...more
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 plo...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
fans of orientalist crime noir for the new millenium
I LOVED this book. Love, love, love, love, LOVED it. I guess I'd say it's closest to James Ellroy, transplanted to 21st century Bangkok instead of mid-twentieth-century Los Angeles. The detective here is a Thai Buddhist cop, a strong, stylish character who is outdone only by Burdett's spectacularly vivid depiction of this urban underworld. The book's got the style, seediness, and over-the-top sense of place of Chandler's best, but does this great recentering trick by choosing the slums and broth...more
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Read in June, 2003
Downloaded from Audible.com
Narrator: B.D. Wong
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2003
Length: 5 hours and 21 min.(abridged)
Publisher's Summary
Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake - a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras.
Two cops - the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist, equally versed...more
Narrator: B.D. Wong
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2003
Length: 5 hours and 21 min.(abridged)
Publisher's Summary
Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake - a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras.
Two cops - the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist, equally versed...more
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Read in August, 2008
For some reason, maybe because I cover crime now for a daily newspaper, I have taken a liking to crime fiction.
Before Burdett’s bestseller, I thoroughly enjoyed John Lindsay’s Dexter series. While Bangkok 8’s main character, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, can’t compare to Dexter, there’s an odd attraction to the detective, who seems to be the only cop in his country who isn’t involved in something illegal.
Throughout the novel, East clashes repeatedly with the West. Even Sonchai is the...more
Before Burdett’s bestseller, I thoroughly enjoyed John Lindsay’s Dexter series. While Bangkok 8’s main character, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, can’t compare to Dexter, there’s an odd attraction to the detective, who seems to be the only cop in his country who isn’t involved in something illegal.
Throughout the novel, East clashes repeatedly with the West. Even Sonchai is the...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Asian buffs who appreciate a wry outlook on life.
I am not usually a fan of detective stories, so I was a little bit skeptical when a professor of mine recommended this book to me before my trip to Southeast Asia. I did not get around to reading it until I was on the flight back from Bangkok, but I think that I appreciated the story all the more after falling in love with that city.
Burdett manages to both intermix and transcend genres. This work is at once a mystery, a thriller, a tongue-in-cheek British-influenced comedy, and a fantasy glued...more
Burdett manages to both intermix and transcend genres. This work is at once a mystery, a thriller, a tongue-in-cheek British-influenced comedy, and a fantasy glued...more
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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 inve...more
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Read in September, 2008
I liked Bangkok Eight a lot; after reading the three Bangkok books in reverse order, I recommend reading them in correct order. If you don't like this one, you can skip the rest. Author Burdett's acknowledgements/forward at the beginning of this book laid to rest some of my concerns about the foreigner writing as the Thai protagonist about controversial Asian topics, but as another character warns foreigners, don't fuck with Asia or you will suffer the consequences.
Once again on the back of ...more
Once again on the back of ...more
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Read in March, 2008
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...more
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Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
mystery enthusiasts, Thailand afficionados, Buddhist policemen
The subtitle for this book (or the series it's apparently the first episode of) could be "Buddhist Policeman Mystery Adventures." It's an amazingly well-written and highly entertaining portrait of the seamy side of Bangkok, told from the perspective of a cop whose devout Buddhist nature tends to put him at odds with his peers, because he won't succumb to the corruption that the rest of his department partakes in. It's full of beautiful language, bizarre characters, and interesting insi...more
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Read in January, 2007
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 thr...more
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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 assumptio...more
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 assumptio...more
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Read in March, 2008
I think I can honestly say this is the first book I read based completely on goodreads recommendations. So thanks to all of you who praised John Burdett's book. I gather this is the opener in what may become a series featuring Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. I certainly hope so.
No spoiler alert needed. I'm not giving anythng away. But I can tell you that this is as enjoyable for the characters Burdett creates and his portrait of the humid, jam-packed, sex-drenched, chili-flavored city o...more
No spoiler alert needed. I'm not giving anythng away. But I can tell you that this is as enjoyable for the characters Burdett creates and his portrait of the humid, jam-packed, sex-drenched, chili-flavored city o...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Angela by:
Minakshi
Buddhism, Prostitutes, and Transsexuals, oh my! This is a crime novel set in Bangkok with a very intriguing and engaging main character. I loved getting the flavor of another culture, and having visited there a couple of years ago, a better understanding of why the sex trade is one of their principal commodities. My only apprehension is that it was written by a Westerner and whether he truly understands Thai culture or not. The book started out as a 3 star for me but just got better and bett...more
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An interesting look at the underbelly of life in Bangkok. Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep was raised largely in brothels by his mother (a prostitute) and the women with whom she lived. Jitpleecheep was headed toward a life of crime until he studied under a Buddhist monk and, instead, became one of the few policemen in Bangkok who resists bribes and corruption on the city's force. After his partner and best friend is killed as they investigate the scene of a crime, Jitpleecheep takes the reader...more
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Read in November, 2007
wow! I thought this book was going to be your typical cheap airport thriller (I did pick it up at the Thailand airport), but it is so much more! The half-Thai, half-American, all-Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep - as dry and charming as a good martini - is at once hilarious, poignant and Buddha-obsessed.
Burdett's understanding of the interplay between the Western and Eastern worlds in Bangkok is excellent, as is his understanding of the place bribery and corruption have in Southeast ...more
Burdett's understanding of the interplay between the Western and Eastern worlds in Bangkok is excellent, as is his understanding of the place bribery and corruption have in Southeast ...more
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Read in March, 2008
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 t...more
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 t...more
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i got this book on a whim from the library, on CD.
the premise sounds really trashy, which was why i got it, but i was very pleasantly surprised by how lovely it was.
it's a murder mystery and crime novel, set in modern day bangkok, but the narrator and protagonist is what makes the difference between this being completely inane and something that sticks with you. sonchai, the narrator, is so soulful and so wonderful, it completely transforms the entire rest of the splashy, over-the-top story in...more
the premise sounds really trashy, which was why i got it, but i was very pleasantly surprised by how lovely it was.
it's a murder mystery and crime novel, set in modern day bangkok, but the narrator and protagonist is what makes the difference between this being completely inane and something that sticks with you. sonchai, the narrator, is so soulful and so wonderful, it completely transforms the entire rest of the splashy, over-the-top story in...more
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Read in February, 2008
After holding this in a stockpile for over a year I finally got around to reading it. It is every bit the potboiler that others have suggested, filled with twists, turns and tittilation. Unfortunately it seems to languish in the final area for longer than most "farangs" likely feel comfortable. For all the painting of Thailand as a wasteland of hedonism it was never my experience, and to simplify the whole culture to sex changes and prostitutes smacks of the same cultural insensitivity...more
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