Summary and Reviews of Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett

Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett

Bangkok Tattoo

by John Burdett
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  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • First Published:
  • May 1, 2005, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2006, 320 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

From the author of Bangkok 8, a head-spinning new novel that puts us back in the company of the inimitable Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep.

From the author of the best seller Bangkok 8, a head-spinning new novel that puts us back in the company of the inimitable Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep.

We return to District 8—the underbelly of Bangkok's underworld—where a dramatically mutilated dead body is found. It's bad: he was CIA. It gets worse: the murderer appears to be Chanya—a tough, sweet working girl who's the highest earner at The Old Man's Club, jointly owned by Sonchai's mother and his boss, Police Colonel Vikorn.

Alerted by Sonchai, Vikorn quickly concocts a cover-up that involves Al Qaeda and Thailand's porous southern border where, since 9/11, the CIA has been an obviously covert presence. But the truth will be harder to come by, and it will require Sonchai to find an ever-more-delicate balance between his ambition and his Buddhism, while running the gamut of Bangkok's drug dealers, prostitutes, bad cops, worse military, and the pitfalls of his own melting heart (Chanya!)—most of which he can handle. But even Sonchai is not prepared for what he discovers at the end of his investigation.

Piercingly smart and funny, densely atmospheric, and—as we already know to expect from John Burdett—packing a surprise at every turn, Bangkok Tattoo is sensational.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

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The strength of the series comes not only from the setting but Burdett's chief protagonist - Sonchai, probably the only policeman in town who doesn't take bribes, is a Buddhist whose investigative methods include dream messages from a former (now dead) partner and glimpses into his suspects' lives. To understand Sonchai and the country he works in we have to recalibrate our moral compass and put away our Westernized belief that we can to a greater or lesser extent control fate and instead accept the more philosophical Buddhist outlook - a religion that brings new meaning to the expression "better luck next time"...continued

Full Review (270 words)

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Beyond the Book



At the age of 50 John Burdett gave up his life as a partner in a premier law firm with a luxury apartment on "The Peak" in Hong Kong, sold his worldly possessions and set out to try his hand at what he'd wanted to do all along - write books.  He is now about 55 and the author of four books including the two Bangkok thrillers starring Sonchai Jitpleecheep.  He was born in North London, his father was a policeman, his mother a seamstress - and writing was obviously in his blood from an early age - when he was about 8 his teacher asked him to write a few sentences about himself, he responded with a 20-page document! 

He read literature at the University of Warwick, on graduating in 1973 he considered trying...

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Read-Alikes

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