Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkoks District 8, but nothing like the snuff film hes just been sent anonymously. Furiously fast-paced and laced through with an erotic ghost story that gives a new dark twist to the life of our hero, Bangkok Haunts more than lives up to the smart and darkly funny originality of its predecessors.
Funny, weird, horrible, terrific
This writer was a wonderful discovery for me. In terms of both the story and the characters, "original" hardly says enough. Warning: there's a mountain of graphic sex, and plenty of truly obscene violence. It's all part of the picture, but it might be too much for some. I found parts of it hard to read, though worth the discomfort. The humor is maybe the best part -- weird but hilarious. I'm torn whether this is a 4 or a 5 only because the writer is still a bit amateurish. He makes grammatical errors and non-compute phrases (like tears coming out of the retina), has some mild plot holes (why would having sex be blackmailable?) and falls in love with some words and overuses them ("frisson," for example). But in tribute to a fabulous story, I'll leave it a 5.
AUDIO:
The reader is a good actor but is wrong for the part. He's the ultimate occidental/Anglo-Saxon. Also, he sounds smug and pompous rather than practical and self-effacing as the protagonist is written. All his statements are lobbed at you like pronouncements. And though he seems to have studied how to pronounce words like Supatra and Chanya, he didn't bother with others, like Nippon, or sake (sacky! ugh! yuck!).
Buy Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett At The Lowest Price!
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