Bangkok 8: A Royal Thai Detective Novel (1) (Sonchai Jitpleecheep)

Electrifying, darkly comic, razor-edged--a thriller unlike any other.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 in the sacred and the profane--son of a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. and a Thai bar girl whose subsequent international clientele contributed richly to Sonchai's sophistication.Now, his partner dead, Sonchai is doubly compelled to find the murderer, to maneuver through the world he knows all to well--illicit drugs, prostitution, infinite corruption--and into a realm he has never before encountered: the moneyed underbelly of the city, where desire rules and the human body is no less custom-designable than a raw hunk of jade. And where Sonchai tracks the killer--and a predator of an even more sinister variety.Thick with the authentic--and hallucinogenic--atmosphere of Bangkok, crowded with astonishing characters, uniquely smart and skeptical, literary and wildly readable, Bangkok 8 is one of a kind.From the Hardcover edition. 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 moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep--a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.--is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner's murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai's quest for vengeance takes him into a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined. From the Trade Paperback edition 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).