Bangkok Haunts

By: John Burdett

Narrated by: Glen McCready

Critically acclaimed, nationally best-selling author John Burdett has earned starred reviews for the fast-paced action, snappy dialogue, and gritty realism of his thrilling tales starring Royal Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. In this vibrant and witty novel, devout Buddhist Sonchai relies on his karma to guide him through the seamy underbelly of Bangkok as he pieces together the scattered clues of a complex mystery.©2007 John Burdett (P)2007 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Superb....Burdett has created a haunting, powerful story that transcends genre." ( Publishers Weekly)

Cultural Mysticism

Very good. Cultural diverse murder mystery. Comical at times this is not a light read.

Alluring read with a dispelling ending

I really enjoyed this book and was compelled to continue to (listen) to more and more; effectively a page turner. The mystery was well paced and developed and the setting (Thailand) was very interesting, with cultural references. This murder mystery kept me going and at the end when the threads fell together it was gratifying... that is until the "climactic scene" at the end (I won't spoil) that completely too far and destroys the suspension of disbelief.

Other than that scene, it was a very entertaining ride.

Wrong narrator

Enjoy the character and story. The Brit narrator was inappropriate. The protagonist was half American not British!!

morbidly erotic, very well written.

I liked it. This is a very unusual book. It takes topics classically "taboo", and then integrates the erotic, murder-mystery, spiritual, and religious into a fascinating tale. Lots of history, and background of the Southeast Asian people, Bangkok, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia, their totally unconventional culture, language and norms. It's an engrosing saga; kept me tuned in to the end. (Although I do agree with the other comment on the unnecessary epilogue which didn't fit with the literary level of the work).

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!).