Vulture Peak [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

For me, John Burdett's Bangkok novels are a guilty pleasure comparable to being a chocoholic. Amazon reviewers of Vulture Peak seem to me to be very judicious in their assessments of the weaknesses and off-putting, over-the-top, bizarre, lubricious and ghoulish elements of the plot and style. But... Just one more caramel-loaded candy and I promise to stop.

So, while admitting the flaws, I review why you may want to try out Burdett if you are unfamiliar with his sagas. They are narrated by Sonchai, a young Buddhist cop in Bangkok with a mix of attitude, fatalism and cynicism as he navigates through a swamp of vice and sado-anything violence. He is the son of a good natured and respectable prostitute now turned bar/brothel owner and sort of married to an ex-prostitute who is finishing off her Phd thesis. His transgender deputy is awaiting the operation and his boss is a police chief who runs most of the drug trade and protection rackets in a rivalry with a General who has his own clandestine operations -- and troops.

In Vulture Peak, the emerging racket is kidnapping for body part transfers. The shady figures behind the business and the murders by disembowelment plus face removal that X is assigned to solve include twin sisters, ladies of a decidedly psychotic nature that would attract the admiration of Hannibal Lechter. There's a Shanghai cop who is bipolar to the nth degree of manic and a cagey Hong Kong cop plus Dorothy and Om and Manu, none of whom would be described as normal.

What makes the books work for me is that they never fall into campiness, caricature or cartoon exaggeration. They have a sense of realism, no matter how unreal the situation. Burdett writes with irony and elegance, downplaying the violence in a sort of Buddhist fatalism; everything is calm and lucidly laid out. I personally dislike horror novels and films but somehow the gruesome nature of the story is laconically kept at a distance. It is all definitely weird but in a surprisingly reasonable way/

In his personal interviews and the stories themselves, Burdett makes clear his respect and sympathy for the many prostitutes, bar girls and madams who swirl through the scene. They have made a sensible choice about how to make a living, don't view sex as sin but a routine, and in many instances are primarily committed to helping out their families. In the same way, the transgenders - often cops - are ordinary in their aspirations and just going along with the flow. The bad people are bad mainly because of greed but the "deviants" are ordinary and going with the flows of Bangkok life, some of them good, some bad and varying in their eccentricities. Burdett is quite skilled in getting you to take them as they are and he draws you into their frame of reference. He can be funny and perceptively sharp, especially in knocking the Westerners who are obsessed with sex and sin, in a rush, looking for meaning and purpose, and judgmental.

It's all fun and shrewd. The plotting gets convincingly convoluted. The style is workmanlike with frequent neat observations. It's candy for the mind, but well above average in quality of story, characterization and pacing. It's out of the ordinary in every way and captures and keeps the reader's attention (well, mine, anyway). I recommend it as well worth trying - you may find it surprisingly tasty.

This series has a surreal setting and an intriguing detective. Sonchai Jitpleechee is honest and pure of heart, a Thai Buddhist on the Path. At the same time, he smokes dope when reality gets overwhelming, and he loves (but does not hire) prostitutes (his mother was one). His wife is an ex-prostitute turned academic. And his boss is thoroughly corrupt, a master criminal who makes use of Sonchai's drive to fight crime.

I read some earlier Sonchai mysteries, but drifted away from them recently. The author's graphic scenes and bitter ironies are not for the faint of heart, of which I may be one.

Vulture Peak is full of body parts. While the beautiful women and boys of Thailand are selling their bodies to tourists in every bar, a fabulous mansion on a hill overlooking Phuket becomes the scene of a gruesome triple-homicide involving missing body parts. Sonchai's boss, Colonel Vikam, puts him on the case - which quickly expands to an all-out campaign against international organ trafficking.

I liked the author's flashes of sympathy for the outré behavior of transvestites and their psychological struggles surrounding "the operation."

I liked the scenes involved cynical American consultants crafting a political campaign for Colonel Vikam, who is suddenly and inexplicably running for mayor of Bangkok.

And I have to admit John Burdett has a gift for creating bizarre characters: the sadistic twin female organ traders, the crazed ex-soldier with a missing face, the bipolar cop bent on martyrdom...

Burdett has invented his own unique mix of warped humor, brutal satire, manic plotting and unorthodox social and spiritual lessons. The roller coaster ride left me queasy. But hardcore fans of detective Sonchai know the drill, and should enjoy Vulture Peak.

I have read John Burdett's series set in Thailand and featuring a very different policeman, Sonchai Jitplecheep. He is half Thai, half GI. His mother is a former prostitute and bar owner, and he is supervised by a very corrupt Colonel, Vikorn. The last novel dealt with large scale drug traffic, and expanded the settings to Tibet and China. In addition to Timothy Halloran, I would recommend the similar books by Christopher Moore. Burdett strains the reader's credulity, with identical twin sociopathic but beautiful Chinese women who enjoy unusual uses for body parts and high stakes gambling. But, unlike some reviewers,I enjoyed the occasional digressions into a rather elevated discussion of the significance of prostitution in an economy which is funded by farang (foreign) middle aged men who engage in various sexual practices not approved in their home land. Sonchai is a devout Buddhist who struggles with his demons, but is a persistent and sympathetic observer. If you like mysteries with an exotic setting, this may be your cup of tea. It is not necessary to have read the prior books in the series but the last one, Godfather of Katmandu, gives a different slant on Tibet.