Bangkok 8 [Poche]

When a U.S. Marine is killed in Bangkok, the task of finding the murderer falls to Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, seemingly the only member of the Royal Thai Police Force whose idea of justice precludes his fellow officers' customary system of bribery. This assignment's especially important to the devout detective for during the investigation of the murder scene, the methamphetamine-stoked snakes that bit the marine also kill Sonchai's police partner, best friend, and Buddhist soul-mate Pichai. Sonchai's pursuit of revenge will team him with a sexually frustrated FBI agent and leave them at the mercy of yaa-baa-fueled motorcycle-taxi drivers as they hurtle through neon-lit Bangkok and into the labyrinthine and deadly machinations of the international jade and drug trades in search of the killer.

As Sonchai himself notes at one point, "This isn't a whodunit, is it?" And, no, it isn't, but author John Burdett (A Personal History of Thirst, The Last Six Million Seconds) infuses the plot with enough suspense, detail, and dry Asian insight to keep readers rapt as the story careens about the bars and brothels of Thailand's flesh trade, through its cut-rate plastic surgery parlors, and ends in a climax with a fittingly Buddhist twist. Bangkok 8 is highly recommended for readers in the mood for Thai. --Benjamin Reese --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

Part mystery, part thriller and part exploration of Thai attitudes toward sex, this accomplished first novel by Burdett (A Personal History of Thirst; The Last Six Million Seconds) delivers both entertainment and depth. The narrator, a Buddhist cop named Sonchai Jitplecheep, finds himself plunged into a dangerous investigation of the deaths by snakebite of his partner Pichai Apiradee and U.S. Embassy Sgt. William Bradley. Sonchai is an unusual character on several levels, from the mysteries of his violent past to his conversations with the ghost of Pichai. His ambiguous feelings toward Kimberley Jones, an American FBI agent brought in to work the case, reflect his upbringing as the child of a Thai mother and an unknown American father. Above all else, however, Sonchai's Buddhism permeates the text. An encounter with an embassy official, for example, leads to this unexpected reverie: "[She] is blithely unaware that she once accompanied me across a courtyard of startlingly similar dimensions, thousands of years ago." As Sonchai's investigation brings him closer to Bradley's companion, a woman known as Fatima, and the rich American jade dealer Sylvester Warren, his quest for revenge becomes muddied by the strangeness of his discoveries. The mix of detective work, Bangkok street life, the Thai sex trade and drug smuggling forms a powerful melange of images and insight. Despite an anti-climactic last chapter, the novel's structure is solid. Sonchai's fatalism, wry humor and dogged determination-his ability to be both vulnerable and strong-make him one of the more memorable characters in recent novel-length fiction. Readers expecting a traditional mystery structure would be advised to look elsewhere, but those who want something new will find Burdett's novel an intriguing, fresh take on noir.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

Sonchai, the only honest cop in Bangkok, vows to avenge themurder of his partner and soul mate. From that resolve our hero, adevout Buddhist and son of a prostitute, delves into the seamy streetsof Thailand's decadent, exotic capital. He partners with a female FBIagent, and the two develop a mutual sexual attraction-repulsion.Tough-cop "noir" clichés abound, cleverly and arrestingly"Asianized" by the author, a Brit who has lived in Bangkok and knowsit intimately. B.D. Wong made a sensation in his Broadway debut inM. BUTTERFLY. In this excellent abridgment, he demonstrates hisexpertise with characters, accents, and narrative twists. Yet, somehowhe fails to deliver the text's thick atmosphere and sense of danger.Y.R. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Bangkok cop Sonchai Jitpleecheep is the only honest officer in his district, yet he reveres his gangster police colonel. He stays out of the city's sex trade but indulges in meth. He's the son of a crafty whore and an American GI, but his mother's hand-picked clients gave him a classical education. While his personality puzzles Westerners--Sonchai also sees the past incarnations of people he meets--these contradictory traits are quite acceptable to his fellow Thais. The more readers get to know Sonchai, the more appealing he'll become. A Buddhist, he nonetheless promises to kill those responsible for the death of his partner, Pichai. Because Pichai was bitten by a cobra while tracking a Marine suspected of jade smuggling, Sonchai's vow piques the interest of U.S. officials. Once they team him with a feisty FBI agent, the investigation takes a series of wonderfully bizarre turns. It's Chinatown, and everything's jake. Burdett's few missteps--including a key revelation handled too matter-of-factly and a woefully farcical coda--can't trip up an otherwise surefooted and satisfying tale. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

Le district numéro 8 de Bangkok présente un sacré bestiaire humain : épaves crackées, ex-Khmers rouges dealers d'amphés, transsexuels et autres filles de joie... Un folklore dont l'inspecteur Sonchaï Jitpleecheep n'a aucun mal à maîtriser les codes. Ce métis, fruit de l'amour hasardeux entre un G.I. américain et une fille des bars thaïe, a d'ailleurs choisi une méthode d'investigation bien particulière : c'est Bouddha qui l'inspire et le guide dans ses enquêtes. Et même si son goût prononcé pour les paradis artificiels et l'amour tarifé lui font prendre quelques libertés avec l'ascétisme karmique, celui qu'on surnomme le " flic moine " met un point d'honneur à combattre le crime et la corruption qui gangrènent la mégalopole thaïlandaise. Un polar à l'atmosphère urbaine étouffante sous la plume d'un John Burdett au meilleur de sa forme.

"A stunning thriller! Bangkok 8 is suspense at its best: a masterfully written tale set in a world that's perfectly evoked and populated with compelling, flesh-and-blood characters."
--Jeffery Deaver, author of The Vanished Man and The Stone Monkey

"Bangkok 8 is one of the most startling and provocative mysteries that I've read in years. The characters are marvelously unique, the setting is intoxicating and the plot unwinds in dark illusory strands, reminiscent of Gorky Park. Once I started, I didn't want to put it down."
--Carl Hiaasen

?The wildest ride in modern crime novel exoticum. A novel so steeped in milieu that it feels as if you?ve blasted to mars in the grip of a demon who won?t let you go. Read this book, savor the language?it?s the last?and the most compelling word in thrillers.?
--James Ellroy --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

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. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

"A stunning thriller! Bangkok 8 is suspense at its best: a masterfully written tale set in a world that's perfectly evoked and populated with compelling, flesh-and-blood characters."
--Jeffery Deaver, author of The Vanished Man and The Stone Monkey

"Bangkok 8 is one of the most startling and provocative mysteries that I've read in years. The characters are marvelously unique, the setting is intoxicating and the plot unwinds in dark illusory strands, reminiscent of Gorky Park. Once I started, I didn't want to put it down."
--Carl Hiaasen

“The wildest ride in modern crime novel exoticum. A novel so steeped in milieu that it feels as if you’ve blasted to mars in the grip of a demon who won’t let you go. Read this book, savor the language–it’s the last–and the most compelling word in thrillers.”
--James Ellroy --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

Avocat de formation, John Burdett a travaillé à Hong Kong dans un cabinet juridique britannique avant de devenir écrivain. Grand bourlingueur, il a vécu successivement en France et en Espagne avant de s'installer de nouveau en Asie. John Burdett est l'auteur de quatre romans dont Bangkok 8. Bangkok Tattoo et Bangkok Psycho (Presses de la Cité. 2009).

John Burdett is a nonpracticing lawyer who worked in Hong Kong for a British firm until he found his true vocation as a writer. Since then, he has lived in France and Spain and is now back in Hong Kong. He is the author of A Personal History of Thirst and The Last Six Million Seconds. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .