Vulture Peak – John Burdett

Nobody knows Bangkok like Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, and there is no one quite like Sonchai: a police officer who has kept his Buddhist soul intact–more or less–despite the fact that his job shoves him face-to-face with some of the most vile and outrageous crimes and criminals in Bangkok. But for his newest assignment, everything he knows about his city–and himself–will be a mere starting point.

He’s put in charge of the highest-profile criminal case in Thailand–an attempt to bring an end to trafficking in human organs. He sets in motion a massive sting operation and stays at its center, traveling to Phuket, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai, and Monte Carlo. He draws in a host of unwitting players that includes an aging rock star wearing out his second liver and the mysterious, diabolical, albeit gorgeous co-queenpins of the international body-parts trade: the Chinese twins known as the Vultures. And yet, it’s closer to home that Sonchai will discover things getting really dicey: rumors will reach him suggesting that his ex-prostitute wife, Chanya, is having an affair. Will Sonchai be enlightened enough–forget Buddha, think jealous husband–to cope with his very own compromised and compromising world?

Book 5 of the series featuring the half Asian, half Caucasian Bangkok inspector Sonchai Jitpleecheep

The Godfather of Kathmandu – John Burdett

Sonchai Jitpleecheep–John Burdett’s inimitable Royal Thai Police detective with the hard-bitten demeanor and the Buddhist soul–is summoned to the most shocking and intriguing crime scene of his career. Solving the murder could mean a promotion, but Sonchai, reeling from a personal tragedy, is more interested in Tietsin, an exiled Tibetan lama based in Kathmandu who has become his guru.

There are, however, obstacles in Sonchai’s path to nirvana. Police Colonel Vikorn has just named Sonchai his consigliere (he’s been studying “The Godfather” on DVD): to troubleshoot, babysit, defuse, procure, reconnoiter–do whatever needs to be done in Vikorn’s ongoing battle with Army General Zinna for control of Bangkok’s network of illegal enterprises. And though Tietsin is enlightened and (eerily) charismatic, he also has forty million dollars’ worth of heroin for sale. If Sonchai truly wants to be an initiate into Tietsin’s “apocalyptic Buddhism,” he has to pull off a deal that will bring Vikorn and Zinna to the same side of the table. Further complicating the challenge is Tara: a Tantric practitioner who captivates Sonchai with her remarkable otherworldly techniques.

Here is Sonchai put to the extreme test–as a cop, as a Buddhist, as an impossibly earthbound man–in John Burdett’s most wildly inventive, darkly comic, and wickedly entertaining novel yet.

Book 4 of the series featuring the half Asian, half Caucasian Bangkok inspector Sonchai Jitpleecheep

The books in the series:

1. Book 1: Bangkok 8
2. Book 2: Bangkok Tattoo
3. Book 3: Bangkok Haunts
4. Book 4: The Godfather of Kathmandu
5. Book 5: Vulture Peak

Bangkok Haunts – John Burdett

Sonchai Jitpleecheep — the devout Buddhist Royal Thai Police detective who led us through the best sellers Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo — returns in this blistering new novel.

Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkok ‘ s District 8, but nothing like the video he ‘ s just been sent anonymously: Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now. He ‘ s watching a snuff film. And the person dying before his disbelieving eyes is Damrong — a woman he once loved obsessively and, now it becomes clear, endlessly. And there is something more: something at the end of the film that leaves Sonchai both figuratively and literally haunted.

While his investigation will lead him through the office of the ever-scheming police captain, Vikorn ( Don’t spoil a great case with too much perfectionism, he advises Sonchai); in and out of the influence of a perhaps psychotic wandering monk; and eventually into the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men’s club in Bangkok (whose members will do anything to protect their identities, and to explore their most secret fantasies), it also leads him to his own simple bedroom where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his dreams deliver him up to Damrong . . .

Ferociously smart and funny, 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 does exactly that from the first page to the last.

Book 3 of the series featuring the half Asian, half Caucasian Bangkok inspector Sonchai Jitpleecheep

The books in the series:

1. Book 1: Bangkok 8
2. Book 2: Bangkok Tattoo
3. Book 3: Bangkok Haunts
4. Book 4: The Godfather of Kathmandu
5. Book 5: Vulture Peak