the intro to the wonderful characters that have a real soul.

Recommended by my Buddhist brother, this is an unusual story of police corruption in Thailand, with a thoughtful young policeman who tries to follow the Buddha's teachings in the midst of it as the main character.

I wish I had a better memory for the books I read - I recall that I loved all the Jitpleecheep mysteries but I can never recall details. I believe I confused this story with the 2nd book but either one is terrifically interesting. I am always intrigued by the combination of exotic locations and good mystery stories. I truly love reading about everyday life in Italy, Turkey, India and Thailand to name only a few. I find Thai sensibilities to be very interesting - the attitudes about sex, religion and politics are so extremely pragmatic and laissez-faire it makes me almost wish I lived there - except for the genocide, repression and horribly depressing dishonesty of the police & politicians. Anyway, Burdett writes with a very sly & dry humor about the whole situation and on top of that, he crafts a damned good mystery. One of my absolute favorite series.

I enjoyed this book. The sights and sounds of Bangkok are captured here nicely. Full review here: www.671books.net

John Burdett is that invaluable rarety, the expatriate who fully understands the people and political theater of the country he resides (Thailand in particular, the Asian area in general) along with grasping the BIG picture. His books just get better and better, and reading his last several will make you a believer too!

A good hard-boiled detective story, with lots of Bangkok atmosphere.

Raw and gritty. A unique spin on the detective genre.