Bangkok 8 -- Take a walk on the wild side

This book first wandered across my field of vision at a recent library instruction conference when we created a small virtual library for an interactive experience with books. I assumed someone chose to include the book because it was obviously about the sex trade and--well--the conference was in Las Vegas. But THEN, Nancy Pearl reviewed it and that really got my attention, so I decided to see for myself (she is one of my library heroines but we don't always see eye to eye on books, see for example the blog on Dingley Falls). It's really an engrossing read, not least of all because you get the nitty gritty on how a M2F sex change operation is performed. It is, at heart, a murder mystery--but one infused with, I trust, the culture of Thailand, or, more specifically, Bangkok. What we farang westerners would call magical thinking abounds as the protagonist is able to see people's past lives as explanations for their current behaviors and relationships. Sonchai Jitpleecheep is the son of a former prostitute and an unknown American soldier, conceived during our involvement in VietNam. He lives in a self-described hovel less than 10 feet square with a hole in the floor for a toilet. He is also a detective with the Royal Thai Police Force, but has made the mistake of becoming known as an arhat, an honest cop. This is an incredibly twisty plot that starts with the gruesome and imaginative murder (by snake bites) of a Marine who was way more than he seemed. There are unfortunate consequences of the murder that make Sonchai take a very personal interest in finding the killer. Icing on the cake-- Sonchai's frequent musings on his Buddhist beliefs and his explanations of Thai cultural essence, often told with biting humor. A couple of my favorite examples: when he is trying to explain the significance of his mother cursing the man who stabbed him, Sonchai concludes, "You will not make a good death is a power curse; it makes Fuck you sound like a benediction." At another point he relays a news report on the radio that says ghouls, the spirits of the dead, are causing traffic accidents at a busy intersection. Sonchai wryly notes that his people, in death as in life, "love to party."