Bangkok Tattoo

I was so intrigued by the worlds revealed in John Burdett's other two books (see Bangkok 8 and The Last Six Million Seconds) that I came back for more. This is the sequel to Bangkok 8 and continues with protagonist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police Force, who is now a partner (with his mother and his commanding officer, Commander Vikorn) in a brothel that caters to older foreigners--they can get Viagra and dope for just a small extra fee. Predictably, the book opens with a grisly murder--this time of an American CIA agent--but I won't try to convey the elaborate plot except to note that the prime suspect is one of the brothel's star employees and a soul mate of Sonchai's. He is sure they shared a former life, so he is determined to find out if she in fact committed the murder --which she neither denies nor admits--and if so, why. What keeps me engaged are the occasional insertions of a uniquely non-American (sometimes Thai/ Buddhist, or in this book occasionally Muslim) perspective on the events and characters. Some examples:

• In speaking to Sonchai about the dead agent, a Muslim imam who knew him says, "The Western mind is wild and unpredictable, devoid of center. You Buddhists have your nirvana, we have Allah, even true Christians have a path of sorts, beset though it is by childish miracles. But what of these products of Capitalism like Mr. Turner? Human souls locked out from God forever. One hears their screams of anguish even while they drop their bombs, these young people who have no idea who they are. They think they are killing others. They are killing themsleves" (p. 53).
  
• Later, through his son, the imam also says, "...without a war [speaking of the 'war on terrorism'], America would descend into total confusion and would have to turn itself into a police state to survive, because its people no longer have any internal structure. Americans can never be defeated by war. It is peace they find intolderable" (p.73).
  
• In her diary, Chanya, the prostitute and suspected murderer, notes during her time in America that "Even bag people walk with purpose and energy and with total certainty about the direction they want to go in...They don't know where they're going, they just know how to look as if they do. They walk like that because they're scared. Some demon is whipping them from inside." (p.173).
  
• Another CIA agent who is investigating the murder, says in a drunken entreaty to Sonchai, "Freedom? What kind of dumb all-purpose Band-Aid is that? ...what are we selling exactly? Money is the state religion of the West. We pray to it every waking minute--and we're gonna make damned sure every last human on earth gets down on their knees with us . All our wars are wars of religion" (p.202).
  
• Finally, Sonchai himself, listening to one of his favorite radio talk shows, begins to rant about how far we are from enlightenment, "You see dear reader, you are a ramshackle collection of coincidences held together by a desperate and irrational clinging, there is no center at all...In a bumper sticker: The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go" (p.214).

This one took a little more determination to keep going, but it was worth the effort.