The Godfather of Kathmandu

Bangkok has become as popular a city for noir fiction as Los Angeles, San Fracisco, NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc. This Burdett novel adds the element of religion and it's place in the protagonist's life as he investigates the grisly demise of a Hollywood director and becomes an unwilling consigliere in a battle between drug lords. The characters are deeply drawn and suitably quirky with a Shakespeare quoting police officer, a widow with a string of dead husbands, and a practitioner of Tantric sex. All this is told to us by the half breed Asian inspector addressing his readers as "farang".Quite highly recommended and a welcome addition to the Bangkok noir genre.

The Godfather of Kathmandu is a Tibetan Buddhist teaching for our time. Burdett's grasp of karma (so often simplified in Western interpretations) cuts to the bone. The murder mystery is only an under-pinning for the real story - the teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist lama and Freedom Fighter. Tsientsin. Those teachings are not the sugar-coated "If we heal ourselves, we heal the planet" easy sophistry of too many New Age and anglicized American Buddhist teachings. Instead, Tsientsin makes direct connections to how our species is destroying the earthly and more subtle connections upon which our spiritual pathwork is based. Tsientsin says, "You've no idea what a chore it is to develop a fetal psyche to the point where it an leave the womb of its culture of origin and begin to adapt to reality in one lifetime." If you care about this planet upon which we are absolutely dependent, Tsientsin and John Burdett are teachers of impeccable merit.

Below the whimsical and irreverent surface of John Burdett's new novel lies the very lifelike real world of a Thai cop. We have met his protagonist, Sonchai, before and if you liked him in his last incarnations, you will love him in this one. We see Sonchai at street level, bereaved over the death of his son, whacked out on pot, and trying to get his boss, Colonel Vikorn, to make this last huge heroin shipment the last one so his spirit can find peace. Sonchai sees himself as his boss' consigliore, the counterpart to Hagen in the Godfather films. But where Don Corleone stopped short of dealing drugs on principle, Colonel Vikorn sees it as a competitive necessity. For womenfolk we have the usual slutty detritus of Soi Nana, to which Burdett adds Rosie, the Australian mule. We might as well add Sonchai's transsexual partner, Lek, to the female dramatis personae. This latest version of the Sonchai chronicles veers slightly off the path of the earlier versions with the addition of the Tibetian freedom-fighting, drug kingpin Tietsin. Burdett's depiction of the seamy Thai underworld is spot on, as is his description of the street scene in Kathmandu. He has Norman Mailer's knack of understanding what's truly happening amidst the bustle of normal daily life, and he has Joseph Wambaugh's capacity to capture the humor amidst the violence. Some armchair Buddhists will find Burdett's irreverence grating, but the life of a cop in a freak show like Bangkok is not about achieving higher levels of understanding. It's about finding out who cut the fat Hollywood mogul's stomach open, leaving his guts spilling out over his hotel sheets. And you must be patient, Farang, to give the story time to unfold.

Having spent considerable time in Bangkok in 2008, I became an instant fan of John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep mysteries due to their intricate plots, fascinating characters, and references to buildings, landmarks, streets, and parks in Bangkok, Thailand. Reading his books makes me feel as though I'm back on the crowded, bustling streets that make up this city. In this book, Sonchai is involved in a murder concerning a famous Hollywood director who would come to Bangkok to partake in the the "delights" of the young women of the street. His death was somewhat patterned after the book The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lector) which happens to also be in possession. Sonchai Jitpleecheep is a complex indivdual who has a hard bitten approach to his job, but is also inside a gentle follower of Buddha. He is the half-caste son of a prostitute and an American GI. His boss on the force is Colonel Vikorn who is also a drug dealer. In Bangkok, where everything is for sale, Sonchai tracks the killer, navigates his promotion by Col. Vikorn to his consigliere (the Colonel has been studying the Godfather DVD's), and does what he needs to do with Colonel Vikorn's ongoing battle with General Zinna over who heads the illegal trades. If you have read the prior three books, Bangkok 8: A Novel, Bangkok Tattoo, and Bangkok Haunts, you will enjoy once again being immersed into the conflicted world of Sonchai Jitpleecheep as he tries to please Vikorn, his mother, his wife, his Buddhist leanings and do his job. If you haven't read the prior three books, this book is fine as a stand alone! Although this is first and foremost a mystery, if you have been to Bangkok or are planning to go, you will find the book rich with the details that separates an author who researches through books versus an author who actually has walked the walk. The book is laced heavily with humor as well as a realistic look at the culture. Reading them, as I said in the first paragraph, takes me back to the streets of Bangkok!

The novels written by John Burdett have been real pleasers as I have enjoyed his take on Bangkok and the corruption of the police. This novel goes further afield, starting in Nepal with Jitpleecheep meeting a Tibetan mystic. Not so interesting at the start, it kept getting better as I read. How Burdett comes up with the things he does is amazing, as his world is full of characters who go far beyond what a typical author might create. Be gives them depth, color, and mystique, and throws in an abundance of surprising twists. The world he creates is never boring.