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Review
"Burdett's fever-dream mysteries recast the police procedural as psychedelic peep show."--"The New Yorker"
"John Burdett is writing the most exciting set of crime novels in the world."--"The Oregonian"
""Godfather "is written with Burdett's characteristic zest, serving up pungent slices of Bangkok's bazaars and waterways."--"The Boston Globe"
"A Thai tale of corruption, mayhem and intrigue."--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"It is the mordant wit of his exhaustively observant 'monk manque' hero that fuels this blissful and dexterous book."--"Houston Chronicle"
" "
"This is a novel brimming with observations and arguments, with absurdity and jokes . . . Witty, learned, and wild."--"The Washington Post Book World"
"The spiciest yet of Burdett's exotic dishes."--"The Times "(London)
"Burdett's latest mystery is delightfully ambiguous, like life itself."--"St. Louis Post-Dispatch"
"Block out several hours to read it in one sitting.p
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
An exotic, intoxicating new novel featuring Sonchai Jitpleecheep, Thai Buddhist detective extraordinaire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The fourth book featuring Sonchai, the half Thai Buddhist detective based in Bangkok. Burdett keeps true to form intertwining Buddhist culture to the general Farang (Western) reader as he interprets Thai and Tibetan culture and superstition together with a plot with a gruesome (silence of the lambs) murder and a huge drugs deal. The turf war and politics between the Thai army and Police is quite amusing, if it isn't all fiction, although the Tibetan Mantra's seemed a little overdone with the Lama not seeming a realistic character. In summary, a fair read, but I still prefer the first two in the series.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For most thriller writers, foreign locations are just an excuse for showing exotic customs and local colour, even if the themes, and for the most part the characters,are really western with a lick of paint. John Burdett's books, ever since Bangkok 8, have always stood apart. He has always attempted to describe Thai society from the inside, in its own terms, and with crimes both committed and solved according to Thai norms. His detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, may be half-western, but his mind-set, a mix of Buddhism, mysticism, folk-religion and the customs of an old, proud and complex society, makes him not only a unique detective but an unnerving one. As the books have progressed, the western dimension has become less and less significant to the point where, in Burdett's new book, we find ourselves increasingly falling into Jitpleecheep's way of thinking, and begin seeing westerners, as he does, as bizarre, unhappy, often pathetic beings. Burdett has been criticised for this, as for the incessant invocation of the "farang" who is presumed to be reading the book. But this rather misses the point. Jitpleecheep is not Burdett, any more than Maigret is Simenon, and Jitpleecheep is a complex, flawed character who makes mistakes and misjudgements just like the rest of us. In the Godfather of Kathmandu, moreover, our hero is reeling from personal tragedy and wracked by self-doubt about his ambiguous role, half policeman, half factotum for his criminal boss, the satanic Colonel Vikorn. He can be forgiven a few moments of despair and exasperation. The book isn't perfect - the explanation of the central murder seems unduly complex, for example - but it has the integrity which comes from relentlessly doing its own thing. This is hardcore Burdett, Thai society from the inside, with ghosts, demons, reincarnation, and the workings of karma, finance, crime and a complex social system hopelessly entwined with each other. It makes no concessions to the reader who expects western plot-devices or motivations, and it's all the better for it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Yet again I was pleasantly surprised to receive my used copy of a book, and to have it arrive in mint condition and with absolute speed!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Original Style
Book 4 in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series
The writer's speciality is to take his readers on an exotic and mysterious jaunt exploring the back streets of Bangkok where... Read more
The writer's speciality is to take his readers on an exotic and mysterious jaunt exploring the back streets of Bangkok where... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Toni Osborne
One of Burdett's best
THE GODFATHER OF KATHMANDU is the 4th crime novel with Bangkok detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. John Burdett takes us to the foot of the Himalayas to discover this strange man, a... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Marc Deschryvere
Wicked and funny...
This book is a great read if you like the somewhat unconventional approach of our beloved detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep and want to get a feel of Bangkok and Kathmandu's many... Read more
Published 14 months ago by eribel
Perhaps not quite "pretentious twaddle", though not his best work!
I agree with many of the negative comments and that this is a very average novel that results in a major let down relative to how good his previous 3 were. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Joseph Kohout Jr.
Best so far
I most definitely don't agree with the other reviews here. Yes, the other Bangkok novels were excellent but I feel this raises the bar further; Burdett obviously knows his stuff... Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by John Gimblett
Pretentious Twaddle
The success of Burdett's previous 'Bangkok' books seems to have gone to his head. The first three were primarily Thai cop stories with an underlay of spiritualism and Buddhism, and... Read more
Published on 14 May 2010 by R. G. Mabbitt
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