John Burdett – författare

From the author of the bestselling Bangkok Eight, John Burdett, an exotic, intoxicating new novel featuring Sonchai Jitpleecheep, Thai Buddhist detective extraordinaire.Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is summoned to investigate the most shocking murder of his career. Solving it could mean a promotion but, still reeling from a personal tragedy, Sonchai is more interested in an exiled Tibetan lama living in Kathmandu.But there are obstacles in Sonchai''s path to enlightenment. Police Colonel Vikorn and Army General Zinna are at war again for control over Bangkok''s network of illegal enterprises - and the Tibetan lama has forty million dollars'' worth of heroin for sale.With his life in increasing danger, Sonchai is put to the extreme test in John Burdett''s most inventive, darkly comic and wickedly entertaining novel yet.

From the author of the bestselling, Bangkok Eight, John Burdett, an exotic, intoxicating new novel featuring Sonchai Jitpleecheep, Thai Buddhist detective extraodinaire.Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep has seen just about everything on his beat in Bangkok''s crime-riddled District 8. But the video he''s been sent anonymously is something else: it''s a snuff movie, and the person who dies is Damrong, the beautiful woman he once loved and whom he still dreams about. And there''s more: slayings turn the ensuing investigation into a murder inquiry, and Sonchai into an obsessed and haunted man. Sonchai''s inquiries follow a dizzying route from his own apartment, where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his fantasies deliver him up to Damrong; through the office of his corrupt and worldly wise boss, Captain Vikorn; to the backstreets of Phnom Penh, where street gangs are only the most visible threats; to the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men''s club in Bangkok, whose members will do anything to protect their identities while exploring their darkest fantasies. Caught in a multi-dimensional web of intrigue and deception, Sonchai confronts the terrifying consequences of a lesson he should have learned long ago. In Bangkok nothing is as it seems...

Nobody knows Bangkok like Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, and there is no one quite like Sonchai: a police officer who has kept his Buddhist soul intact-more or less-despite the fact that his job shoves him face-to-face with some of the most vile and outrageous crimes and criminals in Bangkok. But for his newest assignment, everything he knows about his city-and himself-will be a mere starting point.

He''s put in charge of the highest-profile criminal case in Thailand-an attempt to bring an end to trafficking in human organs. He sets in motion a massive sting operation and stays at its center, traveling to Phuket, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai, and Monte Carlo. He draws in a host of unwitting players that includes an aging rock star wearing out his second liver and the mysterious, diabolical, albeit gorgeous co-queenpins of the international body-parts trade: the Chinese twins known as the Vultures. And yet, it''s closer to home that Sonchai will discover things getting really dicey: rumors will reach him suggesting that his ex-prostitute wife, Chanya, is having an affair. Will Sonchai be enlightened enough-forget Buddha, think jealous husband-to cope with his very own compromised and compromising world?

All will be revealed here, in John Burdett''s most mordantly funny, propulsive, fiendishly entertaining novel yet.

Praise for John Burdett and his Bangkok novels:

''Cracking East meets West thriller introducing a half-Thai, half-American cop whose Buddhist beliefs are as important as his forensic skills. Terrific'' Observer.

''A fantastic new thriller with an avenging Buddhist cop as its central character'' Mail on Sunday.

''Read this book, savour the language - it''s the last and most compelling word in thrillers'' James Ellroy.

''Impeccably researched, this is sometimes poetic, often exotic, and totally hardcore'' Daily Mirror.

"Burdett''s fever-dream mysteries, set in Bangkok, recast the police procedural as psychedelic peep show." The New Yorker.

"Burdett is purely and simply a wonderful writer." The Washington Post Book World.

In his latest case, Sonchai is paired with young, female inspector Krom. Like him, she''s an outsider on the police force, but she is socially savyy and a technological prodigy. In the midst of a typhoon they witness a deadly demonstration of super-human strength from a man who is seemingly controlled by a CIA operative. Could the Americans really have figured out a way to create some sort of super-soldier who is both physically and psychologically enhanced? Are they testing it, or him, on Thai soil? And why is everyone, from the Bangkok police to the international community, so eager to turn a blind eye? The case will take Sonchai to a hidden Cambodian jungle compound for aging American vets where he will discover exactly how far a government will go to protect its very worst secrets - both past and present. It is also a case that will shake Sonchai''s world to its very foundation and may finally force him to confront his lost father.