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 (Click for larger image) 
Burdett, John.
BANGKOK HAUNTS.
New York City, NY:
Alfred A. Knopf,
2007.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
305 pages.
As New/As New.
The author's third "Bangkok" novel. One of the most important literary events of the year 2007. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. The third installment that began with John Burdett's breakthrough novel, "Bangkok 8", and was followed by "Bangkok Tattoo", the new novel can be read and enjoyed by itself. It is regarded by critics as the most complex and best of the three novels in the Series thus far. "Burdett's first two Sonchai Jitplecheep novels, starring the Bangkok police detective (and owner of a brothel in the city's District 8), heralded the arrival of a distinctive new voice in crime fiction. His third effort goes much further, building on the exquisite moral ambiguity implicit in both the setting and its hero, with tighter plotting and an even more potent mix of underworld seaminess, startling tenderness, and Buddhist wisdom. Burdett's Bangkok may be the most vibrant landscape in current crime fiction, and Sonchai, an improbable mix of West and East, The Private Eye-meets-The-Buddhist, is certainly the genre's most intriguing sleuth" (Alex Ott). Anyone who has actually spent some time in Bangkok will admire Burdett's meticulous, accurate, and loving evocation of it. The story itself is not completely new, but is horrific nonetheless: Sonchai discovers a "snuff" film, which ends the life of a whore, whose ability to hold men in her sexual grip Sonchai knows about personally because he was one of them. In a nod to the classic Thai novel, where the living and the dead are equally important and vivid characters, the dead whore, Damrong, appears and haunts him in his dreams. Compelled to find the killer and free himself from the victim, Sonchai follows the trail left by the film. To get to the bottom of things, he must confront the most powerful man in Bangkok, a move that Sonchai's boss, the hopelessly corrupt and impeccably well-mannered Colonel Vikorn, prevents. The answer comes eventually, and at great cost to everyone, hero and villain, alike. "Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now" (Sonchai/John Burdett on the snuff film). A "must-have" title for John Burdett collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black fountain pen on the title page by John Burdett. This title will become as collectible as its predecessors. This is one of very few signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition still available online and has no flaws, a pristine beauty. A scarce signed copy thus. One of the finest living writers of the thriller/mystery genre. A flawless copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JOHN BURDETT TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0307263185. $70.00 |
