![]() ![]() The principals include a beautiful black woman whose relationship to Bradley isn’t initially clear Sonchai’s pragmatic mother Nong, a retired “bar girl” interested in the commercial potential of Viagra his crafty boss Colonel Vikorn, who’s a little too cozy with CIA ops in Thailand and abroad jade mogul (and connoisseur of Bangkok’s thriving sex industry) Sylvester Warren and a fast-talking transsexual with a sure survival instinct. ![]() Sonchai’s investigation, done in tandem with American authorities, and abetted and complicated by gorgeous FBI agent Kimberley Jones, takes us through the meanest and seamiest streets of District 8 (Sonchai’s turf), and introduces us to a beguiling gallery of sinister personages portrayed with black-comic brio. Burdett kickstarts the tale with a dynamite opening sequence: the discovery of black US Marine William Bradley’s dead body in his Mercedes, filled with seemingly drug-crazed cobras and a giant python wrapped amorously around the torso of the deceased. ![]() ![]() This tangled tale of drugs, sex, and political corruption is narrated by Krung Tep (i.e., Bangkok) detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a “half-caste Third World cop who speaks English and French,” has a criminal past, and still does the local drug of choice (“yaa baa”). East and West coexist in a murderous symbiosis in this exotic thriller by British author (and Hong Kong resident) Burdett ( The Last Six Million Seconds, 1997, etc.). ![]()
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