John Burdett
The Last Six Million Seconds[edit] Set in Hong Kong in April and May 1997, just before the British turnover of the territory to mainland China, this novel deals with a horrific murder investigation. Three severed heads are found in a floating garbage bag on the maritime border between Hong Kong territory and China. Fortunately, they match the three DNA profiles found in a vat of minced human meat that had been abandoned in a warehouse. Political implications of the crime may complicate the turnover, and political pressure is brought both to halt the investigation and to hurry it. The detective, a half-Chinese half-Irish HK resident, finds himself threatened by both sides—all the more so when a WMD smuggling plot that threatens to force outright war between Britain and China is uncovered. The Sonchai Jitpleecheep Series[edit] A series of crime novels, mainly set in Bangkok; they consist of 5 books so far: Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts, The Godfather of Kathmandu and Vulture Peak. They centre on the philosophical Thai Buddhist detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, and his meditative internal dialogues. Sonchai is a "leuk krung" or half-caste. He is the son of a former "rented-wife" (a type of prostitute) and a "farang." His father, a U.S. military officer, he has never known. Sonchai has spent much of his childhood in Europe and USA, and has acquired cultural insights. A born "outsider," he is also seemingly unbribeable, which only increases his alienation from his colleagues. The novels involve Thailand's sex industry and the red-light districts of Bangkok. Sexual matters are part of the narrative, including the juxtaposition of often conflicting Thai and Western norms and mores. They have been widely praised for the surprising breadth and depth of understanding of a number of different cultures. Apart for the Anglo Saxon cultural traditions with which he was brought up, Burdett has shown considerable familiarity with Confucian, Buddhist, Latin and North African societies, due to his extensive travels. His fans stress the psychological insights which derive from a penetrating grasp of Buddhism, and the vivid portrayal of the urban paranoia of modern times, especially as expressed in the lives of young and not-so-young men and women compelled, often in spite of themselves, to seek identity in a frantic and numbingly materialistic world. They contain larger-than-life characters intertwined with a wry sense of humour, and bizarre crimes. The crimes include execution by the release of a container full of cobra snakes, into a car where the driver is forcibly prevented from escaping (Bangkok 8), the theft of valuable tattoos (and their associated human skin) off the backs' of murder victims (Bangkok Tattoo), and homicide related to the production of a snuff video (Bangkok Haunts). Juxtaposed is the investigative nonchalance and Buddhist acceptance of an "arhat" detective who can earnestly meditate even in a Bangkok traffic-jam. Many popular shamanistic superstitions that have carried over into Buddhism in Thailand are explored. Past lives (reincarnation) and hungry ghosts also contribute to the atmosphere and texture. For those who know or want to know Thailand, these books are an excellent primer due to the frequent commentary where the narrator helps the farang understand how farang ways are so far from human centered Asian ways. Also, the narrator's comments on the ways of women, Asian and Western, are particularly insightful. Burdett has expressed interest in moving beyond the crime/detective genre once his Bangkok series is complete.