In the first 10 pages, we’re introduced to the dity of Krung Thep (Bangkok), the narrator and his partner - the only 2 Bangkok cops not on the take - and we watch as the partner dies of a snakebite in the eye suffered when opening a barred-shut Mercedes containing a US Marine who is being swallowed by a python amidst a crowd of people who squat on and under an unused roadway bridge! The portrayal of Bangkok and the uneasy movement of this Eastern culture into Western affluence is amazing. And there’s a sequel!

I don’t know. Maybe I need time to digest this. Or maybe I need to read more hard-boiled detective stories, as this was my first. Making the detective a Thai Buddhist is certainly a unique angle. I don’t know. There were things to like about this book, but other things that seemed gratuitous to me. Like I said, maybe it just needs time to settle in my stomach.

Completed January 2005