JOHN BURDETT

Dans deux mois, la Grande-Bretagne restitue Hong Kong à la Chine, et l'abandon de cet ancien îlot misérable, devenu l'une des places économiques les plus riches du monde, exacerbe la haine que se vouent ces deux puissances depuis cent cinquante ans. Alors qu'un typhon menace, une vedette rapide britannique de la police royale se rapproche dangereusement des eaux territoriales chinoises. Un sac flotte sur les eaux grises de la mer. À l'intérieur, trois têtes imbibées d'eau. Tranchées nettes. Deux visages de Chinois et les traits d'une femme blanche. Une enquête rapide révèlera qu'ils ont été passés vivants dans un hachoir industriel. S'il n'est pas rare de trouver des Cantonais en morceaux, le meurtre d'Occidentaux reste une exception. Que savait cette femme pour avoir été ainsi torturée ? Déjà une vedette de la République populaire s'approche et réclame le sac…

Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is summoned to investigate the most shocking murder of his career. Solving it could mean a promotion, but Sonchai, still reeling from a personal tragedy, is more interested in Tietsin, an exiled Tibetan lama living in Kathmandu.

Sonchai Jitpleecheep—the devout Buddhist Royal Thai Police detective who led us through the best sellers Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo—returns in this blistering new novel. Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkok's District 8, but nothing like the video he's just been sent anonymously: "Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now." He's watching a snuff film. And the person dying before his disbelieving eyes is Damrong—a woman he once loved obsessively and, now it becomes clear, endlessly. And there is something more: something at the end of the film that leaves Sonchai both figuratively and literally haunted. While his investigation will lead him through the office of the ever-scheming police captain, Vikorn ("Don't spoil a great case with too much perfectionism," he advises Sonchai); in and out of the influence of a perhaps psychotic wandering monk; and eventually into the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men's club in Bangkok (whose members will do anything to protect their identities, and to explore their most secret fantasies), it also leads him to his own simple bedroom where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his dreams deliver him up to Damrong . . . Ferociously smart and funny, furiously fast-paced, and laced through with an erotic ghost story that gives a new dark twist to the life of our hero, Bangkok Haunts does exactly that from first page to last.

´Killing customers just isn't good for business' In District 8, the underbelly of Bangkok's crime world, a dramatically mutilated body is found in a hotel bedroom. It looks bad. It gets worse for Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep when the self-confessed murderer is Chanya, the most successful 'working girl' at The Old Man's Club, a brothel owned jointly by Sonchai's mother and his boss, Police Colonel Vikorn. And it gets deadly when Sonchai, in an effort to get at the bizarre truth, is forced to run the gamut of Bangkok's drug-dealers, prostitutes, bad cops, even worse military generals, and the pitfalls of his own melting heart. 'Like no other novel that's come my way lately. Ironic, sexy and trailing an odour that reminds me of a Bangkok street after hours…Expect to be enlightened' Literary Review 'Open Bangkok Tattoo and you will read on and on, with wide-eyed fascination, some horror or disgust, and considerable delight' Washington Post

El Bangkok surreal, la ciudad de los templos y de los burdeles, donde los monjes budistas con sus ropajes de color azafrán pisan el mismo suelo que los gánsters más violentos, donde los cuerpos y las almas estan a la venta o en alquiler, y el lugar donde tu manera de morir puede ser mas importante que tu manera de vivir, es el escenario insustituible de esta novela.

En el Bangkok surreal, la ciudad de los templos y de los burdeles, donde los monjes budistas pisan el mismo suelo que los gánsters más violentos y donde la forma de morir es más importante que la de vivir, aparece el cuerpo de un marine norteamericano que ha sido asesinado mediante la mordedura de cobras y pitones. Tras recibir el aviso en comisaría, dos policías se desplazan al lugar de los hechos y minutos más tarde sólo uno sigue vivo. Para investigar la muerte de su compañero, Sonchai recorrerá las calles de la ciudad con dos armas fundamentales: sus conocimientos en ciencia forense y su entendimiento de la mística en la que se mueve el mundo de los espíritus.

Retomando al detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, protagonista de Bangkok 8, John Burdett vuelve a transportarnos a los bajos fondos de la urbe tailandesa. Se ha encontrado un cadáver mutilado que pertenece a un ex miembro de la CIA. La principal sospechosa es Chanya, una joven que trabaja en el club de alterne de la madre de Sonchai. Pronto las cosas se complicarán y se descubrirá una trama que implica a la CIA y la investigación que la Agencia realiza en la frontera tailandesa sobre el terrorismo de Al-Qaeda.