Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Knopf (2012), Edition: First Edition, 304 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:Nobody knows Bangkok like Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, and there is no one quite like Sonchai: a police officer who has kept his Buddhist soul intact�??more or less�??despite the fact that his job shoves him face-to-face with some of the most vile and outrageous crimes and criminals in Bangkok. But for his newest assignment, everything he knows about his city�??and himself�??will be a mere starting point. He�??s put in charge of the highest-profile criminal case in Thailand�??an attempt to bring an end to trafficking in human organs. He sets in motion a massive sting operation and stays at its center, traveling to Phuket, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai, and Monte Carlo. He draws in a host of unwitting players that includes an aging rock star wearing out his second liver and the mysterious, diabolical, albeit gorgeous co-queenpins of the international body-parts trade: the Chinese twins known as the Vultures. And yet, it�??s closer to home that Sonchai will discover things getting really dicey: rumors will reach him suggesting that his ex-prostitute wife, Chanya, is having an affair. Will Sonchai be enlightened enough�??forget Buddha, think jealous husband�??to cope with his very own compromised and compromising world? All will be revealed here, in John Burdett�??s most mordantly funny, propulsive, fien… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jnwelch
[Vulture Peak] by [John Burdett] returns this series to its original level of quality after, to me, a dismal outing in [The Godfather of Kathmandu]. In this one Buddhist police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep has to sort out a complicated organ trafficking scheme while also trying to figure out the
Once again exotic criminals are featured, including the gorgeous Yip twins and a huge face transplant patient whose operation went awry, who is now out killing people in revenge. Once again significant time is spent in the red light district, including at the brothel run by Sonchai's mother. The much more liberated view of sex and gender in Thailand makes for a nice contrast with Western hypocrisies. There are many side comments to farangs, i.e. western tourists. They look upon Westerners with pity and despair: "They're stuck in Aristotelian logic: A cannot be not-A." "Tell me about it.! The discovery of nirvana is the psychological equivalent of the invention of zero but vastly more important. Think of where mathematics was before zero, and you have the level of development of the West: good/bad, profit/loss, heaven/hell, us/them, me/you. It's like counting with Roman numerals."
In Sonchai's Thailand, A can be not-A, and a whole lot of other things, besides. I loved the idea of kikiat. One can simply declare oneself kikiat for the day, and others will understand you're not to be expected to do a darn thing all day. A farang may "learn our customs, know our history better than we do ourselves, and even speak our language, but until you have penetrated to the very heart of indolence and learned to savor its subtle joy, you cannot claim to have really arrived." I'm willing to try to learn that subtle joy. Sonchai and his common law wife Chanya declare kikiat together on the same day, which seems particularly brilliant. One sub-theme of the book is Sonchai and Chanya trying to maintain their loving 7 year long relationship while being tempted sexually by others. Chanya is a wonderful character who is studying sociology and doing a paper on women in brothels (she believes they essentially are businesspeople with an appealing product). She takes her skeptical professor to Sonchai's mother's brothel, with surprising results.
The mystery at the heart of the organ-trafficking proves to have international scope and unexpected local repercussions, and you'll want to find out how Sonchai and Chanya deal with the potential destruction of their relationship. Now I'm once again looking forward to the next one in this series. Thanks to Caro, and I think Paul, for convincing me to try this one after the disappointing experience provided by its predecessor.
BTW, I wouldn't recommend these for the squeamish (they can get pretty graphic), or the easily offended (one comment I've seen is "too many prostitutes").
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schemes and motivations of his Machiavellian superior officer Colonel Vikorn. The corrupt Vikorn says he's done "one very important thing to fight crime [over the years], and now it's payback time." The one thing he's done? Jitpleecheep. "I've put up with you and all your sniveling, bleeding-heart conscience, your holier-than-thou posture that gets up everyone's nose and has had half the payroll moaning to me about you on an almost weekly basis for the past ten years." Possible spoilerThe payback: Sonchai has to bust up the organ-trafficking ring to give Vikorn international fame and help get him elected governor.Once again exotic criminals are featured, including the gorgeous Yip twins and a huge face transplant patient whose operation went awry, who is now out killing people in revenge. Once again significant time is spent in the red light district, including at the brothel run by Sonchai's mother. The much more liberated view of sex and gender in Thailand makes for a nice contrast with Western hypocrisies. There are many side comments to farangs, i.e. western tourists. They look upon Westerners with pity and despair: "They're stuck in Aristotelian logic: A cannot be not-A." "Tell me about it.! The discovery of nirvana is the psychological equivalent of the invention of zero but vastly more important. Think of where mathematics was before zero, and you have the level of development of the West: good/bad, profit/loss, heaven/hell, us/them, me/you. It's like counting with Roman numerals."
In Sonchai's Thailand, A can be not-A, and a whole lot of other things, besides. I loved the idea of kikiat. One can simply declare oneself kikiat for the day, and others will understand you're not to be expected to do a darn thing all day. A farang may "learn our customs, know our history better than we do ourselves, and even speak our language, but until you have penetrated to the very heart of indolence and learned to savor its subtle joy, you cannot claim to have really arrived." I'm willing to try to learn that subtle joy. Sonchai and his common law wife Chanya declare kikiat together on the same day, which seems particularly brilliant. One sub-theme of the book is Sonchai and Chanya trying to maintain their loving 7 year long relationship while being tempted sexually by others. Chanya is a wonderful character who is studying sociology and doing a paper on women in brothels (she believes they essentially are businesspeople with an appealing product). She takes her skeptical professor to Sonchai's mother's brothel, with surprising results.
The mystery at the heart of the organ-trafficking proves to have international scope and unexpected local repercussions, and you'll want to find out how Sonchai and Chanya deal with the potential destruction of their relationship. Now I'm once again looking forward to the next one in this series. Thanks to Caro, and I think Paul, for convincing me to try this one after the disappointing experience provided by its predecessor.
BTW, I wouldn't recommend these for the squeamish (they can get pretty graphic), or the easily offended (one comment I've seen is "too many prostitutes").
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LibraryThing member mjscott
Feminists are unhappy arid women who can become true women by turning to prostitution and getting breast implants???? Makes me furious, nearly ruined the book.
LibraryThing member JeffV
One of my favorite fictional detectives, Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police is back for his 5th adventure. After coming out strong in Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo, he started getting a little overly mystical in Bangkok Haunts and Godfather of Kathmandu. I'm happy to report that Burdett
Throughout the series, Burdett teaches us much about Asian cultures, and in Vulture Peak, also does a good job conveying some of the relationships and attitudes between Thailand and China. The villains in this story are of James Bond quality -- and, in a particularly Asian manner, the good guys also identify more with the Bond villains than with MI-1. Our hero Sonchai is at once an incorruptible cop, devout Buddhist, and part-owner of his mother's brothel. His ex-prostitute wife is in graduate school seeking a PhD. And his partner is a pre-op transsexual.
Burdett once again delights us with accounts of the Bangkok red light district. Sonchai's boss, Colonel Vikorn, is running for governor, and decides a high-profile case can tip the ballot in his favor. Sonchai gets assigned to a murder case that has ties with an international organ harvesting outfit. Meanwhile, Vikorn's nemesis, General Zinna, experienced a personal tragedy when an auto accident caused by him grossly disfigured his highly trained soldier boy-toy. And when an apparent serial killer strikes, evidence points to this unfortunate soldier. Meanwhile, a Phuket prostitute (natch) might just hold the key to everything. It's is Sonchai's job to find out how this fits with the Yip sisters; Chinese twins as beautiful as they are brilliant and psychotic. Sonchai doesn't have to tackle the case alone...while following up with the Yips in China, he meets the acquaintance of a Chinese detective with a personal score to settle.
The characters in Vulture Peak are all fascinating and complex. The ending is very "Asian" but somewhat surprising nevertheless. Best of all, it leaves me looking forward to the next book, I wasn't particularly looking for Vulture Peak after the last two failed to impress.
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has his page-turning jones back with Vulture Peak, however. Throughout the series, Burdett teaches us much about Asian cultures, and in Vulture Peak, also does a good job conveying some of the relationships and attitudes between Thailand and China. The villains in this story are of James Bond quality -- and, in a particularly Asian manner, the good guys also identify more with the Bond villains than with MI-1. Our hero Sonchai is at once an incorruptible cop, devout Buddhist, and part-owner of his mother's brothel. His ex-prostitute wife is in graduate school seeking a PhD. And his partner is a pre-op transsexual.
Burdett once again delights us with accounts of the Bangkok red light district. Sonchai's boss, Colonel Vikorn, is running for governor, and decides a high-profile case can tip the ballot in his favor. Sonchai gets assigned to a murder case that has ties with an international organ harvesting outfit. Meanwhile, Vikorn's nemesis, General Zinna, experienced a personal tragedy when an auto accident caused by him grossly disfigured his highly trained soldier boy-toy. And when an apparent serial killer strikes, evidence points to this unfortunate soldier. Meanwhile, a Phuket prostitute (natch) might just hold the key to everything. It's is Sonchai's job to find out how this fits with the Yip sisters; Chinese twins as beautiful as they are brilliant and psychotic. Sonchai doesn't have to tackle the case alone...while following up with the Yips in China, he meets the acquaintance of a Chinese detective with a personal score to settle.
The characters in Vulture Peak are all fascinating and complex. The ending is very "Asian" but somewhat surprising nevertheless. Best of all, it leaves me looking forward to the next book, I wasn't particularly looking for Vulture Peak after the last two failed to impress.
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LibraryThing member maneekuhi
Vulture Peak is the 5th book in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series: SJ being a Bangkok police inspector living with his long term lover and former hooker. SJ's boss, Col. Vikorn, is running for governor of Bangkok and wants a current major successful investigation in his resume and so orders SJ to get
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to the bottom of some murders in connection with an increase in the human organs for sale tradwe. Vikorn puts him onto a lovely young thing in Dubaiwho is seemingly involved and SJ brings her a suitcase of fresh eyes to establish his phony undercover credentials. The scene quickly shifts to Monte Carlo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Phuket, and even Bangkok and along the way Sonchai is meeting a motherrlode of untypical characters - prostitutes with hearts of gold, and (even-more-rare)"honest" Asian cops, a monster whose face transplant has gone horribly wrong, the girl who loves the monster, etc. There is some detecting, but there is a lot more Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, Chinese politics - all of which is very interesting and fun, but you come away thinking OK, I got it, maybe not. And there is always a scene or two in a Burdette book which is incredibly original and shocking. In the first book it dealt with a murder in an automobile, in this one it has to do with the use of a transplanted organ by the surgeon. I had almost quit on this series but I came back after reading a rather positive review by Jonathan Yardley on the Washpost. There is another very good Bangkok based series written bu Tim Hallinan but I prefer this one because Burdett's protagonist is Thai and Hallinan's a transplanted Westerner. Show Less
LibraryThing member SamSattler
Former London attorney John Burdett is said these days to split his time between Bangkok and France, so he most certainly knows Bangkok more intimately than most Westerners ever will. If any oldsters wonder whether the Thai sex industry they remember hearing about during the Vietnam War (when
As Vulture Peak begins, Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a former Buddhist monk, still works for Police Colonel Vikorn. Unfortunately for Sonchai, the manipulating colonel is no easier to work for now than in the past. As is often the case with Vikorn, there is more to him than meets the eye and, when he assigns Sonchai to investigate a harvesting-and-sale of human body parts racket that seems to be centered in Thailand, the motive is more about getting himself elected to political office than it is about shutting down the gruesome profiteers. If, in the process, Vikorn also can bring down the equally corrupt General Zinna, his longtime personal rival, it will have been a very successful investigation, indeed.
John Burdett’s books, despite their tendency to be over the top at times, are always long on atmosphere and memorable characters. Vulture Peak is no exception. Before it is over, Sonchai’s investigation will take him away from Bangkok and into the streets of Phuket, Hong Kong, Dubai, Monte Carlo, and Shanghai. As the investigation moves forward, he must deal with an extraordinary cast of good guys, cops, suspects, and assorted villains of multiple nationalities. The lineup includes two sisters I defy any reader to forget quickly, Chinese identical twins with a history of weirdness that goes back to their childhood and makes them perfect for the infamous world of illicit human organ harvesting.
Vulture Peak is Bangkok noir at its finest and will likely entice readers to read the entire series from the beginning in order to find out how the relationships between Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the ex-prostitute who lives with him, and Police Colonel Vikorn have evolved over time.
Rated at: 4.0
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Bangkok was a favored R&R spot for American soldiers) still exists, they only have to read one of the books in Burdett’s Sonchai Jitpleecheep series to learn that little has changed except for the makeup of the clientele. Vulture Peak, the fifth novel in the series, makes that clear – taking into account the grain of salt that fiction always throws into the mix.As Vulture Peak begins, Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a former Buddhist monk, still works for Police Colonel Vikorn. Unfortunately for Sonchai, the manipulating colonel is no easier to work for now than in the past. As is often the case with Vikorn, there is more to him than meets the eye and, when he assigns Sonchai to investigate a harvesting-and-sale of human body parts racket that seems to be centered in Thailand, the motive is more about getting himself elected to political office than it is about shutting down the gruesome profiteers. If, in the process, Vikorn also can bring down the equally corrupt General Zinna, his longtime personal rival, it will have been a very successful investigation, indeed.
John Burdett’s books, despite their tendency to be over the top at times, are always long on atmosphere and memorable characters. Vulture Peak is no exception. Before it is over, Sonchai’s investigation will take him away from Bangkok and into the streets of Phuket, Hong Kong, Dubai, Monte Carlo, and Shanghai. As the investigation moves forward, he must deal with an extraordinary cast of good guys, cops, suspects, and assorted villains of multiple nationalities. The lineup includes two sisters I defy any reader to forget quickly, Chinese identical twins with a history of weirdness that goes back to their childhood and makes them perfect for the infamous world of illicit human organ harvesting.
Vulture Peak is Bangkok noir at its finest and will likely entice readers to read the entire series from the beginning in order to find out how the relationships between Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the ex-prostitute who lives with him, and Police Colonel Vikorn have evolved over time.
Rated at: 4.0
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LibraryThing member ritaer
Sonchai Jitpleechep is an unlikely protagonist: former monk, Thai/American, detective in corrupt Bangkok police force, married to former prostitute now studying for degree in sociology and partnered with a pre-surgery katoey (transgendered) cop. This volume finds him attempting to stop organ
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trafficking in Thailand at the behest of his Captain, who is running for governor. Complications and strange situations multiply as the detective travels from Phuket to Dubai to Hong Kong and Shanghai in pursuit of the real powers behind the traffic in new livers, kidneys and faces. Exotic and fast moving. Show Less
LibraryThing member Clifford.Terry
I have loved all of Sonchai's stories. Not only am I grabbed by the intricate plotting and layers upon layers of intrigue and political machinations of Thai society but the characters have such depth. Sonchai is definitely my favourite character from all the books that I read because I understand
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him as I do myself. Show Less
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Burdett is one of my favorite authors who writes about Thailand - the dirt and dredge. He takes our favorite detective to Phuket, Hong Kong and Dubai in search of answers – who is harvesting all of these body parts? As usual, we find a very cinematic story with lots of cross-cultural musing.
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Burdett’s books are mostly about character, the plot plays second fiddle. Show Less
LibraryThing member AngelaLam
This is by far the best book in the series. I almost didn't read it since the last two books fell flat. Gone is the overindulgence in Buddhism and back is the focus on crime fighting.
Original language
English
Original publication date
2011
ISBN
9780307272676