49 reviews for:

Bangkok Tattoo

John Burdett

3.61 AVERAGE

orebthenightchough's review

3.0

This was good, as good as the first one. One touch I liked in this was a journal written by a Thai character who leaves Thailand for a while. There's some development of the world and of the main character. Also I think James Ellroy fans would appreciate the ending - it's twisted.

Interesting enough that I will continue on to book 3. I've heard the 4th book is a clunker though.

aderby's review

3.5
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

wannabekingpin's review

3.0

All Reviews in One Place: Night Mode Reading

A CIA agent is killed and mutilated in a room of a bar girl. They had a one-sided love history and a romance, with kind enough parting between them. And Chanya just doesn’t seem to have a heart for such a violent act, even if circumstances seem to point at her. Yet due to him being an American CIA agent in Bangkok, and this world being set just after the tragic 9/11 terrorist attack, there’s a chance that if there’s any of those evil group members around – they wouldn’t have missed a chance either. But forwards come the Muslim community, prepared to do whatever it takes, whatever means necessary, to keep this blame off of them: it’d destroy the solid community out here. So Sonchai does what Sonchai does better, he picks up whatever strings are left for him, and heads out to see what tangles he can rustle up. What could get a man like that killed anyway?

Apparently, a tattoo. And it might just not be over. Out there, in the dark underground, a good classic / traditional tattoo artist is valued, and so are their works. To the point where murdering and skinning is almost a norm, for owning a piece is a sign of status. The agent had one. And so does Chanya. Yet she’s still alive.

In some dumb sense, Sonchai got too simple for my liking. He lost his fatalistic self, settling down, calming down. And since he’s the one telling the story, and he’s the main hero in it too, it hits the whole tale quality over the head. I can’t give it more than 3 out of 5, but I’m also not ready to give up on the series just yet.
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jet_nebula's review

4.25
adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

harperv28's review

3.0

I did not like this second book as much as I liked the first. The first book was informative in a nice way. This on the narrator Sonchai kept talking to the farang audience and was putting the audience down like the narrator is better than the reader. I didn't like being criticized and being stereotyped. The story lost steam part way through as he spent too much time telling the reader who he assumes is a Caucasian male all the stupid things he does. Even though I am not a Caucasian male I still didn't need the author interrupting the story to tell me those things. I don't know if the author felt that since he was writing from the Thai perspective instead of his own he could get away with that or what. I bought the next book and hope I don't regret it.

mumay's review

3.5
adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

another fun, fast-paced thriller full of sex, violence and Buddhism.

Even when I read the first one after just returning for a term teaching in Thailand, I felt it presumptuous of the author to address readers as 'farang' when he is a foreigner himself, writing as a Thai man. This rubs me the wrong way. The lecturing of the narrator, Thai detective written by a Western white man, gets to be a bit too much at times. Maybe it is because I have also spent time there that I feel annoyed at this aspect.

Originally I had no intention of reading any of these books after [b:Bangkok 8|706011|Bangkok 8 (Sonchai Jitpleecheep #1)|John Burdett|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388333732s/706011.jpg|692291] but I was hit with a bout of Thai nostalgia and ran across the second in the series. While it does satisfy a little bit of my longing to go back, my version of Thailand was quite different than the majority of the corruption and sex trade displayed in these books. I feel that at least the level of corruption may be up played for dramatic purposes, as should be expected of a thriller/detective novel. That is why I enjoyed these stories at all, for the thriller/detective/mystery aspects. Even though I can't help but feel a little negative towards the author, for reasons stated above. I also have experienced enough of the negative sentiments about Westerners, and it's a little over done here.

The first book was better in ways of suspense and thrills. While I like the detective aspect, as well as the quick pace and the locale, I have mixed feelings overall. There is a lot of criticizing of Westerners and Western culture, it can feel as though a disgruntled westerner who has decided Asia is superior to all other societies is lecturing why this is true.

Enjoyed it very much. Burdett's descriptions of the tattoos are worth a mention.

jakewritesbooks's review

4.0

Will Leitch is one of my favorite writers. He covers sports in word form and movies on the Grierson & Leitch podcast. All year long, he has grappled with is love for the Wes Anderson movie Isle of Dogs, which is set in Japan and has many references to famed director Akira Kurosawa but whose characters are voiced mostly by white people. The movie has been deemed (accurately in my estimation) to be culturally appropriated.

I’m not one for winning “Who’s the most woke white person?” contests. Nobody wins and it’s usually non-white folk who end up losing again at the hands of people who call themselves allies. So I’m not going to judge Will too hard for liking the movie considering how much I like this book (and its prequel).

John Burdett is a Brit. His perspective is British. His view of the east, no matter how informed and nuanced, is from the western gaze. His characterization of Thai folk and culture, no matter how well done, is appropriation at the highest level. 90% of the time, I wouldn’t bother with a book like this.

And I probably shouldn’t. But so help me, I do. Because this is the second book in the series and not only is it almost as good as the first, it’s genuinely unique among most of the books I read. Burdett captures the weird, rambling voice of Sonchai Jiptlecheep, a devoutly Buddhist biracial Bangkok police detective, in a fascinating way. As he meanders his way through the streets of Bangkok, the rural areas of Thailand and other locales in search of the perpetrator of a bizarre murder, while musing about Buddhism, sex, and culture along the way, I find myself being more and more drawn in. This isn’t the first book to use its city location as a character but it does so in a way that makes the atmosphere feel lived in, not stuffy and in need of salvation like say, Gotham City or even fictional portrayals of New York.

I wish this series was written by a Thai person. It’s disappointing that it’s not. You shouldn’t have your view of another culture filtered through the lens of someone not of said culture. I take all of Burdett’s rumination on Thailand and its people with a grain of salt. But I take them anyway. Because his books are damn good.