Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Burdett is more successful with Sonchai’s frequent citations of Buddhist wisdom: they’re funny, endearing (and informative) building blocks in the creation of an unusual and interesting protagonist.Įnjoyable, mostly, with a savage payoff and a smoky, acidic aftertaste.Īnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Ī week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. A Russian nuclear physicist turned pimp, “Barbara Hutton’s jadeite wedding necklace,” and an educational visit to a crocodile farm keep the reader alert-even when Sonchai’s summary descriptions of Bangkok’s history, culture, and economic priorities lapse into exposition and background information clumsily grafted onto the story. The principals include a beautiful black woman whose relationship to Bradley isn’t initially clear Sonchai’s pragmatic mother Nong, a retired “bar girl” interested in the commercial potential of Viagra his crafty boss Colonel Vikorn, who’s a little too cozy with CIA ops in Thailand and abroad jade mogul (and connoisseur of Bangkok’s thriving sex industry) Sylvester Warren and a fast-talking transsexual with a sure survival instinct. Sonchai’s investigation, done in tandem with American authorities, and abetted and complicated by gorgeous FBI agent Kimberley Jones, takes us through the meanest and seamiest streets of District 8 (Sonchai’s turf), and introduces us to a beguiling gallery of sinister personages portrayed with black-comic brio. Burdett kickstarts the tale with a dynamite opening sequence: the discovery of black US Marine William Bradley’s dead body in his Mercedes, filled with seemingly drug-crazed cobras and a giant python wrapped amorously around the torso of the deceased. This tangled tale of drugs, sex, and political corruption is narrated by Krung Tep (i.e., Bangkok) detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a “half-caste Third World cop who speaks English and French,” has a criminal past, and still does the local drug of choice (“yaa baa”). East and West coexist in a murderous symbiosis in this exotic thriller by British author (and Hong Kong resident) Burdett ( The Last Six Million Seconds, 1997, etc.).
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