Bangkok Haunts
Encyclopedia
Bangkok Haunts is a novel by John Burdett
, first published in 2007.
of Damrong, a woman he once loved obsessively. It turns out Damrong has masterminded her own death, and the recording of it, with proceeds going to her brother, a Buddhist monk
.
cage, of a type that elephants tend to start kicking, and thereafter stomp
ing on, when the sphere gets wedged into the corner of the chosen arena). Damrong has prepared for her father's murder, by bringing a camera with an expensive zoom, so that she can take detailed pictures of the execution.
John Burdett
John Patrick Burdett is a British crime novelist. He is the bestselling author of Bangkok 8 and its sequels, Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts and The Godfather of Kathmandu. His next novel, Vulture Peak, is to be released in the UK in January 2012-Biography:Burdett is a former lawyer who lived and...
, first published in 2007.
Plot
Detective Sonchai, of the Royal Thai Police, is a former accessory to murder, and a former Buddhist monk. A video is mailed to him anonymously.It is a snuff filmSnuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
of Damrong, a woman he once loved obsessively. It turns out Damrong has masterminded her own death, and the recording of it, with proceeds going to her brother, a Buddhist monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
.
Themes
Revenge is one of the novels themes. Damrong takes revenge on her father, by informing the police about one of her father's burglaries. The police in the countryside orchestrate her father's death, via the "elephant game"(A human is placed into a sphericalSphere
A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
cage, of a type that elephants tend to start kicking, and thereafter stomp
Stomp
Stomp may refer to:*Stomp , a downwards kick using the heel*Stomp , a percussive physical theatre troupe*Stomp Records, a record label now part of Union Label Group*Stomp Entertainment, an Australian entertainment group...
ing on, when the sphere gets wedged into the corner of the chosen arena). Damrong has prepared for her father's murder, by bringing a camera with an expensive zoom, so that she can take detailed pictures of the execution.
Inspiration for the novel
In the novel's afterword, the author acknowledges inspiration from the following sources:- The Damage DoneThe Damage DoneThe Damage Done is a book by Australian Warren Fellows. It portrays his time in the notorious Bangkwang prison, nicknamed "Big Tiger". Fellows was sententenced to life imprisonment in 1978, convicted of heroin trafficking between Bangkok, Thailand and Australia....
, by Warren FellowsWarren FellowsWarren Fellows is a former Australian drug courier who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand in 1978 for his role in a heroin trafficking operation that took place from Perth to Bangkok.-Early life:... - Corruption & Democracy in Thailand, by Pasuk PhongpaichitPasuk PhongpaichitPasuk Phongpaichit is a Thai economist. A professor at Chulalongkorn University, she is the author of several books on corruption in Thailand.Dr Pasuk graduated from Monash University in Australia, and received her PhD at Cambridge University in England...
- The Dhammapada, edited by Narada Thera
- The Funeral Casino, by Alan Klima
- Guns, Girls, Gambling and Ganja, by Sungsidh Piriyarangsan and Nualonoi Treerat
- The Sandhinirmochana Sutra, as translated by Thomas ClearyThomas ClearyThomas Cleary is a prolific author and translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian and Muslim classics, and of the Chinese Art of War tradition of strategy and statecraft. He lives in Oakland, California in the United States.-Life and work:...
(Buddhist Yoga) - Very Thai, by Philip Cornwel-Smith
- Welcome to Hell: One Man's Fight for Life Inside the Bangkok Hilton by Colin Martin
- Welcome to the Bangkok Slaughterhouse, by Father Joe Maier
- Bangkok PostBangkok PostThe Bangkok Post is a broadsheet, English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. The first issue was sold on August 1, 1946. It had four pages and cost 1 baht, a considerable amount at the time....
, newspaper - Kum Chat Luk, a Thai daily newspaper