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Synopsis

In District 8, the underbelly of Bangkok’s crime world, a dramatically mutilated body is found in a hotel bedroom.

It looks bad: the corpse – which has been flayed – is CIA. And it gets worse for Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep when the murderer appears to be 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.

Alerted by Sonchai, Vikorn quickly concocts a cover-up that involves an Al Qaeda terrorist cell – a ploy he believes will prove irresistible to the American spy agency.

The bizarre truth that is eventually uncovered with a little help from the dead may be too challenging even for the wily colonel, as Sonchai is forced to run the gamut of Bangkok’s drug-dealers, prostitutes, bad cops, corrupt military generals, and the pitfalls of his own melting heart.

Crowded with astonishing characters, redolent with the authentic, hallucinogenic atmosphere of Bangkok, with needle-sharp observations about the clash of cultures when East meets West, Bangkok Tattoo is a literary thriller like no other.

Press Reviews

Time for a trip to District 8 in the heart of Bangkok’s sex district...outrageous yet bizarrely tender. - Booklist

... A cracking exotic read. - The Times

About the Author

John Burdett is a former lawyer who worked in Hong Kong until he found his true vocation as a writer. An Englishman by birth, he has lived in France and Spain, and is now back in the Far East. His previous novel was Bangkok 8.