The World Map Has a Mystery to be Found--

Over the years, the mystery novels the book club had selected and read have jumped around the
world with busy detectives--whether employed by law enforcement agencies or not--and
amoral criminals.  From Beijing in China (Peter May's The Firemaker) to Ghana in Africa
(Kwei Quaterey's The Wife of the Gods), the world is crowded with too many resorting
to murder.  In our regular meeting space, we have but to look up at the wall on the right 
to see a nicely-detailed world map that on occasion helps to find where in the world 
the novel is set.  Granted, most mysteries are stateside or in Great Britain but we are not
restricted with these spots with our monthly book club selections.

Take for instance Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat in Thailand and Anne Holt's
1222: a Hanne Wilhelmsen novel in Norway which were scheduled a year apart.  These stories
are set in very different environments and the settings shape the tone of the novels.  Cotterill
looks for humor in human interactions while Holt's tale is somber in the cold environment.
 
It is ever bit of an adventure to read a good international mystery explore the world from
comfortable chair or couch.  And when desired it is helpful to find this certain locale on the
world map. 

Book Club discusses "Bangkok Tattoo"

Bangkok Tattoo was the book selection for the book club for May (as mentioned in the previous post) and it was a first this respect: an explanation about the writer and his work was emailed before the book club. Author John Burdett was featured in an original essay entry for "Powells.com" as a writer about Thailand who decided to base a detective series there. (Here's a pix of John that matches the one in the back of the book lap.)

Entitled "The Power of Difference," Burdett's essay details Thailand culture and environment through the narrow perspective of Theravada Buddhism (in Southeast Asia) and women sex workers in the bar scenes.

I suspected the essay would be helpful to put the book in perspective or understand it and some book clubbers agreed.

Here are some other points made regarding the book: two had visited Thailand years ago and didn't recognize it from the novel (of course, Burdett writes about a small community of Thailand), the wry humor (mainly as told by narrator Sonchai Detective Jitpleecheep with his observations of life) was appreciated and one person skipped the book after reading a number of pages while another went on to read the first "Jitpleecheep" novel, Bangkok 8. Additionally, it was pointed out that frequently used term for foreigners farang seemed to be a derogatory (maybe on the sly side?) code name for Americans and Europeans. One book clubber said she never heard that expression in Thailand.

Finally, the author's writing was considered good (although unduly graphic at times as one pointed out and I read a graphic scene that jumped out at me) and crafty with the story broken into sections that relay the entire novel. And the writing style of long (elaborate) sentences caught my eye as, for instance, the detective prepares for breakfast out and considers: I'm pretty hungry, so I choose kuay jap, a thick broth of Chinese mushrooms and pork lumps streaming with nutrition as the hawker dips and raises his ladle, a great writhing knot of kuaytiaw phat khii mao (literally "drunkard's fried noodles"; a stir-fry of rice noodles, basil, chicken, and crimson tide of fresh sliced childes), a single fried trout with naam plaa (a transcendentally sauce made of fermented anchovy__an acquired taste, farang), a glass of cold, clear nongaseous water from the world-famous Krung Tep Faucets, a 7-Up--and I'm all set.

OK, now there's a sentence that tries to say it all.

More with Arthur Rosenfeld--

Here's an additional message about Mr. Rosenfeld (see the previous post for more), if you look at his website on the ABOUT webpage then you'll see his "Favorite Books" list. Included is the John Burdett title Bangkok Tattoo, which ironically, the book club read in May for its book selection.

This book is a murder mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand with the police investigating the death of an CIA agent in the company of a prostitute. It is the second of a series with Royal Thai Police detective Sonchia Jitpleecheep in a novel with mystery, world politics, Buddhism and (steeped in) Eastern culture. This book would certainly appeal to Mr. Rosenfeld. Now as for the book club, here goes...