Bangkok Haunts - Tapa dura

Sonchai has seen just about everything on his beat in Bangkok's crime-riddled District 8. But the video he's sent anonymously is something else. What he watches is a snuff film, and the person he sees die is Damrong, a woman he once loved and whom he still dreams about. And there's more: a twist at the end that turns the film into murder, and Sonchai into a man obsessed and - it becomes increasingly clear - literally haunted. His investigation forms a dizzying route from his own apartment - where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his fantasies deliver him up to Damrong; through the office of his corrupt and worldly wise boss, Captain Vikorn; to the backstreets of Phnom Penh where street gangs are only the most visible threats; to the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men's club in Bangkok, whose members will do anything to protect their identity, and to explore their own darkest fantasies. Caught in a multi-dimensional web of intrigue and deception, Sonchai confronts the terrifying consequences of a lesson he should have learned long ago. In Bangkok nothing is as it seems...

John Burdett is a former lawyer who worked in Hong Kong before he turned to writing. An Englishman by birth, he has spent most of his adult life in the Far East. His two latest novels, Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo, are both set in Thailiand and feature Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep.