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    The Godfather of Kathmandu
    The Godfather of Kathmandu
    The Godfather of Kathmandu
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Godfather of Kathmandu

    Written by John Burdett

    Narrated by Stephen Hogan

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    John Burdett writes darkly inventive fiction with a comic twist. In The Godfather of Kathmandu, Royal Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is called to a grisly murder scene that could make or break his career, but he's more worried about impressing Tietsin, his new Buddhist guru. However, Tietsin would rather use Sonchai to help him broker a heroin deal worth 40 million dollars. Left with no easy way out and plenty of moral conflict, Sonchai will have to decide between saving his soul and saving his career.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 26, 2010
    ISBN9781440790775
    The Godfather of Kathmandu

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    Reviews for The Godfather of Kathmandu

    3.5/5

    8 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      One of the weaker entries in this generally excellent series. Our hero, Sonchai, is awash in Buddhist gried after the accidently death of his son. Sent to Kathmandu to negotiate a gigantic drug deal with a mysterious Tibetan, Sonchai falls under his influence while pursuing the Right Path. Back in Bangkok, however, Sonchai finds himself messing with the murder of the Fat Farang, an ex-Hollywood director killed in true Hollywood style. Who did it? Why?This book needs a bit more detection and a little less internal dialogue.
    • 3/5
      Depraved sex. Drugs. Organized crime. Tibetan Buddhism. Murder. Sounds like a party, no?The Godfather of Kathmandu is John Burdett's 4th novel featuring Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep; an increasingly devout Buddhist who also is part owner of his mother's whorehouse and the right hand man of the police chief/local crime syndicate boss. I adored the first two books: Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo; both stories had unexpected twists that were quite frankly warped. The third installment, Bangkok Haunts, started getting too much into mysticism and started to lose me. This book continues down that path, and the result is the least compelling book of the series.Our hero's increasingly complicated life yields two major story lines in this book. They kind of intersect, but not really in a meaningful way. First, there is the obligatory murder of an American in Bangkok, this time, a rather famous Hollywood director. The second involves a Tibetan monk and exile trafficking in heroin to raise funds for his cause. Neither plot line was all that compelling, the twistedness found early in the series was absent. Meanwhile, Sonchai attempts to instruct us on the finer points of Buddhism -- I liked him better when he was telling us about the Thai sex trade. Rather than a book you can't put down, this was one where it was hard to find excuses to pick it up.Fans of the series will read this out of habit -- and I'll still buy the next one. It is not a compelling entry point for new readers, however.
    • 4/5
      As you travel to foreign countries, you probably always ask yourself - do people of these other cultures think the same way we do, even though they speak a separate language? Don't they value the same things we do, have the same sense of right and wrong, and so on? It's tempting to think so. Burdett consistently puts the lie to that - even writing as an American. His hero Sonchai consistently exposes us to a human, but alien, value system, yet it's close enough to ours to that we can relate to it, even if we might not share it. Or as Sonchai says:Do not judge me too harshly, farang (foreigner). (You know how you are.) In the wasteland where narrative rots, Good Thief may be the highest aspiration. Let he who is without karma cast the first stone. Filled with an intriguing and shocking mystery, the atmosphere of Thailand, nearly pornographic descriptions of the food of Thailand, and an exotic excursion to Tibet, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
    • 5/5
      Sonchai Jitpleecheep is a Royal Thai Police Detective in Bangkok, an increasingly devout Buddhist, and now consigliere to his boss – Colonel Vikorn – and his extensive and varied criminal enterprises.Sonchai’s son, Pichai, was killed in an accident. His wife, Chanya, retreated to a convent in her grief. Sonchai has been treating his own grief with Buddhism, and pot. He is simultaneously solving the murder of an American film director and negotiating a 40 million dollar heroin deal for Vikorn. The deal is so massive that General Zinna, Vikorn’s criminal rival, is brought in as a partner. The seller is “Doctor Norbu Tiestsin, the mad Tibetan Mind Master,” exiled in Nepal. Tiestsin has become Sonchai’s reluctant guru.This is the fourth novel in this series, and possibly the most satisfying. Sonchai Jitpleecheep continues to evolve as a detective, and a person.
    • 2/5
      This is the fourth book that Burdett has written featuring Sonchai, but it is the first one that I’ve read. I think that if I had previous experience of the books I may have found this one a little easier to read. The plot of the murder is entwined with the drugs plot which has a subplot of Sonchai’s own quest for spiritual enlightenment. I personally found the murder plot line the most interesting, but this was the one that had the least coverage. I found the spiritual plot the least interesting, and did at times find myself scanning through it rather than reading it fully.

      The character of Sonchai was quite confusing I found, but I feel that this was probably well crafted – he is a man caught up in grief who is trying to balance his personal quest to live a good life with the external influences of his boss Vikorn who is steering him to instead become more corrupt. I found Sonchai’s assistant Lek really interesting but sadly he didn’t get anywhere near as much coverage as I would have liked.

      I personally found the style in which the book was written to be difficult to get to grips with. Sonchai narrates the book, but he switches between the present tense and the past tense when talking about different events. I am not a fan of books narrated in the present tense, but that is very much a personal preference and it would be wrong to criticise the book on these grounds. The story itself is well crafted and I’m sure there are many people who will find it hard to put down.
    • 2/5
      Not the usual crispness and sexiness. Heavy in Buddhism, Tibet, Nepal, drugs, wai, Tantra, Sonchai drifts along. He seems to trip over clues instead of finding them. His 6 year old is killed in a car accident. Then more mind control. Lots of shots at Americans. Dull book. Swore off this series but then read Vulture Peak after all - and glad I did.