Bangkok Haunts
Bangkok Haunts is a 2007 novel by English novelist John Burdett.
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 film 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.
Themes
Revenge is one of the novel's 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". 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.
In the novel's afterword, the author acknowledges inspiration from the following sources:The Damage Done, by Warren FellowsCorruption & Democracy in Thailand, by Pasuk PhongpaichitThe Dhammapada, edited by Narada TheraThe Funeral Casino, by Alan KlimaGuns, Girls, Gambling and Ganja, by Sungsidh Piriyarangsan and Nualonoi TreeratThe Sandhinirmochana Sutra, as translated by Thomas Cleary Very Thai, by Philip Cornwel-SmithWelcome to Hell: One Man's Fight for Life Inside the Bangkok Hilton by Colin MartinWelcome to the Bangkok Slaughterhouse, by Father Joe MaierBangkok Post, newspaperKum Chat Luk, a Thai daily newspaper