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Vulture Peak

by John Burdett
Knopf. Jul. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780307272676. $25.95; eISBN 9780307596581.
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Police colonel Vikorn has given Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep a little task: stop the trafficking in human organs. It seems that Vikorn is running for governor of Bangkok and needs to crack this case to look good. Soon, the morally upright Sonchai is traveling from Shanghai to Dubai to Monte Carlo as he chases down the Vultures, Chinese twins who dominate the illicit body-parts business. Burdett's work caught on at the beginning and remains strong; all thriller readers should enjoy.
A ghoulish triple homicide brings Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep to the hilltop compound known as Vulture Peak. Three bodies, laid neatly on a bed, are missing eyes, kidneys, livers, and genitals. The ever-corrupt, opportunistic Colonel Vikorn, Sonchai's boss, wants to know what's going on. And, incidentally, he wants to be the new governor of Bangkok. As in the last four novels in Burdett's series, Sonchai is maneuvering in a nearly bewildering stew of greed, ambition, sex, drugs, and sheer criminal insanity. While the tale does not meander as much as its predecessor, The Godfather of Kathmandu, there are sinuous twists as our detective tries to make sense of the international machinations of the Yip sisters and Vikorn's arch rival, General Zinna.
VERDICT There are some truly stomach-turning scenes, and even a hardened reader of thrillers will blanch. Burdett, as usual, can't resist his tendency to lecture farangs (Thai slang for Westerners) on materialism and the myriad weaknesses of the Western mind. While these lectures are getting tiresome, Sonchai and his gritty adventures as philosopher-cop will have fans looking for the next installment. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/11.]—Sally Harrison, Ocean Cty. Lib., Waretown, NJ
Reviewed by Sally Harrison , Feb 01, 2011
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