John Burdett's dark view of life in Bangkok isn't ever going to endear him with that city's chamber of commerce. In "The Bangkok Asset", the place is somewhat secondary to the story, but it is still presented as a kind of petri dish where terrible things come to happen--sometimes they're connected to sexual excess; sometimes it's wrapped in drugs; but often enough it's all part of a massive hangover that started with the wars in Indo-China and Cambodia. This episode of the Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep saga departs from the typical police procedural and kind of swirls around the concepts of kharma and dharma, hyper spun in the direction of the development of a super being with world domination as an ultimate goal.
To be honest, there were a lot of moments when this generally interesting writing went a little too far toward fantasy for my taste. At the same time, it did leave me thinking that maybe author Burdett knows something about the future that I haven't (or can't) imagine. In any event, the reader will have to be a bit flexible on the credibility side to get the most out of "Asset..."
QUASI SPOILER: There will most certainly be a followup to this book.