This is by far the best book in the series. I almost didn't read it since the last two books fell flat. Gone is the overindulgence in Buddhism and back is the focus on crime fighting. ( )

Sonchai's crooked boss Colonel Vikorn is running for mayor of Bangkok and decides to make a campaign issue out of stopping organ harvesting on the heels of a triple murder in a posh home in Vulture Peak. Sonchai is places in charge of the investigation that takes him to Dubai, Phuket and China as he seeks to solve the grisly murders. A set of Chinese twins (the Yips) seem to be at the center of the trafficking, but are they someone's pawns? As always, Burdett explores the dark side of humanity in a humorous at times, but serious way, with prostitutes and transvestites, etc. ( )

Burdett is one of my favorite authors who writes about Thailand - the dirt and dredge. He takes our favorite detective to Phuket, Hong Kong and Dubai in search of answers – who is harvesting all of these body parts? As usual, we find a very cinematic story with lots of cross-cultural musing. Burdett’s books are mostly about character, the plot plays second fiddle. ( )

I have loved all of Sonchai's stories. Not only am I grabbed by the intricate plotting and layers upon layers of intrigue and political machinations of Thai society but the characters have such depth. Sonchai is definitely my favourite character from all the books that I read because I understand him as I do myself. ( )

[Vulture Peak] by [John Burdett] returns this series to its original level of quality after, to me, a dismal outing in [The Godfather of Kathmandu]. In this one Buddhist police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep has to sort out a complicated organ trafficking scheme while also trying to figure out the schemes and motivations of his Machiavellian superior officer Colonel Vikorn. The corrupt Vikorn says he's done "one very important thing to fight crime [over the years], and now it's payback time." The one thing he's done? Jitpleecheep. "I've put up with you and all your sniveling, bleeding-heart conscience, your holier-than-thou posture that gets up everyone's nose and has had half the payroll moaning to me about you on an almost weekly basis for the past ten years." Possible spoilerThe payback: Sonchai has to bust up the organ-trafficking ring to give Vikorn international fame and help get him elected governor.

Once again exotic criminals are featured, including the gorgeous Yip twins and a huge face transplant patient whose operation went awry, who is now out killing people in revenge. Once again significant time is spent in the red light district, including at the brothel run by Sonchai's mother. The much more liberated view of sex and gender in Thailand makes for a nice contrast with Western hypocrisies. There are many side comments to farangs, i.e. western tourists. They look upon Westerners with pity and despair: "They're stuck in Aristotelian logic: A cannot be not-A." "Tell me about it.! The discovery of nirvana is the psychological equivalent of the invention of zero but vastly more important. Think of where mathematics was before zero, and you have the level of development of the West: good/bad, profit/loss, heaven/hell, us/them, me/you. It's like counting with Roman numerals."

In Sonchai's Thailand, A can be not-A, and a whole lot of other things, besides. I loved the idea of kikiat. One can simply declare oneself kikiat for the day, and others will understand you're not to be expected to do a darn thing all day. A farang may "learn our customs, know our history better than we do ourselves, and even speak our language, but until you have penetrated to the very heart of indolence and learned to savor its subtle joy, you cannot claim to have really arrived." I'm willing to try to learn that subtle joy. Sonchai and his common law wife Chanya declare kikiat together on the same day, which seems particularly brilliant. One sub-theme of the book is Sonchai and Chanya trying to maintain their loving 7 year long relationship while being tempted sexually by others. Chanya is a wonderful character who is studying sociology and doing a paper on women in brothels (she believes they essentially are businesspeople with an appealing product). She takes her skeptical professor to Sonchai's mother's brothel, with surprising results.

The mystery at the heart of the organ-trafficking proves to have international scope and unexpected local repercussions, and you'll want to find out how Sonchai and Chanya deal with the potential destruction of their relationship. Now I'm once again looking forward to the next one in this series. Thanks to Caro, and I think Paul, for convincing me to try this one after the disappointing experience provided by its predecessor.

BTW, I wouldn't recommend these for the squeamish (they can get pretty graphic), or the easily offended (one comment I've seen is "too many prostitutes"). ( )