Western writers in Bangkok – the Bangkok noir scene

On this blog I have regularly discussed Western writers of all stripes who, for one reason or another, have or had a connection with the Thai capital. Many of them have meanwhile, contrary to their work, given up and are resting on their - no doubt well-deserved - laurels in the Panthenon of the Great and Not So Great Authors.

Today I would like to take a moment, together with you, to reflect on a number of writers who, however, are still very alive & kicking are, in particular, a bunch of detective and thriller authors who are part of what some journalists and critics describe as the Bangkok Noir scene… A select group of mostly life-experienced older white gentlemen who often previously worked as journalists or lawyers in this region .

Admittedly, the Thai capital has everything, really everything to function as a setting in a hefty detective story or an exciting thriller ... ambitious gangsters, corruption and the pursuit of profit have been an explosive mix for decades. And when night falls, the city doesn't cool down – on the contrary – the atmosphere just thickens and darkens… These often complex and dark factors add to the mystery that Bangkok is and remains: A scorching hot, obscure city that, if you don't looking out, sticks to you. A metropolis populated contradictory enough by non-confrontational, pacifistic Buddhists, but at the same time one of the world's cities with the highest rate of violent crime…. Logically, this cocktail of confusing and cloudy elements stimulates the creativity of a handful of writers. I would like to introduce some of them.

The most important of these writers is undoubtedly John Burdett. This Brit, who was once a convinced hippie in a previous life, worked as a well-paid lawyer in London and Hong Kong for seventeen years before he finally traded in his toga for the pen. His bestselling series starring the tormented Thai police inspector Sonchai Jitpleecheep has become a classic in the genre. His strong debut Bangkok 8 was the start of a whole series of successful books that have now been translated into more than thirty languages, in which this hero struggles against his will with his past, his demons and his faith. And who said that crime doesn't pay? In recent years, Burdett has been commuting back and forth between a spacious home in Bangkok and his country house somewhere in southwest France.

Another former lawyer and professor who took to the pen is the Canadian Christopher G. Moore. He ended up in the Thai capital more than thirty years ago and Bangkok has not let go of him ever since. This resulted in the Vincent Calvino Private Eye series. Calvino is a half-Jewish-half Italian ex-lawyer from New York who has settled in Bangkok as a private investigator. He made his debut in 1992 Spirit House and his last adventure for now Jumpers rolled off the presses in 2016. The majority of these stories take place in the Land of Smiles, but occasionally Calvino – a mix of classic characters such as Philip Marlowe and Mike Hammer – pushes his boundaries and pops up in Cambodia and Burma, among others. And apparently with some success because Moore's work has now been translated into more than ten languages, including Thai.

The dark underbelly of Bangkok no longer holds any secrets for British crime writer James Newman. Some critics describe him as 'the author who writes with a flamethrower and there is something to be said for that. In any case, his style is difficult to define. A somewhat eclectic mix of Stephen King, William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski if you ask me… In his Bangkok Express English insurance broker Joe Dylan finds himself on the trail of a complex insurance fraud from Bangkok on Ko Samui. Suspicious diving incidents, a wad of money and one Shogun, a local power horny potentate, are the ingredients of this exciting story. In the meantime, Joe Dylan has shifted his radius of action to, among other things, the fictional but oh so realistically described  fun city a pen name which clearly hides Pattaya and he has with The WhiteFlamingo now his fifth adventure behind him.

Briton Stephen Leather was a bio-chemist who, after working as a gas station attendant and bartender, eventually got into journalism and wrote his first story. payoff published in 1988. Many of his bestsellers, now over 30, are set in Southeast Asia in general - after all, he was a journalist for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong – and often in Thailand in particular. And that is of course no coincidence, because he has been spending most of his time there for years. This resulted in a few exciting books of which Private dancer is perhaps the best known.  

I'll end with Dean Barrett, too the Godfather of Bangkok Fiction. He is the senior dean of this select group. After his university studies he joined the American Army Security Agency and trained as a Chinese translator. During the Vietnam War, he served in Taiwan and Thailand. His book Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior in which colorful characters like Whore House Charlie, Officer Orange and the Betel Nut Queen figure, clearly contains a number of autobiographical elements from this period. In the meantime, he wrote six other Thai-inspired books in addition to Chinese-related stories, of which The Go Go Dancer Who Stole My Viagra and Other Poetic Tragedies of Thailand is the most recent. He also has a sometimes hilarious website deanbarrettthailand.com/ which is really worth a visit for anyone who likes a bit of satire…