Bangkok 8 by John Burdett

Set in Thailand's capital in the mid-1990s, a U.S. Marine is killed in Bangkok. This assignment's especially important to the devout detective for during the investigation of the murder scene, the methamphetamine-stoked snakes that bit the marine also kill Sonchai's police partner, best friend, and Buddhist soul-mate Pichai. The task of finding the murderer falls to Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, seemingly the only member of the Royal Thai Police Force whose idea of justice precludes his fellow officers' customary system of bribery.

Sonchai's pursuit of revenge will team him with a sexually frustrated FBI agent and leave them at the mercy of yaa-baa-fueled motorcycle-taxi drivers as they hurtle through neon-lit Bangkok and into the labyrinthine and deadly machinations of the international jade and drug trades in search of the killer. Sonchai was raised by his Thai mother who moved them from man to man all over Europe and Asia. He doesn't know who his father was except he was an American GI. But since his knowledge of English and French is excellent he is used as a liaison between other government agencies to translate and provide access to the city.

Lots of corrupt characters from his own mother, his boss, everyone is on the take. But the Thai philosophy is that if you pay the bribe you won't have to increase salaries so it all evens out. If you increase salaries then you have to increase taxes and everyone pays for that.

I found this book fascinating and thought provoking but not really sure if I liked it very much. But I'm still thinking about it weeks later. I think because this is so different and while it has some police procedural elements to it, it is not a typical police mystery at all.