Noir in the city – short stories set in BANGKOK

2nd December 2024

Bangkok Noir, noir in the city – short stories set in BANGKOK – introduction by Christopher G Moore.

The City of Smiles, eh? Christopher G Moore, in his Introduction, says “Glide along the daylight surface of Bangkok, and the gritty world of noir often seems light years away. The surface is polite, pleasurable and fun -sanuk. But dig deeper below the sank layer, and the tropical paradise reveals a far colder, damp darkness of lost souls – souls stranded, battered and estranged”.

These stories were published in 2011, I visited way back in 2000 and, now, present day Bangkok has undergone a huge transformation. On the surface it is slicker, with vestiges of its gritty past. Take the neighbourhood in which I was staying, just off the Sukhumvit Road. Nearby, for example, it is just possible to see the vestiges of the bars frequented by the U.S soldiers on R&R from Vietnam in the 1960s (in Sukhumnvit and Petchaburi) but gradually much of the ancient history – apart from the tourist-luring and impressive monuments – is busily being eradicated and replaced with monuments to concrete.  There is so much property speculation, with many condominiums currently stand empty. So, I am sure the tenet of hidden life detailed in these stories, of course, still exists but as the city moves at a mind-blowing pace further into the 21st Century, it becomes harder to imagine the dark, venal and corrosive lives depicted.

Twelve authors have contributed and I was really pleased to see John Burdett amongst the featured writers because back in 2000 I spontaneously picked up a thriller called Bangkok Tattoo, when I was travelling to Bangkok. At that point we were staying at Chit Lom and the action taking place in the thriller, serendipitously, was occurring in the streets below our hotel, straddling Soi Cowboy which is an infamous street in the city. So it was wonderful to hop down into the hustle of the streets and imagine all the people and their situations playing out directly in real life. And that was just one of the books that got us thinking about setting up the TripFiction website just a few years hence.

Colin Cotterill’s novels spotted in Vientiane

Many of the authors featured are well known for creating a gritty sense of place. We came across Colin Cotterill’s novels set in Laos, so it was interesting to read his story set in Bangkok.

There are several themes depicted in the pieces, there are, among others – of course – stories of bar girls; a young man heads the advice to “Go East, young man”; there is a murder on an inbound plane to Bangkok and the investigation is overseen by Inspector Zhang; and a killing on a Skytrain platform which seems to be the subject of a significant cover up in police circles….

An interesting set of stories, set in the “City of Angels”, which are still relevant today, although the cutting edge noir aspect sometimes can feel subsumed by the rapidly evolving city as it grows ever upwards, muffling the darker aspects of the city.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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