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Buddha on the Road

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Title:Buddha on the road
Author: Jeff Pearce
Buy link: Buy Link Buddha on the Road
Publisher: Gallivant Books
Length: Novel (216 pages)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/A little bit of gay romance
Rating: 5+ stars out of 5

A guest review by Sirius

Summary: Excellent mystery which is heavily based on Burmese culture and history, and which features one of the most likeable protagonists I have ever read.

*This review contains what could be considered spoilers*

Blurb:

Burma is known as “The Golden Land.” And for Brin Harper, Burma means golden memories from a youth spent in an exotic country with his mother, an accomplished diplomat. But today Brin Harper is an NYPD homicide detective haunted by his mother’s suicide, and his grief is slowly eroding his relationship with his journalist boyfriend, Richard. Now a set of vicious murders is about to dredge up secrets and bitter regrets from thousands of miles away and many years ago. The trail leads to a strange monk who doesn’t behave at all like a holy man. Brin is faced with a range of suspects, including the American widower of dissident Marlar Swe, to his on-again, off-again lover, Aung, a quiet professor who has survived time in Burma’s infamous Insein Prison. As the killer claims more victims, each murdered in a fashion inspired by Burmese culture, Brin must confront his own past and play a duel of wits with the monk, trying to decipher what his role is in the case. And there are more disturbing personal revelations waiting for him than just exposing a psychotic murderer…

Review:

Okay, a warning first and foremost: this book is not — I repeat not — a light read. It contains several descriptions of torture and murder, which while not very long, to me were quite graphic. If this is not your cup of tea, stay away.

Another warning: as with many murder mysteries, the romance in this book, while present, is definitely secondary storyline. The main storyline is the investigation of the murders, which turns out to be deeply and very personally connected with Brin’s past, present and future.

Warning three: this review may be seen as having spoilers, but these are spoilers only for chapter one. The gist of those spoilers are in the blurb anyway and needless to say I am not going to ruin anything in regard to the resolution of the mystery.

All right, for those readers whom I have not scared away yet, I really, really loved the story. It’s set in my second favorite city of the whole world, and even if I would not have liked anything else in the book, I would have certainly loved New York coming alive in it.

Another reason why this story resonated with me so much is because Brin is a child of Burmese culture just as much or even more than he is a child of American culture, no matter what blood is in his veins. While I know close to nothing about Burma and its culture, and Brin only spent his youth in Burma, some issues and questions with which Brin struggles with are questions which many immigrants from different cultures struggle with and try to make sense of. As an immigrant, I am no exception. Again, I am speaking in the most general sense. I am speaking about what many immigrants from different cultures have in common. How far should and can one lose himself in another culture? Would the scars from the past ever sufficiently heal? How much should one remember of the past? How much should one forget in order to live healthy life (and not go crazy because s/he dwells too much on the past, no matter how painful it was)?

We meet Brin when he is watching the video of the Buddhist monk setting himself on fire as a protest against Vietnam war. Brin shows the video, which took place in Saigon in 1965, to his boyfriend Richard via the Internet. Richard is wondering why Brin wants to torture himself that way. It turns out that several months prior, Brin’s mother, formerly a US ambassador to several Asian countries including Burma, allegedly committed suicide the very same way as this monk did. It is obvious that he is still grieving for his mother and this is one of the issues which is causing problems between him and Richard. To be honest, I wanted to slap Richard so hard from the moment he appears on page, I thought that even if he has good intentions, you let person grieve the way a person wants and needs, especially since it is still so raw. It is not like Brin is shutting himself from the world and going suicidal himself that such harsh words that Richard says were needed. That’s how I felt anyway, and of course I already felt for Brin. I think starting the book with sharing with the reader Brin’s most recent pain and nightmare was very effective way to involve reader’s emotions.

You burned, Mom, he thought, but you branded me.

We learn that Brin is thirty-seven years old, that he is a NYC homicide detective with a reputation for closing cases, and that, even if he does not talk about it too much in the department, he is out at work as bisexual. We also learn that he decided to go into law enforcement because of the Yangon massacre, and we are given reason to suspect early on that Brin feels tremendous (in my opinion, mostly misplaced) guilt because several people close to him died that day and he wished he could have saved them.

The main storyline of the book really takes off when Brin breaks up with Richard, who came to the police precinct because they had quarreled the day before. Richard tries to make up, which makes Brin even more upset. He walks Richard outside of his office and tells him that it is over. Though Brin’s new boss, Captain Darwin, heard some of their conversation, he gets down to business right away and assigns to him the murder case of a Thai national because Darwin assumes that, since Brin spent time in Vietnam and Bangkok with his mother, that he knows the languages. Brin explains that just because his mother could speak these languages does not mean that he can, but Darwin tells him that he is the closest they have to an expert on the culture and gives him the case anyway.

When Darwin is done with the official business of the conversation, he casually remarks about Richard, saying that the “word is that’s your significant other” and that it seems that neither him nor Brin take any shit, if his instincts are right. Why this is important to me is because Darwin shows seeming approval and liking of Brin basically right away. This is actually a very welcome relief from homophobic police superiors in almost every book about LGBT police officers that I have read. Brin himself remarks that his previous boss barely tolerated him, and we see how cautious Brin is not to show *too much* interaction with his lover to his colleagues, even if Brin *is* out. I admit that it is getting a little hard to believe that *every* police higher-up is a homophobic ass and I would think (hope?) that there are some decent people amongst them. In this way, I was glad to see Darwin in the book—very glad, indeed. He treats Brin as he would treat any other officer—as somebody who is valuable to department—and I found him such a welcome breath of fresh air.

To help investigate the murder, Darwin assigns to Brin a young female detective, Stephanie, who is also bisexual and having a hard time because of it. Stephanie is an interesting character; she feels a connection to Brin in a sense because of their similar orientation and wants to talk about her troubles in this regard. She opens her mouth before she thinks more often than not, but she is smart and capable and she learns fast.

When they go to see the body, they see that the victim was horribly tortured before he died. Brin also realizes that the victim only pretended to be Thai, that the man is from Burma and that he was killed in a fashion that is mocking of one of the traditions of Burmese culture. And so it begins.

More and more people around Brin will get involved in the investigation and it will turn out that a many of them could be personally connected to the victim in a very painful way. This investigation will lead Brin to remember and somewhat reevaluate his years in Burma. Additionally he will get more closely acquainted with his off-and-on lover, Aung, who was tortured by dictatorship and managed to survive after spending time in prison in Burma.

Personally, to me the resolution of the mystery, or I guess I should say the reveal of the murderer, was a shock — not just a surprise, but a shock. Granted, over the last few years I have not read hardcore mysteries (mostly romantic mysteries in this genre), so maybe my brain is not as used to picking up clues, but I was really surprised in a good way at the use of the literary device for the reveal.

Overall, I was the happiest with the character arc for Brin. I want to think that this investigation helped heal a lot of his wounds and I am keeping my fingers crossed that his personal life would be happier now too.

Highly recommended.

Author

Sirius

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40 comments

  • I travelled in Burma in the 1980’s and had my own encounter with the secret police. So for many reasons I am glad to have read this review and heard about the book. I am looking forward to reading it.

    • Hi Merrian please let us know if you find the settings of the book recognizable and whether you will enjoy it overall. Encounter with secret police sounds scary.

  • ps. I looked at Dragon Streets a while back but decided not to buy at that time (I saw your review there). Just out of curiosity, which did you enjoy more?

    • Pea,
      sorry I’m not Sirius, but I loved Dragon Streets! It’s unique and written with great skill. However, in Dragon Streets you have a tiny little m/f scene, so small you blink once and you won’t see it, but if this is a no-go for you, I guess you should know.

      • Hi feliz, I’m not thrilled to hear about the m/f scene, but it probably won’t prevent me from picking up the book. Thanks for the warning!

        • Pea I am so glad you enjoyed the book and Brin :). He will be one of my most memorable characters this year for sure.

    • Hi Pea, I loved this book and Dragon streets equally, but besides warning you about brief m/f scene (thanks Feliz :)), I also want to add that Dragon streets is much more a romance imo than this book. I mean it is also an adventure, but this story is mystery/thriller with some romantic elements, and I would say Dragon streets is romance and adventure equally.

      • I agree about Dragon Streets Sirius.
        I reviewed Dragon Streets and loved it and it was definitely half romance and half adventure. I haven’t read Buddha as yet but I’m looking forward to it.

      • Honestly, I think it will be great to read a mystery/thriller with some romantic elements. I enjoy reading m/m fiction a lot, but sometimes because the romance is so heavy, I find other elements of the plot and the world-building to be too thin – even in books I really like. Based on what you and feliz and Wave have said, I’ll probably try Buddha on the Road first. Thanks, again!

        • Pea I definitely agree with you – as the lover of mysteries, historicals, sci fi and fantasy I often want to see the guys doing something else besides having romantic relationship, I don’t know saving the world, catching the bad guys, etc. I want the book to have good solid world building and I think this books has all of it in spades. Let me know if you agree 🙂

          • I finally picked up the book this morning and just finished it. I adored this book – it’s probably the best story I’ve read all year, and I’ve read a lot of fine stories over the past several months. Brin Harper was such a sympathetic character, and I thought the supporting characters were well-drawn as well. I enjoyed both the mystery and Brin’s personal journey. I doubt I would have picked up the book without your review – thanks very much!

  • You had me at ‘Burma’. 😉 I’ve been waiting for another gripping story set somewhere else in the world, and I’m just in the mood to read something heavy, but still entwined with romantic elements.

    I thought there wasn’t an ebook copy, but there is one on the publisher’s site 😀

    http://gallivantbooks.com/index.html#excerpt2

    So I’m off to get one. Thanks for the head’s up 🙂

  • Oh, I’m so glad this book was reviewed here so more people can hear about it. Thank you, Sirius! I loved it, although I had some issues with it (head-hopping being one of the major). But, it was so out of ordinary compared to the usual offer in gay literature that I was smitten in spite all the complaints I had. Brin was a fabulous character. Darwin was the boss we all want. Stephanie annoyed me, but that was all right too. The Buddhist monk, with light paranormal touch, was a delight. I picked up Dragon Streets the moments after I finished this book. 🙂

    • I fell in love with Brin from the first pages of the book, and when he says “what agony” (I think I quoted correctly) about the way victim died and suffered before he died, I was so sold on Brin. I like compassionate protagonists, who can relate to sufferrings of others especially knowing that Brin is in a great deal of pain himself. As to head hopping, usually it bothers me yes, but one of my shortcomings as a reviewer is that when I am as smitten (to use your expression :)) by the book as I was by this one, I can overlook or unfortunately not notice certain technical problems book may have had. As far as I am concerned (again, please make allowance for the fact that I am an esl reader and reviewer) this book was just perfect on so many levels.

      • We are on the same boat (ESL and all). I think these things bothered me because the book was perfect in so many ways. Brin was one of the best characters I’ve read about in a long time.

        • Oooooooo, please accept even more enthusiastic welcome then :). I was just feeling bad that somebody who may decide to purchase the book based on my review and they could be bothered by head hopping a lot while I was not at all. Have you read Cut and run series? Head hopping in the first book imo was significantly worse than in this one, to the point it was making me a little dizzy at times 🙂 and I still did not care that much, so much I loved the characters, but I think in that book I would have definitely mentioned head hopping. I am just trying to explain my “threshhold for headhopping” 🙂

          • Yeah, the “Brin effect” can apply to Cut & Run too. Those two have hypnotized me in spite of all head-hopping. 😉

            threshold for head-hopping – I like that. ^^

        • Heee and I like “Brin’s effect”, may use it for future reviews, if appropriate 🙂

          I do think that second and especially third book of Cut and run series do not have that much of head hopping as the first one does.

  • Merrian, I’d be interested in knowing about your experiences in Burma. Have you ever been back? You are welcome to drop me a line through Facebook if you’re on there or through the Gallivant Books website. I don’t run into too many people who have been there and miss it enormously, even though I wasn’t there that long at all.

    • Hi Jeff,

      I have the book downloaded now so will get back to you and of course our friends here. I look back now and feel that profound naivety on my part was actually a useful survival tool.

      I remember how broken the country seemed and how the cracked pavements in Rangoon mainstreets with plants growing through them symbolised this and how the ghost of the Raj was seen in the crumbling buildings and the cocoa powder icecream. I made it to the temple ruins in Pagan by bribing a policeman. Made the mistake of protesting when a Fagin character stopped a woman selling me fruit on the train to Mandalay and was fascinated by the decaying buddha statues in the fields (good karma come from building new ones). Those are just a few thoughts of the top of my memories.

      I haven’t been back and am not much of a traveller these days due to chronic illness.

  • This sounds good. I think we have similar tastes, Sirius, so I’ve bought this (and Dragon Streets as well). Thanks for the heads-up.

      • Finished the story now. I had a couple of problems with it – the first nothing to do with the writer or story. The pdf. file wouldn’t open on my eReader, so I had to convert it to an epub version, which ended up with weird format problems. Very hard to read! :dead:

        Secondly, though, there were times throughout the story when Brin and his mother changed genders. It was if the writer had originally planned to make Brin a woman, and possibly her mother her father, then missed a couple of the gender changed words when editing. Really threw me for a loop. 😕

        So I’m not sure if my struggle to like the story was because of those things, or perhaps the author’s writing style. I’ll try “Dragon Streets” next (which was available in an epub file) and see how I go with that.

  • I have read BotR now and have to say that Jeff has captured how I experienced Burma in the early 1980’s very well; hope and gentleness alongside fear and violence. Shaven head nuns lining every step up to a famous lookout with their begging bowls. Ricksaws that were not for the tourists but the everyday way of getting around.

    I also loved that this books was about consequences and grief and resolving these things and also how it is abook about marginality. All the key characters are people who live on or deal with the boundaries and borders between things, between people, right and wrong, past and present, the real and the unseen. It was a moving story to read.

    • Merrian I am so glad that Burma settings felt realistic to you, I have only read one book set in this country, when I was a teen and I do not even remember its title. Its good to know that somebody who had been there found it recognisable. I also really like yout interpretation about this book being about marginality, I have to think about it, but I think I agree with you.

  • Thanks for this review, it made me get the book, which I just read and loved. I get scared very easily and never, ever watch horror movies and am very, very careful about what I read. This book was definitely AT my scare-threshold, but it managed to never quite cross it. Just wanted to mention that in case other fraidy-cats are on the fence about it. 😀

    I’ve never (yet) been to Burma, but I was struck by a magical quality in Cambodia that made the paranormal aspects of this story so very believable. There’s just something in the air there that makes it feel like an enchanted land. I can easily imagine the same being true for Burma.

    I agree with Gaycrow that the pronoun shifting got very confusing at times. Maybe because of the context of the story, it struck me as the sort of errors a non-native speaker would make, though Gaycrow’s explanation seems more likely.

    • Jessica, thank you so much for coming back and letting us know that you enjoyed the book. I am like you actually, I do not watch horror movies and I loved this book :). I mean, I can read violent scenes, but horror movies scare me and fast. Steven King is not on my keeper shelf lol. I am very glad you enjoyed this one.

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