Cockroaches

Cockroaches is a detective novel by Jo Nesbo, the second in the Harry Hole series. I've read the first one and liked it well enough to pick up more. The characters are well-developed and the plots are interesting.

from the back of the book:

When Norway's ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help hush up the case.

Once he arrives Harry discovers that the case is about much more than a random murder. Something else, something more pervasive, is scrabbling around behind the scenes: for every cockroach you see, there are hundreds behind the walls. Assaulted round-the-clock by traffic noise, Harry wanders the streets of Bangkok -lined with go-go bars, temples, tourist traps, and opium dens- trying to piece together the truth behind the ambassador's death even though no one asked him to, and no one wants him to -not even Harry himself.

Eurocrime has a positive review and says, "COCKROACHES is an impressive early instalment in the Harry Hole series, fleshing out the background about Harry Hole's family life and romantic history...". Kirkus Reviews describes it as a "well-wrought adventure". Crime Pieces calls it, "one of the most engaging ones that he’s written".
The Independent says,

The complex narrative and large dramatis personae are handled with steely authority, but what really makes the novel work is the fact that the picturesque seediness of Bangkok and Thailand turn out to be Harry Hole's natural element, with Nesbo plumping his hero down in a very non-Norwegian setting.