Some of the world's most famous sleuths are snooping around Thailand - in the vernacular, no less - and local fans of detective yarns couldn't be more mystified ... and thus happier.

The new Rahasakhadee Book Club has just published three translated works by famed authors Agatha Christie, Gaston LeRoux and EC Bentley, and veteran editor Ruangdej Chandergiri has more mysteries on the way.

Ruangdej has been editing a wide range of books for more than two decades - and was in charge of the much-admired Thanon Nangsue magazine for nearly five years - but now he wants to focus on the detective genre.

Ruangdej also helped keep the writer's magazine Chor Karaket alive for 10 years, but when it was forced to close in 1999, he launched his own monthly, Rahasakhadee (Mystery).

"I personally prefer sci-fi to detective fiction, but given the financial strains [that Chor Karaket suffered], I had to go for the latter. Mysteries have a wider audience."

He'd long wanted to publish mystery novels, and finally got the chance with the Rahasakhadee Book Club, which was introduced at the recent National Book Fair.

It's starting out with well-known authors so that local readers can get to know the classic works.

There are some of Agatha Christie's short stories, originally published in Britain's Sketch magazine, plus EC Bentley's "The Last Case of Trent" and Gaston LeRoux's "Le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune".

"Most people only know Sherlock Holmes, so it's good to introduce some other popular detectives," Ruangdej says, referring to Leroux's Joseph Rouletabille and Bentley's Arsin Lupin.

The book club has signed up 3,000 members so far, though only 1,000 are "active" and 500 might be described as "hardcore". The rest are in the "just curious" category.

As Ruangdej expected, women predominate among his most loyal customers, but it came as a surprise that few policemen or lawyers read detective stories.

"Most of the hardcore readers are doctors and nurses!" says the editor, who switched in 1981 from studying architecture at Chulalongkorn University to law at Thammasat.

There are quite a few teenagers among the club's members too, and Ruangdej suspects many of them came to the genre via the Japanese "Conan the Detective" comics and cartoons, which often allude to other famous fictional sleuths.

"I think mysteries are fun for them because they sharpen the brain. Detective works are full of puzzles. Readers have to be able to follow and foresee the outcome of the investigations. Let's put it this way: You have to be a little smart to like this kind of fiction."

Ruangdej acknowledges that it's not easy promoting detective stories for a wider audience. Those who enjoyed the realism typical of the stories in Chor Karaket, for example, snubbed mysteries as mere entertainment.

At the same time, Thais aren't familiar with the genre, having been brought up with tales of the supernatural.

"I've published only 1,500 copies of each of these books, and it may take a year or more to sell all of them," Ruangdej says.

He's counting on the book club and its website to find more readers. The usual middleman - the bookshops - isn't an option.

"Bookstores tend to promote only the best-sellers, which aren't necessarily the best books.

"My books wouldn't be on the most prominent shelves even when they're first released, and they'd soon be hidden at the back of the store.

"Besides, they don't usually accept such small printings," Ruangdej adds, "and they make about 30- to 40-per-cent profit. So I'm better off saving that money and giving it to club members in the form of discounts."

The website is at www.rd-bookclub.com. Feel free to e-mail info@rd-bookclub.com or call (02) 431 7204 for more information.

 Duangporn Bodart

 The Nation

---------------------------------------

The monarch loved a mystery

King Rama VI is in a sense the father of mystery fiction in Thailand, having penned the Kingdom's first detective series a century ago.

Ruangdej Chandergiri explains that the King wrote the series "Nithan Thong-in" ("Tales of Thong-in") under the pseudonym Nai Kaew Nai Kwan in Thawee Panya magazine in 1904 and 1905.

The monarch, who studied in England from 1893 to 1902, was apparently inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.

He was also the first to translate Agatha Christie's stories into Thai. The collection "Patiphan of Monsieur Poirot" appeared less than a year after Christie's works were first published in Britain, Ruangdej says.

She had yet to achieve the widespread fame of later years, but the King predicted great things for her.

"Be prepared!" the King wrote in an introduction to his translation in his own Dusit Smith magazine, using the pen-name "Ramjitti".

"Dusit Smith" will debut a brilliant story ... We would also like to tell you that this new story will be about an extraordinary detective, no less talented than the famed Sherlock Holmes.

"The author is a new face who shot to fame in England because she invented 'Monsieur Poirot', another remarkable detective."

Dusit Smith, which the King edited, was launched in 1918 as a vehicle for tacitly voicing his support for democracy.