I’ve had mixed reactions to the slew of Soho Crime books I picked up a couple of years ago. Today I finished the last of that bunch, and this one is a positive review. It’s set in Laos shortly after the communists took control in the mid-1970s. The detective
is Dr. Siri Paiboun, the country’s head (and probably only) coroner. He has no training in forensics, just some books left over when the previous coroner fled the country. He has little equipment. He’s not even the best doctor around. Nor is he a die-hard communist. He’s aged too much and become too cynical to be an inner member of the Communist party. However, he’s fought with the Pathet Lao for so many years, mostly running field hospitals, that he’s on a first name basis with the ruling politburo. He’s what we would think of as a crotchety old man.
There are essentially two cases in the book’s plot lines. The first is when the wife of a politburo member dies suddenly when eating lunch. She’s the head of the women’s union, and a fairly powerful person in her own right. The second case is when an unidentified, but likely Vietnamese, body is found. In both cases, there’s more than meets the eye to their deaths. Siri goes beyond the normal duties of a coroner to try to determine the causes of death, but he doesn’t know which interests he’s endangering so he must tread lightly.
He’s a great character, and most of the supporting characters are interesting as well. It does make up for some fairly mundane murder plots. The real joy of the book, like some of the other Soho Crime books, is the setting. It’s not just a unique locale, it’s a unique political system. Siri is placed well enough that we can get a glimpse of how Laos worked. After all, it’s not a big country and as the book notes, there are only seven stop lights in the country.
And definitely check out Colin Cotterill’s web site. It’s a hoot.
Title: The coroner’s lunch
Author: Colin Cotterill
Series: Dr. Siri Paiboun book 1
Publisher: Soho Press
Format: Paperback
Length: 257 p.
Publication date: 2004
ISBN-10: 1-56947-418-4
Subject: Older people — Fiction
Subject: Physicians — Fiction
Subject: Coroners — Fiction
Subject: Paiboun, Siri, Doctor (Fictitious character) — Fiction
Subject: Laos — Fiction
LC classification: PR6053.O778 C67 2004
