I violated the OBOC rule once again, when I picked Colin Cotterill's "The Coroner's Lunch" for Laos. Colin is a British/Australian living in South Asia and is known for his two series - Dr.Siri Paiboun Series set in Laos and the Jimm Juree novels set in Thailand. Although not native to Laos, he has spent many years in the country and seems to have done an excellent job in capturing Laos - the people, the politics, the culture - all within a crime novel. As you can tell I enjoyed the book!
Set in 1976 when Laos had just turned Communist, the story has Dr.Siri a 72 year old doctor now forced to take on the role of the coroner as it's unlikely hero. Dr.Siri is sharp, witty, and has adopted communism first for love in his youth and now for convenience. He is the only doctor left in Laos following the Communist take over and therefore chosen to be the state's coroner despite having no training in the field. He has for his assistants the very lovable Down's Syndrome affected Mr.Geung and the spinster Drui and the three of them have managed to establish a haven of trust, affection, good humor and camaraderie in the unlikely environment of a mortuary when the world outside seems to have completely lost all those qualities.
Without going into details of the crimes at the heart of the novel I can say that it was quite a page turner not from just a suspense point of view, but also because of the humor (yes, dark in some places), the character development and the almost absolute lack of condescending prose. Dr.Siri is forced to become an investigator of sorts with his team and along with his counterpart from Vietnam and some able assistance from his long time friend Civilai, and Inspector Phosy he unravels the murders one by one and in that process we the readers peel off layer by layer of Laos society and it's culture.
When you read the book, you cannot help compare it to Alexander McCall Smith's series set in Botswana which also features an unlikely investigator, but for some reason I liked the tone of the Dr.Siri mystery much more than the No.1 Detective agency. In a time when the Scandinavian crime novel heroes are so popular I thought Dr.Siri offers a different type of hero to the dark, gritty Wallander type heroes. The dignity, poise and wit of Dr.Siri brings humanity to gruesome situations. I think I've found my lazy afternoon or late night quick- mystery-fix i.e if the other books are as good as the first one :) Now if only someone can make a TV show out of the Dr.Siri series I will be set!
Set in 1976 when Laos had just turned Communist, the story has Dr.Siri a 72 year old doctor now forced to take on the role of the coroner as it's unlikely hero. Dr.Siri is sharp, witty, and has adopted communism first for love in his youth and now for convenience. He is the only doctor left in Laos following the Communist take over and therefore chosen to be the state's coroner despite having no training in the field. He has for his assistants the very lovable Down's Syndrome affected Mr.Geung and the spinster Drui and the three of them have managed to establish a haven of trust, affection, good humor and camaraderie in the unlikely environment of a mortuary when the world outside seems to have completely lost all those qualities.
Without going into details of the crimes at the heart of the novel I can say that it was quite a page turner not from just a suspense point of view, but also because of the humor (yes, dark in some places), the character development and the almost absolute lack of condescending prose. Dr.Siri is forced to become an investigator of sorts with his team and along with his counterpart from Vietnam and some able assistance from his long time friend Civilai, and Inspector Phosy he unravels the murders one by one and in that process we the readers peel off layer by layer of Laos society and it's culture.
When you read the book, you cannot help compare it to Alexander McCall Smith's series set in Botswana which also features an unlikely investigator, but for some reason I liked the tone of the Dr.Siri mystery much more than the No.1 Detective agency. In a time when the Scandinavian crime novel heroes are so popular I thought Dr.Siri offers a different type of hero to the dark, gritty Wallander type heroes. The dignity, poise and wit of Dr.Siri brings humanity to gruesome situations. I think I've found my lazy afternoon or late night quick- mystery-fix i.e if the other books are as good as the first one :) Now if only someone can make a TV show out of the Dr.Siri series I will be set!
This is a new book to me. I will have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteRules are made to be broken, anyway--so don't fret too much.
I have been looking for a timepass page turner - hadnt found anything interesting enough after Steig Larrson's trilogy. If this is not too gruesome, I ll get it ;-) what do you think?
ReplyDeleteNot gruesome at all. Some supernatural stuff but surely try it :)
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