Disco for the Departed

In this book, the third of four so far published to feature the septuagenarian national coroner of Laos, Dr Siri is called on to explain the mystery of a mummified arm inconveniently protruding from a concrete path in Huaphan Province. The mystery must be solved: the President is due back in a week and everything needs to be tidied up. Dr Siri is confident: `It doesn't take me that long to concede defeat.' It is 1977 and Dr Siri and Nurse Dtui are staying at Party Guesthouse Number One where food is scarce but bureaucratic process is rich. In the meantime, back in Vientiane, Judge Haeng continues in his quest to have Mr Geung removed from his position in the morgue: `What image would foreign visitors take home if they came and saw a moron working for the State?' Mr Geung is removed, but Judge Haeng is sadly mistaken if he thinks he's won this particular skirmish with Dr Siri. As is usual in these delightful stories, Dr Siri and his team have a number of problems to solve and questions to answer: what is Cuban black magic doing in the mountains of Laos? Will Nurse Dtui succumb to the attractions of the handsome officer? Why do the spirits talk to Dr Siri, and what will happen to Mr Geung? Now that I've read all four of the Dr Siri books published so far, I can sit back (until next month) to wait for the fifth instalment. Dr Siri's dry humour, his ability to get the best outcomes from the creaking bureaucratic processes all make him an enjoyable albeit an unlikely hero. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The third in British author Cotterill's Dr. Siri Paiboun series, after "the Coroner's Lunch," and "Thirty Three Teeth," is even more unusual, assured and absorbing than the first two. Set in Laos in 1977, as the country adapts to its new communist regime, the story begins when a boulder falls on a cement walkway in a remote village exposing a body entombed therein. But this isn't just any remote village. It's the pre-revolutionary home of the Pathet Lao. The walkway is in front of the caves where the rebels had their glorious hidden headquarters before overthrowing the decadent monarchy. An anniversary celebration is scheduled with honored Vietnamese allies and the government wants the mess and the mystery cleared up fast. Siri, the 73-year-old national pathologist and his nurse, Dtui, arrive to find the mummified corpse of a Cuban soldier who had worked at the nearby hospital where a respected colleague of Siri's, Dr. Santiago, presides. Santiago, a Cuban surgeon, hesitantly reveals an exotic story of black magic, bewitching and retribution, featuring the murdered man and another black Cuban soldier. Ritual marks on the corpse's body bear out Dr. Santiago's strange tale, and Siri, well aware of the power of evil spirits, begins to investigate, cutting through red tape and officiousness with wily and serene assurance. Siri's shamanistic heritage augments his sharp powers of observation and deduction as he and Dtui discover more bodies, secrets and scandals, and Siri dances to nightly disco only he and the departed can hear. Meanwhile Siri's exemplary morgue assistant, Geung, left behind to guard the place in the coroner's absence, has been seized by soldiers and sent to a job several hundred miles away. A party boss, Siri's nemesis and an object of much humor, has banished Geung because of his Down's Syndrome, not wanting such a person in a visible state job. Geung escapes and begins making his determined way back to Vientiane on foot. His adventures are many, grueling, varied, dangerous and amusing. And Dtui, smart, opinionated, but not overly self-confident, finds herself the amorous object of a local party functionary, a rule-bound man on his way up. The plot is clever, growing more baffling as further evidence comes to light; Siri grows more ingenious, wry and wise with every year, and Dtui and Geung are not just foils or adjuncts, but fine people in their own right. Atmospheric, humorous, and engaging, this fine series should attract more readers with every volume. --Portsmouth Herald

I have loved Colin Cotterill's characters since I opened his first book in this series. The venue is fresh, and one is entertained while learning something about a culture that is so little-known in the west. Siri Paiboun, the septuagenarian doctor/surgeon-turned-(in duress)-pathologist, is a delight. Dtui, his nurse, grows to new heights with each tale; and Geung, Siri's assistant, is a Down Syndrome sufferer who has his own special kind of genius. None of Cotterill's characters is two-dimensional, and each has his own unique personality - whether friend or foe, mortal or spirit. I especially look forward to the repartee between Siri and his old friend Civilai, which is almost totally absent in this latest novel. Grusome murders, mystery, shamanism, political intrigue (or ineptness), plus wry humor - what more can you ask for? Though some of the humor seems to be a bit "western" - is it? I will withhold judgement until I've gotten to know some Laos firsthand.

This is the third of Colin Cotterill's novels of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the spry and wily septuagenarian national coroner for the Democratic People's Republic of Laos. It is also the most ambitious of the series, adding a few layers of depth and gravity to its relatively lighthearted predecessors. Siri is called to the northern mountains of Huaphan province, home of the legendary cave dwellings where the upstart communists of the Pathet Lao hung out while overthrowing the Lao monarchy. A mummified arm has been found protruding from a broken slab of sidewalk concrete in front of the president's northern retreat just days before the anniversary celebration of the new red regime. Siri, with the steadfast nurse Dtui at his side, must identify the corpse and solve the mystery, all in time to prevent the struggling Pathet Lao further embarrassment. Meanwhile, in the Dr.'s absence, Siri's faithful but retarded morgue assistant, Mr. Geung, has been kidnapped from the beloved morgue, forcibly reassigned to a labor camp of the north. As in all of Cotterill's novels, eastern mysticism plays a key role, and Siri's ability to see and communicate with the dead again comes in handy as a neat forensic tool. "Disco" harbors a darker theme than either "The Coroner's Lunch" or "Thirty-Three Teeth", mixing Caribbean black magic with Southeast Asian spiritualism, while wading MASH-deep into the horrors of war and the toll on its unintended and unsuspecting victims. Notwithstanding, and despite slightly more political innuendo than was mercifully avoided in his previous works, this is an intelligent and engaging read. Paiboun remains one of the most unusual heroes of modern fiction, a scrappy and resourceful clinician who neither wants nor enjoys his special talents, but maintains his wry humor and increasingly learns how to use his gift to his advantage. Unlike "Thirty-Three Teeth", which really read like a sequel, "Disco for the Departed" stands on its own. Cotterill builds enough of the back-story to fill in the pieces for the new reader, but with enough subtlety to not be tedious for Paiboun fans. Off beat, educational, and entertaining, both Cotterill and Siri Paiboun are worth the investment.