The Coroner's Lunch

First of all, thanks to V.J.Canberra for recommending this historical/esoteric/ethnic series of crime novels around Dr.Siri. Meet the hero: the man is 72 and reluctantly (he would rather retire) national chief coroner of the recently turned Republic of Laos under communist Pathet Lao rule. The time is 1976. Dr.Siri is insufficiently qualified as well as equipped and staffed. He makes that up by being the founding father of cynicism. He has odd green eyes. Dogs hate him (until a turnaround point in the plot when they begin to love him). His bosses are weary of his atttitude. Women seem to love him, but he has only recently begun to notice, his wife died 10 years ago. He has been a long time party member, but for the wrong reasons (chercher la femme! though Thai radio propaganda against the new regime claim that all Lao communists are ugly.) On top of all this, Siri is psychic. He sees dead people, "all the time". (saw that movie? it would help) All Asian countries are heavily infested with ghosts and spirits. Probably the poorer, the more infested. As Siri is otherwise short of resources, he makes best use of his off-curriculum abilities (which actually go against his scientific mindset.) The novel has three concurrent crime cases, which stretch poor Siri's skills to the limits. First, a communist top cadre's wife has died under strange circumstances. While this case is the most normal of the three and easily seen through, it provides most of the suspense in this otherwise rather funny book. Second, three shady Vietnamese turn up killed, which threatens to cause an international confrontation. Siri solves the case and saves peace, which however doesn't fully convince; it may not be fully thought through. Third, in an army project that wants to help minority people to substitute opium by other cash crops, the army commanders have been dying one after the other in strange circumstances. The story leads into realms of spirits that I am not familiar with and that make Siri become an unexpected exorcist's assistant. I was considering to deduct a star for too much reliance on the other world and for a wobbly second case, but then, as I like the book a lot, I thought, what the heck. Go for it!

I am married to a Lao woman, go to Vientiane frequently and plan to retire there. Cotterill captures the people and city that I have come to respect and enjoy. Lao is very different from Thailand. I admire them both. The Lao people have a different way about them that most Farang never see. Cotterill is able to put the sights, sounds and personalities of Vientiane into words that no one else can. As a mystery, "Lunch" is every bit the potboiler of vintage Hammett. He is to Lao, what Jake Needham is to Thailand. A few clever twists and engaging characters that keep you moving to the very last page. Well worth the price of admission.

Colin Cotterill's "The Coroner's Lunch" proved to be a gem of a find and a treat of a read. It's a bit hard to classify this book because while it deals with serious themes of murder and corruption, it is also written in almost light hearted and witty manner, full of irreverent humour, and with a slight mystical overtone. But once you start "The Coroner's Lunch," it is really hard to put this book down: swiftly paced with a few disparate subplots that seem unconnected, "The Coroner's Lunch" was completely unputdownble. Set in Laos (once part of Indochine) and in 1975, "The Coroner's Lunch" follows the fortunes of Dr. Siri Paiboum, a Paris trained doctor, who joined the communist party and who has been fighting with them in the jungle, for the sake of the love of his life, his wife Boua. When the novel opens, the fight is over, the communists have won and Siri is now a 70-something year old widower, who is entertaining hopes of a well deserved retirement. Of course things don't go according to plan: because of a lack of trained professionals (most seemed to have fled the country), Siri is informed that he is now the state's only coroner even though he knows next to nothing about performing autopsies. Knowing that declining the privilege is not an option, our reluctant coroner soon finds himself fitted up less than properly equipped morgue and the help of one nurse, Dtui (who is fortunately quite intelligent) and an amiable man of all jobs, Geung, who has Down's Syndrome. Together all three seem to shuffle along adequately and happily. That is until the wife of an important official turns up dead at the morgue. The husband claims that his wife probably died of food poisoning (she liked eating raw fish), but something about the lady's death troubles Siri -- the rush to pronounce her death an accidental one, and the claiming of her body before a proper autopsy can be performed, together with Siri's vision of the dead woman's spirit (yes, the doctor sees ghosts), convinces Siri that the lady was murdered. Siri is determined to discover who murdered the lady and why, but before he can get around to investigation further, he's called upon to perform another autopsy (this time one that could have serious international consequences), and then later to investigate a series of bizarre deaths up North. Suddenly it seems to be raining dead bodies -- or could someone be trying to keep Siri from further investigation the death of the important official's wife... I've been rather lucky lately: nearly every book I've picked up to read, I've found to be well written, clever, witty and a really enjoyable read. In fact I'm beginning to wonder when this string of good luck will wear out! "The Coroner's Lunch" was one of my lucky finds. And I do hope that Kirkus review that claims this book to be the first in a series is right: I'm already counting the months to the next Dr. Siri installment. Simply everything pleased about this book: from the clever, mystical story

In 1975 the Pathet Lao takes over Laos incorporating a communist bureaucracy centered from the capitol at Vientiane. Most of the country's intelligentsia fled but septuagenarian Paris trained physician Dr. Siri Paiboun remains behind expecting to gently retire. However, the new government names Siri state coroner. He deduces this was done because his superiors like Magistrate Haeng expect him to make no waves since he was the last breathing medical doctor still in country. Though Comrade Haeng tortures Siri with his required "burden sharing tutorials" that questions the obvious, the doctor shockingly takes his job seriously seeking the truth even when the brass wants heart attack as cause of death regardless of reality. He upsets the party with his inquires into the death of Comrade Kham's wife as Haeng claims food poisoning. Siri further upsets the communist balance with his deeper look at the accidental deaths of three men who show signs of torture in spite of being food for fish. Finally the suicide of Mai seems a fake to hide homicide. As Haeng harangues, Siri sets things right. Readers who enjoy mysteries in other lands will fully appreciate this delightful tale. The story line provides a deep look at Laos as the Communist Party transitions into power with Siri applying logic to solve cases that his by the book superior wants buried. With the help of dreams that enable the hero to humorously organize his cases, his life, and his society, Siri is a terrific protagonist. His wry comments and asides satirizes his plight as a not so indoctrinated Communist who joined five decades because of how a woman who became his wife breathed. THE CORONER'S LUNCH is a winner due to him. Harriet Klausner