Thirty-Three Teeth (A Dr. Siri Paiboun Mystery)

Dr.Siri is beginning to enjoy the job as national chief coroner of Laos and protests a little less about his desire to retire. He is a man with a backbone: Siri fights for his able assistant with the Down Syndrome, like Gil Grissom also might want to in Las Vegas, but he wouldn't stand a chance there, American lawyers would shred the evidence obtained by a 'handicapped' lab assistant. Just to show that progress is not always or entirely a good thing. We learn a little more about Siri's biography, how he moved from poverty (orphaned, raised by an aunt) to religion (aunt passed him on to a monastery where he learned) to education (French charity gets him a proper medical training in France)to lust (meets this nurse and follows her) to communism (they join Ho Chi Minh's movement) to poverty (life in the jungles, then in the Socialist Republic of Laos, after an unexpected victory). The circle of life, at least this one's. Siri's three cases this time: crashed helicopter pilots who had tried to rescue the deposed king's family; clearing a bear and accusing a tiger of serial murders; pacifying rebellious royal puppets with the help of Inthanet, a puppeteer. Always in and out of the supranatural, frankly a bit too much for my taste. Another near-destroyer of stars: for me as a practicing amateur of Orwellogy, Cotterill's anachronism with Animal Farm is hard to forgive. Siri reads Animal Farm in a French translation while in the monastery school (i.e. around 1920), later learns in France that the book is anti-communist. Come on, Mr.Cotterill. By the time Animal Farm could have been read by Siri, he was already fighting with the Vietminh. But then, the book is so likeable, I decide to forgive. Just have a look at the chapter where the party chief of Luang Prabang tries to set an ultimatum to the local spirits, using the local shamans as mediators and translators: move away, or play for us, or we will have you exiled! Great satire in a nice little witches' ball. Or the trial against Siri for treason, after he chops down the pole with the loudspeaker for government announcements. That makes up for an overdose of ghosts. As Dr.Siri writes in his resume to his boss, the judge: he often weeps at the great honor bestowed upon him.

This is the second novel of the series featuring Dr Siri Paiboun, the septuagenarian national coroner of Laos. In this engaging mystery, Dr Siri has a number of puzzles to solve with the assistance of his unlikely team of colleagues and friends. Oh, and some help from the spirit world as well. The communist regime of Laos brings its own flavour to proceedings. From the ingenuity of making casts of teeth marks when plaster is not available and the identification of government workers through the existence of `triplicate syndrome', this story engages and amuses. Dr Siri is called upon to travel to Luang Prabang on a national security matter so top secret that the Judge who has despatched him is unable to tell him anything about it. His motivations for accepting the task are not quite consistent with the Judge's renowned maxim: `That's the spirit, Siri. It's moments like these that make the socialist system so great. When the call to arms comes the committed cadre even on his honeymoon would gladly climb off his young wife at the crucial moment sooner than let down the party.' `If that were so, Siri thought to himself, it might explain the frustrated look he'd often seen on the faces of so many Party members.' Nevertheless, Siri travels to Luang Prabang , solves one mystery and uncovers others. He also dines with the deposed king and attends a shamans' conference. In the meantime, savaged corpses are still piling up in Vientiane. Could this be the action of a missing bear, or perhaps, a weretiger? Nurse Dtui undertakes some independent research of her own, after all: `Where do you think the country would be if everyone conducted his or her daily business without the correct forms?' Where indeed! If you are new to this series, I'd strongly recommend reading `The Coroner's Lunch' first. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

"Thirty-Three Teeth" continues the saga of Dr. Siri Paiboun who, well into his seventies, is more or less drafted to serve as the coroner of Laos. The first in the series, "The Coroner's Lunch," was, for me, the nicest surprise I had all last year (from a book, that is), and the new one is, if anything, even better. What makes these books so wonderful? Well, practically everything. The characters are fresh, the writing is sharp and, in this age of bloat, kept refreshingly short. The setting is completely unexplored up until now, and in Cotterill's vision it's a comic-opera banana dictatorship run by incompetents whose only real motivation is to dig a protective moat around their own rear ends, a place where truth comes in a distant second to doctrine and expedience. But what I like best is the way Cotterill interweaves into his mysteries the internal world of the Laotians, rich in both spirit and spirits. Dr. Siri -- not entirely to his pleasure -- has gained entry into the world of the dead, and his dreams are full of the people whose deaths he somewhat reluctantly investigates. This additional layer is never intrusive and never overdone. It gives us insight into a worldview that is very different that that of the West, one that is in some ways richer and more beautiful. It wouldn't be fair to write even a few paragraphs about this book without saying that Cotterill is also very funny. From my perspective, this is the most delightful new series in several years. I ordered the new one, "Disco for the Departed," months before it came out, and it's currently sitting on my To Be Read shelf -- I keep putting it off because once I start it I'll read it in one sitting, and then it'll be over. Give Colin Cotterill a try. I've bought several copies of the first two books to give away, but since I probably don't know you, you'll have to pay for your own.

Dr Siri will live on in my mind as a great gumshoe (or sandal) detective and also as being quite representative of the wonderful humor and intellect of the Lao people. My Lao wife (only 6 months in the US from Vientiane) also read the book, laughed throughout and confirmed the geography and characters. Even if you have little interest in the country or people, this is a great detective novel. If you are interested in Lao, you will find a wealth of rich detail. Colin...write some more!

Dr. Siri Paiboun, the septuagenarian medical examiner for newly communist 1977 Laos, makes up for a lack of equipment, supplies, money and government support, with a surfeit of wily ingenuity, unflappable humor, strength of will and spiritual insight - literally. The year before (in "The Coroner's Lunch," Cotterill's debut) Siri had learned he was the incarnation of the spirit of a powerful 1,000-year-old Hmong shaman. If this sounds like more than you want to swallow with your murder and mayhem, wait. In Cotterill's deft hands, Siri's spirituality is a natural outgrowth of his dogged toughness and hard-earned wisdom. His heightened perceptions and cryptic ghostly visitors become fine tools in deft hands. And the ubiquitous spirits add an exotic dimension to the steamy, colorful Laotian atmosphere. Siri's second outing begins with two dead men who have nothing in common except that their bodies were found tangled together on a bicycle. One is a threadbare old man, the other a well-dressed functionary. With Holmesian deduction Siri quickly determines the manner and means of death, although discovering motive and murderer will involve a side trip to the capital city, Luang Prabang, where two charred bodies, a life-threatening spiritual crisis and a poignant journey into his own past and the remnants of the royal family await. Meanwhile, back at home in Vientiane, his loyal, quietly ambitious nurse, Dtui, is left to stop a series of grisly murders of women by what appears to be a wild beast. The only such beast known to be at large is an old, long-abused bear, recently escaped from its cage, but Dtui doubts the worn-out animal could be capable of such savagery. Her investigation takes her from the Russian compound, where circus acts practice alongside "top-secret" weapons work, to an island prison and a search for a "weretiger," which she has some trouble believing exists. Before it's all over the government will issue an ultimatum to the spirits of Laos to hilarious effect - "If the spirits wish to be part of the new democratic republican network, they have to toe the line. This is a State directive." Siri will find himself dead and then arrested, Dtui will find herself in mortal peril, and the spirits will assist when it suits them. Well-written, energetic and carefully, if whimsically plotted, Cotterill's unusual, intricate, series should appeal to all who like their mysteries literate, witty and exotic. - Portsmouth Herald