Thirty-Three Teeth - Hardcover

Cotterill, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569473889 ISBN 13: 9781569473887

Publisher: Soho Crime, 2005

Synopsis

Praise for Cotterill’s The Coroner’s Lunch:

“This series kickoff is an embarrassment of riches: Holmesian sleuthing, political satire and droll comic study of a prickly late bloomer.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The Coroner’s Lunch is marvelous. The setting may be unique in Western fiction, and the characters are unique to themselves. Sweet but not sappy, offbeat but not self-conscious about it, this book doesn’t so much pull you in as open a door and let you walk happily through. Fans of Alexander McCall Smith’s books will love this one.”—S. J. Rozan, author of Absent Friends

“The Coroner’s Lunch is a satisfying feast for the mind.”—Rebecca Pawel, author of Death of a Nationalist, winner of the 2004 Edgar Award for Best First Novel

The national coroner of Laos, Dr. Siri Paiboun, is no respecter of persons or party; at his advanced age he can afford to be independent. With the assistance of his helpers, the mentally retarded Mr. Geung and Nurse Dtui (“Fatty”)—who has dubbed him “Super Spirit Doc”—he elucidates the causes of mysterious deaths. But he also communes with the deposed king, whose special channel to the occult has left him, and attends a conference of shamans called by the Communist government to give the spirits an ultimatum: obey party orders or get out.

Colin Cotterill was born in London in 1952. He has taught in Australia, the United States and Japan and has lived in Thailand, on the Burmese border, and in Laos. For the last several years he has worked for UNICEF and local non-governmental agencies to prevent child prostitution and to rehabilitate abused children. He lives in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

For more information, visit <a href="http://www.colincotterill.com">www.colincotterill.com</a> 

About this title

About the Author

Colin Cotterill, author of six previous books in the Dr Siri Paiboun series, lives in Chumphon, Thailand with his wife. His books have been Book Sense Picks, and he won the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth as well as a Crime Writers' Association Library Dagger.

Reviews

Dr. Siri Paiboun of Laos—"reluctant national coroner, confused psychic, [and] disheartened communist"—employs forensic skills and spiritual acumen to solve a series of bizarre killings in Cotterill's quirky, exotic and winning second novel, set in 1977. Could an old escaped bear be mauling Vientiane citizens? Or is it something more mystical—say, a weretiger? When Paiboun is summoned to the capital to identify the nationality of a pair of charred bodies, he quickly flags them as Asians killed in a helicopter crash, and his ability to connect them to the royal family annoys Communist Party leaders. As Paiboun learns of an effort to get the remaining royal family members out of town, he's arrested, accused of damaging government property. But the witness's testimony is questionable, and Paiboun, representing himself in court, escapes this scrape as handily as he's escaped others before. Paiboun's droll wit and Cotterill's engaging plot twists keep things energetic; the rather grisly murders are offset by comedy, including a scene in which a Party member attempts to impose regulations on the spirit world. The elegant, elderly Paiboun seems an unlikely vehicle to carry a series (he debuted in 2004's The Coroner's Lunch), but he does so with charm and aplomb. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Less than two years after the Communist rise to power in Laos, the nervous government is sending the royal family into secret exile, banning festivals where large groups might revolt, and even ordering benevolent spirits to lend their spectral hands to the cause. But rest assured that Dr. Siri Paiboun, the nation's aged chief coroner and host body for an ancient spirit, will find a way to keep life interesting. In his second outing, the impish Siri faces three mysteries. First, the government asks him to identify a pair of badly burned corpses. Soon, a fearsome creature begins slaughtering the citizens of Vientiane. And then people start inexplicably hurtling to their deaths from a ministry building. In one of many farcical twists, the nation's police officers carry empty guns. So Siri; his friend, Inspector Phosy; able nurse Dtui; and an old comrade with a high party post must use their considerable wits--and an occasional supernatural assist--to crack the cases. As they do so, readers will crack more than a few smiles. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Crime
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569473889
• ISBN 13: 9781569473887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256