Disco for the Departed - Hardcover

Cotterill, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569474281 ISBN 13: 9781569474280

Publisher: Soho Crime, 2006

Synopsis

Dr Siri Paiboun, reluctant national coroner of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, is summoned to a remote location in the mountains of Huaphan Province, where for years the leaders of the current government had hidden out in caves, waiting to assume power. Now, as a major celebration of the new regime is scheduled to take place, an arm is found protruding from the concrete walk that had been laid from the President’s former cave hideout to his new house beneath the cliffs. Dr Siri is ordered to supervise the disinterment of the body attached to the arm, identify the corpse, and discover how he died.

About this title

About the Author

Colin Cotterill, author of seven 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

Adult/High School–Set in Laos in the 1970s, this is the third book in Cotterills exotic and engrossing series featuring Dr. Siri Paiboun, the 73-year-old national coroner; his nurse, Dtui; and Mr. Geung, a developmentally challenged morgue assistant. After a corpse is found entombed in concrete at the presidential compound in remote, mountainous Hiraphan Providence, Paiboun and Dtui are sent from Vientiane to the scene of the apparent crime to sort things out. They need to work fast because a large national celebration is scheduled to take place at the compound in just a few days. Aided by his status as a spirit host, Paiboun takes advantage of clues flowing directly from the dead. But this boon is offset by the endless red tape of the sporadically functioning communist regime. Meanwhile, Mr. Geung, through no fault or choice of his own, is engaged in a separate harrowing, prolonged, and near deadly adventure. Cotterill mixes several elements of mysticism, including soul-transfer, elaborate rituals, dancing (and disco music) for the departed with more conventional themes: racism, international relations, military and government bureaucracy, and romantic posturing. The supernatural happenings and unfamiliar location, time, and characters demand sophistication on the part of teen readers, but for those eager to explore new territory, the novel offers an excellent alternative to the typical American or British mystery setting.–Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Set in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos in 1977, Cotterill's engrossing third mystery (after 2005's Thirty-three Teeth) takes series hero Dr. Siri Paiboun, the 73-year-old national coroner who has recently discovered his shaman ancestry, and Nurse Dtui, his no-nonsense associate, from the capital, Vientiane, to remote Vieng Xai, where a cement-entombed corpse has turned up at the Laotian president's compound. At Kilometer 8 Hospital, Paiboun and Dtui meet Dr. Santiago, a charismatic surgeon on loan from Cuba, who uncovers crucial information about the victim's identity. As they close in on the killer, Paiboun and company must deal with soul-transfer, a marriage proposal, ancient rituals, frenetic dancing, racism and more murders. Horrific sacrificial rituals coexist seamlessly with the endless, banal red tape that hampers the investigation. Paiboun's gift for conversing with the dead comes in handy as he endures such strange happenings as nightly disco music only he can hear. This witty and unusual series just keeps getting better. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The third entry in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series finds the spry, wry national coroner of Laos picking up a few new dance moves courtesy of a Cuban relief worker whose spirit takes up residence in the old doctor's body. Now that Siri's status as spirit host and ghost dreamer is well documented, Cotterill wisely opens up this disco-era tale of murder and deception by giving sidekicks Mr. Geung and Nurse Dtui their own rich subplots. While the developmentally disabled morgue assistant Geung endures a brutal cross-country trek set in motion by the blundering Judge Haeng, Dtui pitches in at an overburdened hospital and ponders a marriage proposal from a rising star of the Communist Party. Through it all, as the 1970s wind to a close, Siri putters around the president's vacation home sussing out the corporeal and unreal clues he'll need to determine who buried the Cuban alive in the front walk. With such a compelling cast of characters, the twisty mystery comes as a nice bonus. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Crime
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569474281
• ISBN 13: 9781569474280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288