Review: LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE, Colin Cotterill

• 
  This edition supplied by our local library
  
• Published by Soho Press 2010
• 326 pages
• ISBN 978-1-56947-627-7

Synopsis

An almagamation of several:

The seventh Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery
When a Lao female security officer is discovered stabbed through the heart with a fencing sword, Dr. Siri, the reluctant national coroner for the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, is brought in to examine the body. Soon two other young women are found killed in the same unusual way. Siri learns that all three victims studied in Europe and that one of them was being pursued by a mysterious stalker. But before he can solve the case, he is whisked away to Cambodia on a diplomatic mission. Though on the surface the Khmer Rouge seem to be committed to the socialist cause, Siri soon learns the horrifying truth of the killing fields and finds himself thrown into prison. Can the seventy-four-year-old doctor escape with his life?
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Three young Laotian women have died of fencing sword wounds. Each of them had studied abroad in an Eastern bloc country. Before he can complete his investigation, Dr. Siri is lured to Cambodia by an all-expenses-paid trip. Accused of spying for the Vietnamese, he is imprisoned, beaten, and threatened with death. The Khmer Rouge is relentless, and it is touch and go for the dauntless, seventy-four-year-old national—and only—coroner of Laos.
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Dr Siri Paiboun is about to celebrate his seventy-fourth birthday but it looks as though it might be his last. Instead of being at home with Madam Daeng, his wife of three months, he's in jail. It's not your average run-of-the-mill jail either. Siri is chained to some lead piping and conditions are not exactly five star. Meanwhile Phosy and Dtui are having marriage problems whilst he struggles to investigate the deaths of three women, all skewered by an epee and their thighs showing a letter engraved with a knife.

My Take

I had listened to an audio version of the book some years ago in 2012, shortly after publication. My original review is here.

I am now re-reading this book with my U3A Crime Fiction reading group. This book is very different to what we have read so far this year and I became aware as I was reading it that many of our group might struggle with it. So I decided to give their reading a bit of direction by posing some questions and giving them a bit more background information. You will see this supplementary material below. Beware - there may be spoilers.

This is the 7th book in the series, and, had it been up to me, I would probably have started my group on the first book in the series. 

In the front of this book the author says ".. this volume is dedicated to the spirits of the Khmer who perished under Pol Pot and the resourceful souls who survived." I think as readers we need to recognise that he has a dual purpose in writing this book - telling us a crime fiction story, but also conveying a political message.

I would like my group to also appreciate the humour that I think comes through in Dr Siri's approach to life.

My rating: 4.4

The supplementary material:

I am aware that you might be struggling in your reading of LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE by Colin Cotterill so I have put together some blurbs and other information which may help you to keep going.
Here also are a couple of questions you might like to try and answer.
1. When is the book set and where?
2. Who works with Dr Siri in the Coroner's Office
3. What is the meaning of the title? Whose grave is it? why are there love songs coming out of it? Why is the grave shallow
4. Why is Dr Siri invited to Cambodia and what happens to him there?
5. Who killed the young Laotian women and why?

I hope these questions help you keep reading what I think is a challenging book.

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Dr Siri Paiboun is about to celebrate his seventy-fourth birthday but it looks as though it might be his last. Instead of being at home with Madam Daeng, his wife of three months, he's in jail. It's not your average run-of-the-mill jail either. Siri is chained to some lead piping and conditions are not exactly five star. Meanwhile Phosy and Dtui are having marriage problems whilst he struggles to investigate the deaths of three women, all skewered by an epee and their thighs showing a letter engraved with a knife.

This might be the seventh book in the series and Dr Siri might be getting older but there are no signs that the series is getting tired. All the old friends are there but the star of the show this time is very definitely south-east Asia. There's more than usual about the history of Laos and Vientiane in particular but it's delivered with a light touch. Conditions there might seem to be a little primitive given that it's the nineteen seventies and the Americans have not long left, but compared to Cambodia it's heaven. Laos might be run by bumbling incompetents but it's far better than the situation in Phnom Phen.

Cotterill's writing goes from strength to strength. He's always had the ability to evoke a place or a person in just a few well-chosen words, but in Love Songs… he seems to have surpassed himself. I laughed, I cried and sometimes I just smiled at the rightness of a description as in …frogs were yelling their delight like an orchestra of bedsprings and didgeridoos. Perfect.

And the mystery of the women skewered by an epee? Well, that's one of the most complex in the series so far. It was also more to my taste as the book largely moves away from Shamanism and reliance on the spirit world for solutions and we get an example of good, old-fashioned detection at its best. Methods might be primitive – finger-prints evidence is a hundred years behind the west – and cash for supplies very short, but that all makes the solution to a very complex investigation all the more compelling. It's great stuff. 

Published by Soho Crime
Aug 09, 2011 |

About the Author

Colin Cotterill is the author of The Coroner’s Lunch, Thirty-Three Teeth, and Disco for the Departed, all featuring Dr. Siri Paiboun. He lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He received the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Cambodia before 1975

In 1953 Cambodia gained independence after nearly a century of French rule. The country was ruled by a monarch, King Sihanouk, who abdicated in 1955 to pursue a political career.

Angkor Wat – Cambodia

His father became king and Sihanouk became prime minister. When his father died in 1960, Sihanouk became head of state. In the 1960s the population of Cambodia was between six and 7 million, and 95% of the population was Buddhist.

In 1970, Sihanouk was overthrown. The Prime Minister, General Lon Nol, assumed power. He announced that this marked the beginning of the Khmer Republic and sent the Army to fight the North Vietnamese in Cambodia. Sihanouk – in exile in China – formed a guerrilla movement with Cambodian Communists (the Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot from 1962). During the early 1970s, the Cambodian Army faced two enemies: the North Vietnamese and Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Gradually, the Army lost territory.

On 17 April 1975, Khmer Rouge forces entered the capital city, Phnom Penh, and defeated the ruling Lon Nol Army. The seizure of Phnom Penh marked the beginning of genocide in Cambodia.

 I have also read

DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED
THIRTY THREE TEETH
4.3, ANARCHY and OLD DOGS
4.3, LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE