THIRTY THREE TEETH, Colin Cotterill

The opening setting is Vientiane, People's Democratic Republic of Laos, in March 1977. A large Vietnamese delegation is staying at the Lan Xang Hotel. In the back garden of the hotel are some cages, one housing a mal-treated black mountain bear which escapes. The once retired and very reluctant national coroner, 72 year old Dr. Siri Paiboun, lives in a concrete mausoleum of a building in an outer suburb. On Monday morning when he arrives at the morgue for work Siri already has guests: two men found dead on a bicycle in the middle of the street.

Conditions in the morgue are primitive, and not airconditioned. Siri is assisted in his autopsies by the very observant Nurse Dtui and Mr. Geung, a downs syndrome man with an incredible memory. Siri brings to the mix "mystic connections", dreams, intuition, and visitations from the dead. Sometimes Siri has a problem in telling the dreams from reality, particularly after he's had a vodka drinking session with his good friend Comrade Civilai.

No sooner have they solved the puzzle of the dead men on the bicycle, than the rather odd team is presented with the body of old Auntie See, discovered in the bushes near her shanty, mauled to death. Almost simultaneously Siri is told his presence is required at the royal capital of Luang Prabang. He is required to discover where two rather carbonised corpses have come from. Such are the duties of Laos' national coroner.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book is Cotterill's underlying humour. There are also glimpses of forensic pathology far removed from the world of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. For those of us whose countries fought in the Vietnam War, this is also a look at the post-war world of Laos.

Cotterill's writing style is very laconic. Reminds me a bit of William Mcinnes although of course the latter isn't writing crime fiction. I said also earlier that it reminded me a lot of Alexander Mccall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and although the setting is very different, and in many ways, more third world, the connection is still there for me. Politically it gives a picture in which the revolutionary government is being tolerated by its citizens, but there is no doubt, that despite physical enforcement, the Laotian government remains in power only because the people tolerate it.

This novel, #2 in Cotterill's Siri Paiboun series, won't be everybody's cup of tea, and there was nearly too much of the "mystic" connections for me. But then this is a reminder that in some cultures the spiritual world exists in parallel with the physical, and so we must accept that in Dr. Siri's elderly body resides a very ancient spirit. If this were medieval England we would have no difficulty in accepting a belief in the influence of the spirits of good and evil on our daily lives.

So what has 33 teeth? Sorry- you'll have to read the book to find out.

My rating: 4.3

Colin Cotterill trained as a physical education teacher and, now an Australian citizen, has lived and worked in Israel, Australia, USA, Japan, Thailand and Laos. He presently lives in Chiang Mai. His entertaining website tells you a lot about him, his books, and his Books for Laos project.

Titles to look for in the Dr. Siri series
THE CORONER'S LUNCH (2004)
THIRTY THREE TEETH (2005)
DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED (2006)
ANARCHY & OLD DOGS (2007)

THIRTY THREE TEETH, Progress Report

I've been reading Colin Cotterill's THIRTY THREE TEETH for a few days now. This is #2 of Cotterill's Siri Paiboun series. The first was THE CORONER'S LUNCH and my mini-review of that is below.

This novel is set in Vientiane, People's Democratic Republic of Laos, in March 1977. A large Vietnamese delegation is staying at the Lan Xang Hotel. In the back garden of the hotel are some cages, one housing a mal-treated black mountain bear which escapes. The once retired and very reluctant national coroner, 72 year old Dr. Siri Paiboun, lives in a concrete mausoleum of a building in an outer suburb. On Monday morning when he arrives at the morgue for work Siri already has guests: two men found dead on a bicycle in the middle of the street.

Conditions in the morgue are primitive, and not airconditioned. Siri is assisted in his autopsies by the very observant Nurse Dtui and Mr. Geung, a downs syndrome man with an incredible memory. Siri brings to the mix "mystic connections", dreams, intuition, and visitations from the dead. Sometimes Siri has a problem in telling the dreams from reality, particularly after he's had a vodka drinking session with his good friend Comrade Civilai.

No sooner have they solved the puzzle of the dead men on the bicycle, than the rather odd team is presented with the body of old Auntie See, discovered in the bushes near her shanty, mauled to death. Almost simultaneously Siri is told his presence is required at the royal capital of Luang Prabang. He is required to discover where two rather carbonised corpses have come from. Such are the duties of Laos' national coroner.

One of the things I am enjoying about this book is Cotterill's underlying humour. There are also glimpses of forensic pathology far removed from the world of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. For those of us whose countries fought in the Vietnam War, this is also a look at the post-war world of Laos.

THE CORONER'S LUNCH, my rating: 4.5
Dr Siri Paiboun, retired septuagenarian doctor, has been called into service as the chief coroner in the new communist regime in Laos in 1975. Working in what is without doubt one of the worst equipped morgues in the world, and aided by only a nurse and a Downs Syndrome assistant, Siri pursues investigations in very unconventional ways. In style this book reminds me in many ways of McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. There is a lot of humour and at the same time glimpses of a very different world to the one I live in.
For another review visit It's Criminal

Colin Cotterill trained as a physical education teacher and, now an Australian citizen, has lived and worked in Israel, Australia, USA, Japan, Thailand and Laos. He presently lives in Chiang Mai. His entertaining website tells you a lot about him, his books, and his Books for Laos project.

Titles to look for in the Dr. Siri series
THE CORONER'S LUNCH (2004)
THIRTY THREE TEETH (2005)
DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED (2006)
ANARCHY & OLD DOGS (2007)

Review: ANARCHY and OLD DOGS, Colin Cotterill

Soho Press 2007
ISBN-13 978-1-56947-463-1
272 pages
Source: borrowed from my library
The image to the right comes from the author's own website.

How to describe Dr. Siri Paiboun?
A man who hosts the spirit of a thousand-year-ol Hmong shaman - a man who's being pursued by the malevolent spirits of the jungle - a man who is regularly visited by the ghosts of murder victims... a man who has no fewer than thirty-three teeth crammed together in his magical mouth, which positively proves his connections to the spirit world.
Even this snippet illustrates Colin Cotterill's quirky sense of humour. It also refers to incidents in earlier titles in this series.

Dr Siri Paiboun is the rather reluctant coroner for the whole of Laos, based in Vientiane. His investigation of the death of blind dentist Dr. Buagew leads to the discovery of a letter written in invisible ink in the dead man's jacket pocket. There's no mystery in how the old man was killed. He was killed by a runaway logging truck right in front of the post office. The mystery lies in the content of the letter: it appears to be in code. When the dead man's wife claims the code stands for chess moves, Siri's suspicions are raised.When decoded, the letter appears to be referring to a planned coup to take place in the South.

It is August 1977, Dr. Siri Paiboun is 73, and Laos has made little progress since the Pathet Lao came to power in 1975. Everything is tied up in red tape. Laos has recently signed an agreement of friendship and cooperation with the government of Vietnam. Down south a deputy governor seems to have managed to get himself electrocuted in his bathtub. Dr Siri must go south to sign the death certificate.

There's a lot more political overlay in ANARCHY and OLD DOGS than I remember in earlier novels. The revolution has not brought the enlightenment that Dr Siri and his comrades had envisaged. It is a disappointment that weighs heavy on his mind. And running alongside this theme are the coronial duties that Siri carries out, the murder mysteries he solves.

My rating: 4.3

If  ANARCHY and OLD DOGS sounds interesting to you, then I would recommend that, if you can, you read the  books in the series in order. Each builds on the last and they are sequential.

The Coroner's Lunch - Quercus (2007)
Thirty-Three Teeth - Quercus (2007)
Disco for the Departed - Quercus (2008)
Anarchy and Old Dogs - Quercus (2008)
Curse of the Pogo Stick - Quercus (2008)
The Merry Misogynist - Quercus (2009)
Love Songs from a Shallow Grave

In 2009 Colin Cotterill won the CWA Dagger in the Library.
In making the award to Colin, the judges said An unusual hero in an unusual setting. Quirky, funny and very appealing. His books are a truly beautiful read. 

Earlier reviews:
DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED
THIRTY THREE TEETH

I read  ANARCHY and OLD DOGS as part of the 2010 Global Reading Reading Challenge.

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?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

CWA Dagger in Library shortlist includes some favourite authors

Can't think how I missed the presence of Michael Robotham, Peter James, and Colin Cotterill on this list in my earlier post:

The CWA Dagger in the Library

Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library is awarded not for an individual book but for the author’s body of work. Authors are nominated by UK libraries and Readers’ Groups and judged by a panel of librarians. Previous winners have included Stuart McBride, Craig Russell and Alexander McCall Smith. The £1500 prize is sponsored by the publishers Random House. In addition, the participating libraries’ readers groups that nominated the winning author will be entered into a draw for £300 to be spent on books for their group.

The 2009 shortlist is:

Simon Beckett.
Colin Cotterill.
R J Ellory.
Ariana Franklin.
Peter James.
Michael Robotham.

More information about each of the nominees on the CWA Dagger in the Library page.

Review: DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, Colin Cotterill

Text Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-921351-41-9, 264 pages

The year is 1977 and Laos is about to sign a big much publicised treaty with Vietnam in just a few days time. Dr Siri Paiboun, Laos' 73 year old rather reluctant coroner, has been summoned to revolutionary headquarters in the north east where the treaty is to be signed because, rather inconveniently, a mummified arm is protruding from a concrete path in the President's compound.

Dr Siri and his assistant Nurse Dtui are normally to be found running the morgue at Mahosot hospital in Vientiane. They have come away leaving their Downs Syndrome assistant Mr Geung in charge of the morgue. Recently Dr Siri has discovered that he hosts the spirit of an ancient Hmong shaman called Yeh Ming. The discovery has helped to explain his ability to communicate with the souls of the departed, but it does mean there are times when Siri has a problem distinguishing the supernatural from reality. On the other hand his supernatural "abilities" often play a far greater role in solving mysteries than his coronial skills do.

DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED is a rather quirky mixture of sleuthing and the supernatural, together with gobbets of Laotian culture and Communist history. Dr Siri's own acceptance of his shamanism means that the Western reader who would perhaps not normally accept this view of the world have no problem in accepting its role. Read more.

This is the third in this delightful but different series, the other two titles being THE CORONER'S LUNCH and THIRTY-THREE TEETH. There is just enough of the back-story from the two earlier novels recounted in DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, although both of the other titles are also worth looking for.

Colin Cotterill's website
Titles to look for in the Dr. Siri series
THE CORONER'S LUNCH (2004)
THIRTY THREE TEETH (2005)
DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED (2006)
ANARCHY & OLD DOGS (2007)

Review of THE CORONER'S LUNCH on It's Criminal

My rating: 4.2

Sunday salon - 31 October

I have managed this month to cut down the number of blog posts I've published. - only 45 in the 31 days compared with the 70 in the month of September.

I've actually read and reviewed 11 books this month and am well on schedule to finish most of my reading challenges for the year. I've read 107 books for the year, already more than in 2009 when I read 104, and I should make it to 125.

I highly recommend THE NIGHT OF THE MI'RAJ by Zoe Ferraris which I finished reading this week. It's alternative title is FINDING NOUF. I read that as title #17 in the 2010 Global Reading Reading Challenge and I have 4 more to go for that challenge.

After I've done that I have to focus on getting a few more books read for the Canadian Reading Challenge, where I've only read 3 so far, although I actually have until the middle of next year to make it to 13.

Reviews published this week:

1. 4.4, DISCOUNT NOIR, edited Patricia Abbott & Steve Weddle (30 October) - kindle
2. 4.8, THE NIGHT OF THE MI'RAJ, Zoe Ferraris (28 October)
3. 4.3, THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH CRIME 7, 2010, edit.Maxim Jakubowski (24 October) - kindle

Other posts this week

• Weekly Geeks 2010 - 35: The books you waited too long to read
• Forgotten Books: DEATH BEYOND THE NILE, Jessica Mann
• You know you're hooked when...
• Unusual book sculptures
• Bafflement leads to a change of reading plans

News & Headlines

• Finalists for Irish Crime Novel Award announced
• 2010 SCIBA Book Award Winner
• What are your top 5 favourite crime novels?
• Short Survey about e-reading

TBRN (To read next)

• now - ANARCHY AND OLD DOGS, Colin Cotterill
• next - THE BLOOD DETECTIVE, Dan Waddell
• next on Kindle - CITY OF VEILS, Zoe Ferraris (Saudi Arabia)
• now on Audio - THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN, PD James

To finish the Global Reading Challenge:
* HAVANA BLACK, Leonardo Padura (Cuba)
* BEAT NOT THE BONES, Charlotte Jay (New Guinea)
* BAIT, Nick Brownlee (Kenya) - Kindle
* ANARCHY AND OLD DOGS, Colin Cotterill (Laos)