The Coroner's Lunch
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15
Ratings1
Average rating4
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill"A wonderfully fresh and exotic mystery."—The New York Times Book ReviewDr. Siri Paiboun, one of the last doctors left in Laos after the Communist takeover, has been drafted to be national coroner. He is untrained for the job, but this independent 72-year-old has an outstanding qualification for it: curiosity. And he doesn't mind incurring the wrath of the Party hierarchy as he unravels mysterious murders, because the spirits of the dead are on his side.With the help of his newly-appointed secretary, the ambitious and shrewd Dtui, and Mr. Geung, the Down-Syndrome-afflicted morgue assistant, Dr. Paiboun performs autopsies and begins asking questions to solve the mysteries relating to the death of the wife of a government official and of the unidentified body fished out of the river who didn't drown but was tortured with electricity. As it turns out, all is not peaceful and calm in the new Communist paradise of Laos."The sights, smells and colors of Laos practically jump off the pages of this inspired, often wryly witty first novel."—Denver Post"If Cotterill...had done nothing more than treat us to Siri's views on the dramatic, even comic crises that mark periods of government upheaval, his debut mystery would still be fascinating. But the multiple cases spread out on Siri's examining table...are not cozy entrtainments, but substantial crimes that take us into the thick of political intrigue,"—The New York Times Book Review
Featured Series
13 primary booksDr. Siri Paiboun is a 13-book series with 13 primary works first released in 2004 with contributions by Colin Cotterill.
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This is an enjoyable read: a mystery with an unusual setting (Laos in the 1970s, with the monarchy newly overthrown and the Communist rule was beginning). To me this book has a very strong Nuri Vittachi vibe with its humor, which I like. In my mind I also imagine Dr. Siri Paiboun, the main character to maybe look a little like Vittachi, too.
I was a bit apprehensive picking this up when I looked around what books my library has that is set in various Southeast Asian nations/written by SEA writers. I was apprehensive because this was not written by a Laotian, but a white guy, and I didn't like the last fiction set in Thailand I read which was written a white guy, but this seems short enough. I'm still glad I picked it up, but I'll probably need to read a Laotian writer sometime in the future to have a richer sense of Laos.
Some memorable bits:
“You people are never short of receptions, are you?”“That's why it's called the Communist ‘Party,' and not the Communist ‘sit down and get some work done'.”
The Thais were devastated that evil communists had moved in next door, in Laos. Siri loved to listen to their broadcasts. ... He'd listened to “expert”commentaries on the Reds' inborn taste for wife-sharing, an infirmity that caused such confusion in their society that “incest was inevitable”. How communism had led to a dramatic increase in two-headed births he was uncertain, but Thai radio had the figures to prove it.
“What torture is this? Leave me alone.”“I will not. You deliberately missed the community painting of the youth center last month. I'm certainly not going to let you miss out on the chance to dig the overflow canal.”Community service in the city of Vientiane wasn't a punishment; it was a reward for being a good citizen. The government knew the people would gladly give up their only day off for such a treat.
“I assumed that forty-six years of membership of the party would entitle me...“
“To a pension?” Kham laughed rudely
“Why not?”
“My old friend, I would have expected you to know better after forty-six years. Socialism means contributing for as long as you still have something to give. When you start to forget where your mouth is and dribble egg down your shirt, when you need to pack towels into your underpants to keep yourself dry, that's when the State will show its gratitude. Communism looks after its infirm.”
“I think you are a cog in this great revisionist machine which now powers our beloved country. You are a cog just as I am a cog and The President is a cog. At this important time in our creation, we need all our cogs meshing and coordinated. Don't let us down. Don't stop the machine, Siri.”
“Good health, Doctor. Sorry I can't get up.”
“Ma's got cirrhosis. I told you about it.”
“Yes. Good health, Mrs. Vongheuan.” It seemed peculiar to be wishing good health to a woman who was clearly not healthy at all. But such was the national greeting.
