Books about Paiboun from Amazon.com

“A series of terrifically beguiling detective novels. . . . Whimsical, more personal stories that feature Siri and an equally memorable set of supporting characters. . . . A wry, seasoned, off hand style that has been the secret weapon of this unexpectedly blithe and charming series.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Siri’s lingering idealism, hidden beneath his cynical—and often hilarious—digs at the government, provide unexpected emotional depth.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Think What’s Up, Tiger Lily with Mao taking over for Woody Allen.”—Bloomberg.com

“Delightful.”—Publishers Weekly

An elderly man has been run down by a logging truck on the street in Vientiane just opposite the post office. His body is delivered to the morgue of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the official and only coroner of Laos. At the age of seventy-three, Siri is too old to be in awe of the new communist bureaucrats for whom he now works. Before he can identify the corpse, he must decipher a letter in the man’s pocket—it is written in invisible ink and in code. He was a blind retired dentist, his widow explains, and the enigmatic letters and numbers describe chess moves, but they are unlike any chess symbols Siri has previously encountered. With the help of his old friend, Civilai, now a senior member of the Laos politburo; Nurse Dtui; Phosy, a police officer; and Aunt Bpoo, a transvestite fortune-teller, Siri solves the mystery of the note to the blind dentist and foils a plot to overthrow the government of Laos.

For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com 

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Price: $5.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“In the Curse of the Pogo Stick. . . . [Colin] Cotterill achieves a new and compelling sophistication.”—John Burdett

Praise for the Dr. Siri Paiboun Series:

“Wonderfully fresh and exotic.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Tragically funny and magically sublime.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A crack storyteller and an impressive guide to a little-known culture.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Delightful.”—Booklist (starred)

“This witty and unusual series just keeps getting better.”—Publishers Weekly

In Vientiane, a booby-trapped corpse, intended for Dr. Siri, the national coroner of Laos, has been delivered to the morgue. In his absence, only Nurse Dtui’s intervention saves the lives of the morgue attendants, visiting doctors, and Madame Daeng, Dr. Siri’s fiancée.

On his way back from a communist party meeting in the north, Dr. Siri is kidnapped by seven female Hmong villagers under the direction of the village elder so that he will—in the guise of Yeh Ming, the thousand-year-old shaman with whom he shares his body—exorcise the headman’s daughter whose soul is possessed by a demon, and lift the curse of the pogo stick.

Colin Cotterill is the author of The Coroner’s Lunch, Thirty-Three Teeth, Disco for the Departed, and Anarchy and Old Dogs, featuring seventy-three-year-old Dr. Siri Paiboun, national coroner of Laos. He and his wife live in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he teaches at the university.

For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com 

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Price: $14.28 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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 www.colincotterill.com 

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Price: $2.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Praise for Colin Cotterill’s Dr Siri Series:

“Wonderfully fresh and exotic.... The multiple cases spread out on Siri’s examining table are not cozy entertainments but substantial crimes that take us into the thick of political intrigue.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A fresh and innovative detective who goes straight to the heart and soul, without any sappy sentiment. The author gives us exotic locations; a world that few of us know well; crisp, intelligent, and often witty writing; and most of all a hero unlike any other.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

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.

For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com 

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Price: $14.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“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.”—SJ Rozan, author of Absent Friends

Laos, 1972. The Communist Pathet Lao has taken over this former French colony. Most of the educated class has fled, but Dr. Siri Paiboun, a Paris-trained doctor whose late wife had been an ardent Communist, remains. And so this 72-year-old physician is appointed state coroner, despite the fact that he has no training or even supplies to use in performing his new task. What he does have is curiosity and integrity. At his age he is not about to let a bunch of ignorant bureaucrats dictate to him.

One of his first cases involves three bodies recovered from a reservoir, but Dr. Siri establishes that the cause of death was not drowning. These men seem to have been electrocuted, perhaps tortured, and they also seem to be Vietnamese, which could have international repercussions. And then there is the inexplicable death of a Party bigwig’s equally important wife. She collapsed and died at a banquet. But Dr. Siri doesn’t think her death was from natural causes.

In the course of his investigations, Dr. Siri must travel to his birthplace, a Hmong village he has not visited for more than 60 years, where he makes a profound discovery, not only about the motive for several murders, but about himself.

Colin Cotterill was born in London, taught in Australia, the U.S., Laos and Japan, and lives in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand on the Burmese border. He works for UNICEF and local nongovernmental agencies to prevent child prostitution and to rehabilitate abused children.

For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com 

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Price: $56.53 [Notify me when price goes down.]