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2 comments By Emily St. John Mandel

When it happens, it feels like winning the lottery. An email arrives out of the blue, from one of my publishers or a festival director or a member... Continue »

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The Lola Quartet
Emily St. John MandelEmily St. John Mandel 9781609530990

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Killed at the Whim of a Hat

by Colin Cotterill

ISBN13: 9781250008305
ISBN10: 1250008301
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The launch of a brand new series by the internationally bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Coroners Lunch

With worldwide critical acclaim, Colin Cotterill is one of the most highly regarded “cult favorite” crime writers today. Now, with this new series, Cotterill is poised to break into the mainstream. Set in present day rural Thailand, Cotterill is as sharp and witty, yet more engaging and charming, than ever before.

Jimm Juree was a crime reporter for the Chiang Mai Daily Mail with a somewhat eccentric family—a mother who might be drifting mentally; a grandfather—a retired cop—who rarely talks; a younger brother obsessed with body-building, and a transgendered, former beauty pageant queen, former older brother. When Jimm is forced to follow her family to a rural village on the coast of Southern Thailand, shes convinced her career—maybe her life—is over. So when a van containing the skeletal remains of two hippies, one of them wearing a hat, is inexplicably unearthed in a local farmers field, Jimm is thrilled. Shortly thereafter an abbot at a local Buddhist temple is viciously murdered, with the temples monk and nun the only suspects.

Suddenly Jimms new life becomes somewhat more promising—and a lot more deadly. And if Jimm is to make the most of this opportunity, and unravel the mysteries that underlie these inexplicable events, it will take luck, perseverance, and the help of her entire family.

One of Library Journal's Best Mystery Books of 2011

About the Author

Born in London, COLIN COTTERILL has worked as teacher in Israel, Australia, the U.S. and Japan before he started training teachers in Thailand. Cotterill and his wife live in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Siam in Southern Thailand. Hes won the Dilys and a CWA Dagger, and has been a finalist for several other awards.

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

: Sheila Deeth, May 16, 2013 (view all comments by Sheila Deeth)
Marketing works! I saw this book on a shelf next to the latest Number One Ladies Detective Agency novel. The cover has the same style of border and a central image reminiscent of earlier books in the series. The label on the shelf said “If you like… then you will enjoy…” So my husband bought the book for me for Mothers’ Day.

Colin Cotterill is not Alexander McCall Smith, and Killed at the Whim of a Hat has a very different feel to the Number One Ladies Detective Agency Novels. It’s much sharper and more harshly critical of the society where it’s set. The protagonist, Jimm Juree, is much more antagonistic. The writing has a harder edge and more biting tone. And the storyline makes you read faster--though the novel’s just as long and there are really only two mysteries to be solved. Vivid words and descriptions sweat as the bike-pedals turn in the heat of a less gentle land.

But things change. Both author and character soften their tone as the story progresses. Jimm Juree learns to value her family for themselves rather than just for duty. She warms to the out-of-the-way locale as the reader warms to her determined rebellion. And the end result is the beginning of what looks like a pleasing, and pleasingly different, mystery series.

Edgy characters include an oddly effeminate cop, a sister who used to be a brother, a sensitive giant, and, of course, a suitable handful of villains out to make money from everyone. This is Thailand, with all its big-city corruption and small-town graft, with history and future… and with headline quotes from George W Bush? But, of course, it’s Bush who first said “at the whim of a hat,” and every quote is perfectly suited to the chapter it introduces--even to the tale when questions are asked and Jimm learns to use that “sincere countenance and confident stance” to best effect.

I’m not entirely sure what I expected in this book, and the beginning felt slow, or overly angry. But I’m hooked by the end and hoping my husband might be tempted to buy me more.

Disclosure: I got this book as a gift for Mothers’ Day.

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Product Details

ISBN:: 9781250008305
Author:: Cotterill, Colin
Publisher:: Minotaur Books
Subject:: Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:: Mystery-A to Z
Subject:: Mystery & Detective/International Mystery & Crime
Edition Description:: Trade paper
Series Volume:: No. 1
Publication Date:: 20120531
Binding:: TRADE PAPER
Language:: English
Pages:: 384
Dimensions:: 8.25 x 5.5 in

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