Synopses & Reviews
The eighth installment in Colin Cotterill's bestselling mystery series starring the inimitable Lao national coroner, Dr. Siri
Dr. Siri was 72 years old in 1974 when he was forced out of retirement and grudgingly became Laos’s national coroner. Now he might finally be allowed to retire (again). Although he loves his two morgue assistants, he's never loved the job, and he wants to spend some time with his wife before his untimely death (which has been predicted by the local transvestite fortune teller).
But retirement is not in the cards for Dr. Siri. He's dragged into one last job for the Lao government: supervising an excavation to find the remains of a US fighter pilot who went down in the remote northern Lao jungle ten years earlier. One member of the party is found dead, setting off a chain of accidents Dr. Siri suspects aren't completely accidental. Everyone is trapped in a cabin in the jungle, and the bodies start to pile up. Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot's mysterious story before the fortune teller's prediction comes true?
Synopsis
The eighth Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery
Dr. Siri never really wanted to be Laos's national coroner. And now that he is in his mid-70s, he longs to spend some time with his wife before the untimely death that is sure to befall him, according to the local transvestite fortune-teller. But retirement will have to wait (again) until he has completed one last job for the Lao government: supervising an excavation for the remains of a US fighter pilot who went down in the remote northern Lao jungle ten years earlier. And the stakes are high. The presence of American soldiers in Laos is controversial, and the search party includes high-level politicians and scientists. So when a member of the party is found dead, Dr. Siri suspects it may not have been an accident. Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot's mysterious story before the body count rises and the fortune-teller's prediction comes true?
About the Author
Colin Cotterill was born in London in 1952. He trained as a teacher and worked in Israel, Australia, the US, and Japan before training teachers in Thailand and on the Burmese border. He wrote and produced a language teaching series for Thai national television and spent several years in Laos. Colin is involved in a number of social projects, many to benefit children. With his wife he set up a book and scholarship program in Laos and runs a small school for the children of Burmese migrants near his home.
All the while Colin continues with his two other passions: cartooning and writing. Since 2000 he has written over fifteen books, including the Dr. Siri crime series set in Laos. Colin lives in Chumphon in the south of Thailand with his wife where he rides his bicycle along the coast, decapitates coconuts, eats a lot of squid, plays with his dogs, and occasionally sits down to write.
From the Hardcover edition.