Synopses & Reviews
Praise for
Thirty-Three Teeth:
“Paiboun’s droll wit and Cotterill’s engaging plot twists keep things energetic; the rather grisly murders are offset by comedy…. The elegant, elderly Paiboun seems an unlikely vehicle to carry a series … but he does so with charm and aplomb.”—Entertainment Weekly
“The series neatly manages to include an engrossing mystery—political and folk history and a lot of sly satire.”—Day to Day, NPR
“Keeps a perfect balance between the modern mysteries of forensic science and the ancient secrets of the spirit world.”—The New York Times Book Review
Feisty Dr. Siri Paiboun is no respecter of persons or Party; at his age he feels he can afford to be independent. In this, the second novel in the series, he travels to Luang Prabang where he communes with the deposed king who is resigned to his fate: it was predicted long ago. And he attends a conference of shamans called by the Communist Party to deliver an ultimatum to the spirits: obey Party orders or get out. But as a series of mutilated corpses arrives in Dr. Siri’s morgue, and Nurse Dtui is menaced, he must use all his powers—forensic and shamanic—to discover the creature—animal or spirit—that has been slaying the innocent.
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. He lives in Chiang mai in northern Thailand.
For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com
Synopsis
Dr. 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 seventy-two-year-old has an outstanding qualification for the role: curiosity. And he does not mind incurring the wrath of the party's hierarchy as he unravels mysterious murders, because the spirits of the dead are on his side--and a little too close for comfort.
Dr. Siri performs autopsies and begins to solve the mysteries relating to a series of deaths by what seem to be bear bites, to explain why a government official ran at full speed through a seventh-story window and fell to his death, and to discover the origins of the two charred bodies from the crashed helicopter in the temple at Luang Prabang. As it turns out, not surprisingly, not all is peaceful and calm in the new Communist paradise of Laos.
Synopsis
Justice is done, Laotian Shaman style.
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.