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A Pogo Stick Brings a Curse Down upon a Hmong Village.
In Vientiane, a booby-trapped corpse - intended for Dr Siri, the national coroner - 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.
From the Hardcover edition....
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Praise for the Dr. Siri Paiboun series: “A hero unlike any other.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “Magically sublime.”—Entertainment Weekly A blind retired dentist has been run down by a logging truck on the street in Vientiane just opposite the post office. His body is duly delivered to the morgue of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the official and only coroner of Laos. At the age of seventy-four, Dr. Siri is too old to be in awe of the new communist bureaucrats for whom he now works. He identifies the corpse, helped by the letter in the man’s pocket. But first he must decipher it; it is written in code and invisible ink. The dentist’s widow explains that 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 (“Fatty”); Phosy, a police officer; and Aunt Bpoo, a transvestite fortune-teller, Dr. Siri solves the mystery of the note and foils a plot to overthrow the government of Laos. Colin Cotterill is the author of The Coroner’s Lunch, Thirty-Three Teeth, and Disco for the Departed, all featuring Dr. Siri Paiboun. He lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He received the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth from the Independent Mystery Book-sellers Association. For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com ...
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“Purely entertaining. . . . Elements of the ritualistic killings are pretty gross and the spooks can be scary; but as the author gently points out, life would be dreary without a few thrills.”—The New York Times Book Review “Cotterill’s writing is both evocative and educational.”—Entertainment Weekly “Readers who enjoy Eliot Pattison’s Asian thrillers . . . will find that Cotterill shares the same sardonic view of Asian communism mixed with a touch of mysticism . . . a quality that sets the work of both authors apart from most mystery fare.”—Library Journal (starred review) Dr. Siri Paiboun is summoned to the mountains of Huaphan Province, where for years the leaders of the current communist government hid in caves, waiting to assume power. Now a major celebration of the new regime is scheduled to take place, but an arm is found protruding from the concrete walk laid from the president’s former cave hideout to his new house beneath the cliffs. Siri must supervise the disinterment of the body attached to the arm, identify it, and determine the cause of death. The autopsy provides some surprises, but it is his gifts as a shaman that enable the seventy-three-year-old doctor to discover why the victim was buried alive and identify the killer. Colin Cotterill was born in London and currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He received the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth, the second mystery in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series. For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com ...
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“This series kickoff is an embarrassment of riches: Holmesian sleuthing, political satire, and [a] droll comic study of a prickly late bloomer.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “The sights, smells, and colors of Laos practically jump of the pages of this inspired, often wryly witty first novel.”—Denver Post “A wonderfully fresh and exotic mystery. . . . 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 entertainments, but substantial crimes that take us into the thick of political intrigue.”—The New York Times Book Review “In Siri, Cotterill has created a detective as distinctive as Maigret or Poirot.”—Orlando Sentinel “The Soho Press crime series . . . has done mystery connoisseurs everywhere a favor by adding Colin Cotterill to its publishing list. 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.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer Laos, 1975. The Communist Pathet Lao has taken over this former French colony. Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old Paris-trained doctor, is appointed national coroner. Although he has no training for the job, there is no one else; the rest of the educated class has fled. He is expected to come up with the answers the party wants. But crafty and charming Dr.Siri is immune to bureaucratic pressure. At his age, he reasons, what can they do to him? And he knows he cannot fail the dead who come into his care without risk of incurring their boundless displeasure. Eternity could be a long time to have the spirits mad at you. For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com ...
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“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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“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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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 ...
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