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Jimm Juree Case Files #2
Number Two: When You Wish Upon a Star
Number When You Wish Upon a Star is a short story by Colin Cotterill. It is the second in a series of eBook short stories based on his fictional Thai woman journalist and crime solver, Jimm Juree. Jimm has already featured in a number of New York published novels. In this story a car drives into a river and a woman is dead. A terrible accident and a broken hearted husband. Or it would be if Jimm’s sixth sense hadn’t cut in.
30 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2017
18 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Colin Cotterill
71 books1,020 followersColin Cotterill was born in London and trained as a teacher and set off on a world tour that didn't ever come to an end. He worked as a Physical Education instructor in Israel, a primary school teacher in Australia, a counselor for educationally handicapped adults in the US, and a university lecturer in Japan. But the greater part of his latter years has been spent in Southeast Asia. Colin has taught and trained teachers in Thailand and on the Burmese border. He spent several years in Laos, initially with UNESCO and wrote and produced a forty-programme language teaching series; English By Accident, for Thai national television.
Ten years ago, Colin became involved in child protection in the region and set up an NGO in Phuket which he ran for the first two years. After two more years of study in child abuse issues, and one more stint in Phuket, he moved on to ECPAT, an international organization combating child prostitution and pornography. He established their training program for caregivers.
All the while, Colin continued with his two other passions; cartooning and writing. He contributed regular columns for the Bangkok Post but had little time to write. It wasn't until his work with trafficked children that he found himself sufficiently stimulated to put together his first novel, The Night Bastard (Suk's Editions. 2000).
The reaction to that first attempt was so positive that Colin decided to take time off and write full-time. Since October 2001 he has written nine more novels. Two of these are child-protection based: Evil in the Land Without (Asia Books December 03), and Pool and Its Role in Asian Communism (Asia Books, Dec 05). These were followed by The Coroner’s Lunch (Soho Press. Dec 04), Thirty Three Teeth (Aug 05), Disco for the Departed (Aug 06), Anarchy and Old Dogs (Aug 07), and Curse of the Pogo Stick (Aug 08), The Merry Misogynist (Aug 09), Love Songs from a Shallow Grave (Aug 10) these last seven are set in Laos in the 1970’s.
On June 15, 2009 Colin Cotterill received the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award for being "the author of crime fiction whose work is currently giving the greatest enjoyment to library users".
When the Lao books gained in popularity, Cotterill set up a project to send books to Lao children and sponsor trainee teachers. The Books for Laos programme elicits support from fans of the books and is administered purely on a voluntary basis.
Since 1990, Colin has been a regular cartoonist for national publications. A Thai language translation of his cartoon scrapbook, Ethel and Joan Go to Phuket (Matichon May 04) and weekly social cartoons in the Nation newspaper, set him back onto the cartoon trail in 2004. On 4 April 2004, an illustrated bilingual column ‘cycle logical’ was launched in Matichon’s popular weekly news magazine. These have been published in book form.
Colin is married and lives in a fishing community on the Gulf of Siam with his wife, Kyoko, and ever-expanding pack of very annoying dogs.
Ten years ago, Colin became involved in child protection in the region and set up an NGO in Phuket which he ran for the first two years. After two more years of study in child abuse issues, and one more stint in Phuket, he moved on to ECPAT, an international organization combating child prostitution and pornography. He established their training program for caregivers.
All the while, Colin continued with his two other passions; cartooning and writing. He contributed regular columns for the Bangkok Post but had little time to write. It wasn't until his work with trafficked children that he found himself sufficiently stimulated to put together his first novel, The Night Bastard (Suk's Editions. 2000).
The reaction to that first attempt was so positive that Colin decided to take time off and write full-time. Since October 2001 he has written nine more novels. Two of these are child-protection based: Evil in the Land Without (Asia Books December 03), and Pool and Its Role in Asian Communism (Asia Books, Dec 05). These were followed by The Coroner’s Lunch (Soho Press. Dec 04), Thirty Three Teeth (Aug 05), Disco for the Departed (Aug 06), Anarchy and Old Dogs (Aug 07), and Curse of the Pogo Stick (Aug 08), The Merry Misogynist (Aug 09), Love Songs from a Shallow Grave (Aug 10) these last seven are set in Laos in the 1970’s.
On June 15, 2009 Colin Cotterill received the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award for being "the author of crime fiction whose work is currently giving the greatest enjoyment to library users".
When the Lao books gained in popularity, Cotterill set up a project to send books to Lao children and sponsor trainee teachers. The Books for Laos programme elicits support from fans of the books and is administered purely on a voluntary basis.
Since 1990, Colin has been a regular cartoonist for national publications. A Thai language translation of his cartoon scrapbook, Ethel and Joan Go to Phuket (Matichon May 04) and weekly social cartoons in the Nation newspaper, set him back onto the cartoon trail in 2004. On 4 April 2004, an illustrated bilingual column ‘cycle logical’ was launched in Matichon’s popular weekly news magazine. These have been published in book form.
Colin is married and lives in a fishing community on the Gulf of Siam with his wife, Kyoko, and ever-expanding pack of very annoying dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 6, 2020
Murder and dark humor. Life and crime from a Thai reporter's viewpoint.
How to keep crime out of the news
"It’s not as if there was no crime in Chumphon but ours was a weekly magazine-style rag and by the time it hit the streets the police had already solved the cases or been paid off."
How to budget for a magazine without really trying
How the newspaper editor keeps costs down...
"He wanted emotion and good quality cell phone photographs so he didn’t have to fork out for a professional photographer."
Meet the family. . .
Mair – nutty as peanut brittle – sold our family home without telling us and headed south. With her went her father, Granddad Jah, the only Thai traffic policeman to go through an entire career without accepting bribes or kickbacks, my brother, Arny, a wimpy lamb with the body of a Greek God, and me. The only one to pass up on family obligation was Sissy, my transsexual brother. Once a cabaret star, and briefly a TV celebrity, now an ageing recluse, Sissy had become something of an internet criminal and although I haven’t forgiven her for deserting us, I do find her skills useful from time to time.
. . . .
So it’s down to our disjointed family to solve the mysteries and put the perps away. We’re a surprisingly efficient team of crime fighters but I have to confess we were hopeless at running a resort and deserved all the disasters that befell us. At the time of writing this, we still haven’t been able to salvage our monsoon ravaged bungalows from the depths of the bay and we’ve spent the past year doing odd jobs to make ends meet. The bank has been particularly slow in paying out on our disaster insurance claim. But we’re refusing to budge until they do.
Preparation for Wishing Upon a Star
You had about four seconds all told. You can’t say a lot in four seconds so it helps to have a plan. Some people prepared their wish, whittled it down to the bare minimum and practiced it, just in case. But even then you’d waste a second as you looked up at the sky in wonder. Mr. Grabong had his wish standing by at one side of his mind but the sky in Lang Suan was muggy with car exhaust and the lights of the town blurred the view. To see shooting stars you’d usually have to drive to the coast and look out into the gulf and be patient.
But Mr. Grabong was putting out the garbage bin in front of his town house when he looked up at the roof and the meteoroid sliced across the sky above it. He didn’t hesitate.
“I wish my wife would die in a car accident,’ he said.
Not every wish made upon a star bore fruit. It depended on the alignment of the night sky with certain supernatural elements he didn’t really understand. Few people can claim success at this method of improving their lives but on that warm southern Thai night in March Mr. Grabong got lucky.
A simple gem of a who-dun-it.
Enjoy!
How to keep crime out of the news
"It’s not as if there was no crime in Chumphon but ours was a weekly magazine-style rag and by the time it hit the streets the police had already solved the cases or been paid off."
How to budget for a magazine without really trying
How the newspaper editor keeps costs down...
"He wanted emotion and good quality cell phone photographs so he didn’t have to fork out for a professional photographer."
Meet the family. . .
Mair – nutty as peanut brittle – sold our family home without telling us and headed south. With her went her father, Granddad Jah, the only Thai traffic policeman to go through an entire career without accepting bribes or kickbacks, my brother, Arny, a wimpy lamb with the body of a Greek God, and me. The only one to pass up on family obligation was Sissy, my transsexual brother. Once a cabaret star, and briefly a TV celebrity, now an ageing recluse, Sissy had become something of an internet criminal and although I haven’t forgiven her for deserting us, I do find her skills useful from time to time.
. . . .
So it’s down to our disjointed family to solve the mysteries and put the perps away. We’re a surprisingly efficient team of crime fighters but I have to confess we were hopeless at running a resort and deserved all the disasters that befell us. At the time of writing this, we still haven’t been able to salvage our monsoon ravaged bungalows from the depths of the bay and we’ve spent the past year doing odd jobs to make ends meet. The bank has been particularly slow in paying out on our disaster insurance claim. But we’re refusing to budge until they do.
Preparation for Wishing Upon a Star
You had about four seconds all told. You can’t say a lot in four seconds so it helps to have a plan. Some people prepared their wish, whittled it down to the bare minimum and practiced it, just in case. But even then you’d waste a second as you looked up at the sky in wonder. Mr. Grabong had his wish standing by at one side of his mind but the sky in Lang Suan was muggy with car exhaust and the lights of the town blurred the view. To see shooting stars you’d usually have to drive to the coast and look out into the gulf and be patient.
But Mr. Grabong was putting out the garbage bin in front of his town house when he looked up at the roof and the meteoroid sliced across the sky above it. He didn’t hesitate.
“I wish my wife would die in a car accident,’ he said.
Not every wish made upon a star bore fruit. It depended on the alignment of the night sky with certain supernatural elements he didn’t really understand. Few people can claim success at this method of improving their lives but on that warm southern Thai night in March Mr. Grabong got lucky.
A simple gem of a who-dun-it.
Enjoy!
December 9, 2018
"When You Wish Upon a Star" shows Jimm trying to find out what really happened when a man's wife dies in a car accident. All the stories in this series are enjoyable, and all show Cotterill's talent with ingenious puzzles, humor, and a wide range of characters who prove that all people, no matter their circumstances, have value. I'm definitely looking forward to Jimm's next case.
March 2, 2018
Another rollicking good murder
Poor stranded and unappreciated Jimm solves another unsolvable crime. What thanks does she get. None. In this one it is the motive that is the mystery.
Poor stranded and unappreciated Jimm solves another unsolvable crime. What thanks does she get. None. In this one it is the motive that is the mystery.
January 2, 2019
When a woman is killed when her car flies off the end of the roadway into the ocean, Jimm Juree covers the story for a possible social angle. Very 21st century plot that takes only a few minutes to read.
April 10, 2020
Jimm Juree, Thai Crime Reporter on the Case
Review of the DCO Books Kindle edition (2017)
When You Wish Upon a Star is the second of Colin Cotterill's short stories continuation series of the Jimm Juree Case Files (2017 - present day) following on from his original Jimm Juree novels and prequels (2011-2013).
In this story, Jimm Juree is sent to cover a local human interest story which is thought to be an accident. Her crime reporter instincts tell her that there is more to the story and further investigation follows. As in the first story, the Thai atmosphere is well-captured here. There is a bit of sloppy spelling (the suspect is variously named Grabong or Gabong depending on which page you are on), the hard rock group Metallica becomes Metalica, etc. It was still an enjoyable light crime read.
Trivia and Link
I tracked down DCO Books in Thailand but it appears they have sold off the rights to the Jimm Juree books as they are no longer available at their website.
Review of the DCO Books Kindle edition (2017)
When You Wish Upon a Star is the second of Colin Cotterill's short stories continuation series of the Jimm Juree Case Files (2017 - present day) following on from his original Jimm Juree novels and prequels (2011-2013).
In this story, Jimm Juree is sent to cover a local human interest story which is thought to be an accident. Her crime reporter instincts tell her that there is more to the story and further investigation follows. As in the first story, the Thai atmosphere is well-captured here. There is a bit of sloppy spelling (the suspect is variously named Grabong or Gabong depending on which page you are on), the hard rock group Metallica becomes Metalica, etc. It was still an enjoyable light crime read.
Trivia and Link
I tracked down DCO Books in Thailand but it appears they have sold off the rights to the Jimm Juree books as they are no longer available at their website.
March 13, 2020
Another great installment in the series.
December 19, 2020
A fun little mystery short story, written with the same quality of all of Cotterill's work. I only wish it had been a bit longer.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews