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This book was one of a kind for me. When I first read "72-year old coroner" and "communist Laos", I really had no idea what I was up for.
Listening to this book in public places has made for some interesting situations, where I find myself laughing out loud, and everybody around looking at me like I'm crazy.
Colin Cotterill pulls off a mystery, a comedy and a ghost story all together and manages to keep it interesting until the last page.
Despite the large amount of characters, with very foreign na ...more
Listening to this book in public places has made for some interesting situations, where I find myself laughing out loud, and everybody around looking at me like I'm crazy.
Colin Cotterill pulls off a mystery, a comedy and a ghost story all together and manages to keep it interesting until the last page.
Despite the large amount of characters, with very foreign na ...more
Dr Siri is ready to retire. He is 72, a doctor, who and also been a jungle fighter trying to bring about Communist change for years. Now the Communists are in power, and his loyalty will be rewarded with retirement, right? Hmmmm. Not so surprisingly he is "rewarded" by the Party by being appointed Chief Coroner (which he has no training for), and expected to work until he no longer can do so. And on top of that, working for a large amount of young men who don't have any understanding of their po
...more
When I picked this one up at the library I thought: "Hmmm, I haven't ready any mystery thriller set in Asia this year. I hope it's good."
I read the first few pages and had quite a culture shock, totally different from what I expected, its set in the 1970s and the protagonist had in his 72th year not even used a phone once. Shocking. No internet. No mobile phones. Bad infrastructure. He doesn't even have the usual shiny gadgets you hear about a pathologist has to work with (whatever they are). It ...more
I read the first few pages and had quite a culture shock, totally different from what I expected, its set in the 1970s and the protagonist had in his 72th year not even used a phone once. Shocking. No internet. No mobile phones. Bad infrastructure. He doesn't even have the usual shiny gadgets you hear about a pathologist has to work with (whatever they are). It ...more
I was quite taken with this book until................... well, let me say the good stuff first. It was funny, the characters were funny and the situations all were good for a laugh. I thought it was very cleverly written and was in the process of really enjoying this book until the exorcisms started. I do not doubt that these things happen in every culture, but I find following them very unpleasant and more than that, difficult to follow along. At this point, I had to decide do I want to keep r
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Probably not for everyone, being a little complex in the context of Laos and its neighbors, but having actually been in Vientiane and its blue-painted airport I enjoyed it and will try more in the series.
Jun 25, 2012
Krittika
marked it as to-read
Dec 15, 2012
Karen
marked it as to-read
Jun 26, 2013
Ankit Agrawal
marked it as to-read
Nov 14, 2013
Snoozie Suzie
marked it as wish-list
Dec 23, 2013
Amanda
marked it as to-read
May 30, 2015
Karthik Subramanian
marked it as to-read
Aug 05, 2015
Tinafromdenmark
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Aug 06, 2015
Mekki
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Sep 20, 2015
Diane
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Dec 06, 2015
Andrew
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Dec 15, 2016
Shawn Bird
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Jan 18, 2018
Karawan
marked it as to-read
Mar 31, 2018
Christelle
marked it as wishlist
May 25, 2020
Kristin
marked it as to-read
