The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill - first published 2004
Dr Siri Paiboun was hoping to retire but in 1976 after the Communists take over Laos, he is appointed state coroner. Despite a lack of training for this role and almost no equipment, with the help of some friends in the government and police he manages to solve the murder of the wife of a party leader and that of 3 Vietnamese soldiers. There is a supernatural element to the story – in his dreams Siri is visited by the spirits of various dead people, including the murder victims and when he visits a remote part of the country to perform an autopsy the local tribe are convinced that he is an 1000 year old shaman. I got lost at one of two of the twists and turns in the story, partly because my knowledge of the history of Laos is non-existent but overall it was enjoyable and Dr Siri is a very likeable character. This is the first in a series of crime novels featuring Dr Siri. 6/10
2nd May 2011
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