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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Solid Dr. Siri Adventure, January 6, 2007
This third installment of the "Dr. Siri" series continues to document the adventures of the national coroner of newly Communist Laos. Set in 1977, the story opens with the elderly coroner and his sensible nurse sent to the remote town of Vieng Xai. Located in the northern Hua Phan province, the town is being built at the base of a vast cave system that served at the Pathet Lao headquarters during the struggle against the American-backed monarchy. Now, as it is being prepared to stage an important ceremony to mark a new friendship treaty with Vietnam, a very strange corpse has turned up. Since there is no police force to speak of, Dr. Siri is called in to make sense of it with all due haste.
The body turns out to be that of a Cuban attached to a nearby "advisory" unit. After establishing Dr. Siri's credentials as a spirit host/medium in the first two books, it comes as no surprise that this adventure finds him tangled up with the Caribbean spirit world of santeria. While the villain of this storyline, which involves a beautiful Vietnamese girl and doomed love, is rather obvious, there's still plenty to like. The history of the caves is fascinating, the corpses to be investigated very unusual, and the bureaucratic red tape both comic and instructive. Meanwhile, Nurse Dtui is given her own subplots, including a stint heading up a hospital treating mine victims, and an unexpected romantic proposal. Meanwhile, back in Vientiane, morgue assistant Mr. Geung is exiled to a northern work camp by a nefarious judge with an axe to grind with Dr. Siri. The determined Geung resolves to escape and make his way the hundreds of miles back, leading to adventures that are variously droll and deadly.
As in the two previous books. Dr. Siri's ability to commune with the spirit world is key to the resolution of the mysteries, as well as another subplot involving a sick little girl. Enough backstory is given so that newcomers to the series will not be confused about the spirit world element, and can dive right in. As in the other books in the series, there's plenty of sly humor and celebration of traditional "Laotianness" which is slowly dying off. A very solid addition to the series and well worth the time of anyone with an interest in Laos or mysteries with unusual settings.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Black and Red, July 31, 2006
This is the third of Colin Cotterill's novels of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the spry and wily septuagenarian national coroner for the Democratic People's Republic of Laos. It is also the most ambitious of the series, adding a few layers of depth and gravity to its relatively lighthearted predecessors.
Siri is called to the northern mountains of Huaphan province, home of the legendary cave dwellings where the upstart communists of the Pathet Lao hung out while overthrowing the Lao monarchy. A mummified arm has been found protruding from a broken slab of sidewalk concrete in front of the president's northern retreat just days before the anniversary celebration of the new red regime. Siri, with the steadfast nurse Dtui at his side, must identify the corpse and solve the mystery, all in time to prevent the struggling Pathet Lao further embarrassment. Meanwhile, in the Dr.'s absence, Siri's faithful but retarded morgue assistant, Mr. Geung, has been kidnapped from the beloved morgue, forcibly reassigned to a labor camp of the north.
As in all of Cotterill's novels, eastern mysticism plays a key role, and Siri's ability to see and communicate with the dead again comes in handy as a neat forensic tool. "Disco" harbors a darker theme than either "The Coroner's Lunch" or "Thirty-Three Teeth", mixing Caribbean black magic with Southeast Asian spiritualism, while wading MASH-deep into the horrors of war and the toll on its unintended and unsuspecting victims. Notwithstanding, and despite slightly more political innuendo than was mercifully avoided in his previous works, this is an intelligent and engaging read. Paiboun remains one of the most unusual heroes of modern fiction, a scrappy and resourceful clinician who neither wants nor enjoys his special talents, but maintains his wry humor and increasingly learns how to use his gift to his advantage.
Unlike "Thirty-Three Teeth", which really read like a sequel, "Disco for the Departed" stands on its own. Cotterill builds enough of the back-story to fill in the pieces for the new reader, but with enough subtlety to not be tedious for Paiboun fans. Off beat, educational, and entertaining, both Cotterill and Siri Paiboun are worth the investment.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dancin' at the Disco!, November 5, 2006
Colin you dog. How do you do it? Usually by the third book the characters get paper thin and it seems like the writer is just "phoning it in."
"Disco" is even stronger and more fleshed out than the first two books in the series and they are superb. I am even a tougher critic now as I now live in Vientaine and check facts with former (?) Pathet Lao members and those who remember all that happened. No one has anything but the highest regards for your sense of history or accuracy in character. I have been to the hospital where Dr Siri's morgue is supposed to be located. I live in the same neighborhood. No one writes with more depth and feeling for the Lao people than Cotterill.
Even if you have no interest in Lao, Dr Siri is a detective that could stoke a pipe with Holmes. Nurse Dtui is more that a Watson.
This is a rich and brilliant read about an exciting and deep culture.
Have you ever seen a book on Amazon where all the reviewers gave it five stars?
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