Curse of the Pogo Stick (Dr. Siri Paiboun) (Hardcover)

by Colin Cotterill (Author)
Key Phrases: rice whisky, post lady, Yeh Ming, Madame Daeng, Xiang Khouang (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—In this delightful, fifth Dr. Siri novel set in late-1970s Laos, Cotterill once again manages a winning combination of elements: crisp plotting, exotic locations, endearing characters, political satire, witty dialogue, otherworldly phenomena, and a deep understanding of Hmong culture. The story begins when Dr. Siri Paiboun, the 73-year-old national coroner of Laos, attends a Communist meeting in the north that is so tedious that a member of the audience literally dies of boredom during an endless speech. While the doctor is away from home, a booby-trapped corpse is delivered to the morgue. The always-alert and resourceful Nurse Dtui is the only one who notices something amiss, and her swift action saves the lives of several people, including an arrogant visiting doctor and Madame Daeng, Dr. Siri's fiancée. But most of the book concerns the doctor's eventful trip back from the meeting. He is kidnapped by seven female Hmong villagers who, under the direction of the village elder, call upon Yeh Ming, the thousand-year-old shaman who inhabits Dr. Siri's body, to perform an exorcism. The chief's daughter suffers the curse of the pogo stick (yes, there really is a pogo stick) and is possessed by a demon. Only Yeh Ming can free her soul. How all of this gets resolved is another example of the superb storytelling readers have come to expect from Cotterill.—Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
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From Booklist
In his fourth outing, Dr. Siri Paiboun, the aged and antic national coroner of mid-1970s Laos, begins facing up to some tough consequences of the Communist takeover he helped bring about—especially the creeping corruption of his party’s elite and the persecution of those among the nomadic Hmong people who fought on the other side during the revolution. Siri sees the impact of this maltreatment firsthand when he and Judge Haeng, his bumbling, blustering boss, are kidnapped by Hmong villagers. They know Siri hosts the spirit of a thousand-year-old shaman and want him to lift the titular curse from their ragtag clan. Meanwhile, back at the morgue, Nurse Dtui and cop hubby Phosy tackle a Royalist plot involving booby-trapped corpses. Judge Haeng keeps the proceedings from becoming too grim by effecting a comic escape from the Hmong and then inadvertently eating a bowl of pig swill full of “anything unfit for human consumption . . . the inedible, the unpleasant and the indescribable.” But even with Cotterill dishing out decent helpings of broad humor, Curse still ranks as the darkest entry of this fine series. --Frank Sennett

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569474850
• ISBN-13: 978-1569474853
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #193,951 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars solid historical Laos mystery, August 7, 2008

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the late 1970s the Laotian National Coroner seventy-three years old Dr. Siri Paiboun is attending some governmental Communist Party function (waste of time if you ask him) in the north. Meanwhile back in the capital Vientiane a corpse of a soldier booby trapped with grenades is anonymously dropped off at the morgue. Only the fast and capable work of Paibourn's assistant Nurse Dtui avoids a tragedy from happening.

Meanwhile Paibourn looks forward to getting home to spend time with his fiancée Madame Daeng and even time in the morgue, which is better than attending these inane officious official officialdoms. Instead the female members of the Hmong tribe abduct Dr. Siri as they need his help; or at least of the millennium old shaman Yeh Ming is to perform an exorcism on the tribal chief's daughter demonically possessed due to an evil pogo stick placed on an alter.

CURSE OF THE POGO STICK is a solid historical mystery that contains two subplots, in which both contain humor inside serious situations that brings to life 1977-78 Laos. The Vientiane investigation is superbly written as Nurse Dtui cleverly leads the inquiry into who would use a dead soldier to kills others. However, Colin Cotterill's insight into the suppressed Hmong people, caught between the violent Communist regime and Nixon's just completed a few years ago secret war, is what makes this a great entry as neither side cares what happened to these expendable mountain pawns. The insight into the Hmong culture and their "collateral damage" plight supersede the whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent instalment, July 11, 2008

By	Miran Ali (Dhaka, Bangladesh) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Another much awaited instalment of the series centred around Dr Siri the National Coroner of Laos under the Pathet Lao regime. Unfortunately this would qualify as the weakest of the series so far. This episode mostly concerns itself with mysterious happenings in a Hmong village. While Siri's intrepid assistant nurse Dtui goes off to investigate another crime. A central focus of this book is the price paid by the Hmong during the conflicts in Indochina. Sadly, though the book's set in the late '70's, the Hmong are still being persecuted by the Lao and Vietnamese governments to this day.
If this is your fist encounter with Dr. Siri, then please start with "The Coroner's Lunch", the first instalment of the series.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written with more passion, July 22, 2008

By	Prof John F. Roddick - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First an admission, I love the Dr Siri Paiboun books. And despite what others have written, I do not think this one is the weakest although it is a little different. The book is far more descriptive of the lives and foibles of the people of Laos and in particular explore the wretched lives and wonderful nature of the Hmong. It's different in this respect. I'm not sure Cotterill can afford to use this difference often but it has added a more human dimension to the series.

However it is also, like the others, very funny. Well written, well edited and very polished. A great read.