Regular marked price: $12.00Discount Price: $9.60
Cost Savings: $2.40 (20%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781569474297
ISBN number: 156947429X
Label: Soho Crime
Manufacturer: Soho Crime
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: August 01, 2006
Publishing house: Soho Crime
Sale Popularity Level: 77945
Studio: Soho Crime
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Praise for Thirty-Three Teeth:
“Paiboun’s droll wit and Cotterill’s engaging plot twists keep things energetic; the rather grisly murders are offset by comedy…. The elegant, elderly Paiboun seems an unlikely vehicle to carry a series … but he does so with charm and aplomb.”—Entertainment Weekly
“The series neatly manages to include an engrossing mystery—political and folk history and a lot of sly satire.”—Day to Day, NPR
“Keeps a perfect balance between the modern mysteries of forensic science and the ancient secrets of the spirit world.”—The New York Times Book Review
Feisty Dr. Siri Paiboun is no respecter of persons or Party; at his age he feels he can afford to be independent. In this, the second novel in the series, he travels to Luang Prabang where he communes with the deposed king who is resigned to his fate: it was predicted long ago. And he attends a conference of shamans called by the Communist Party to deliver an ultimatum to the spirits: obey Party orders or get out. But as a series of mutilated corpses arrives in Dr. Siri’s morgue, and Nurse Dtui is menaced, he must use all his powers—forensic and shamanic—to discover the creature—animal or spirit—that has been slaying the innocent.
Colin Cotterill was born in London in 1952. He has taught in Australia, the United States and Japan, and has lived in Thailand, on the Burmese border and in Laos. He lives in Chiang mai in northern Thailand.
For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Most mystery fans seem to want more of the same, which is probably why so many writers (and/or their editors) crank out same-y protagonists, plots, structural elements and resolutions.
Much as I enjoy reading about a smart, self-reliant crime solver facing a brilliantly deranged villain, at times it's important to clear the palate with something different...not necessarily better or brighter, just a bit alien, to get your mind back to its normal level of alertness.
This is that kind of reading.
The setting is post-Pathet Lau Laos for starters; the hero is an over-70 coroner, for yet another jolt, and the main plotline is heavily influenced by supernatural elements that would not play well in most crime literature except perhaps in the hands of a Mexican or South American from the magical realism school.
While everything sounds out of step, and this might disppoint readers who want a hero they can associate with or a crime they can try to solve one step ahead of the exposition, this venture is a delightful morsel.
There are several intriguing characters, a bunch of memorable scenes and a handful of neatly written insets with small cases solved, debts repaid, come-uppances contrived and satisfactions delivered to make up for a quirky rather than riveting main attraction. Mr. Cotterill's style keeps it all nicely in place and regularly delivers a charming and even dazzling passage.
So, in the end, I very much enjoyed the book and will likely purchase others in this Siri Paiboun series as a complete change of pace rather than for great expectations. If anyone else needs to clear their head, I recommend they join me.
Rated by buyers 
-
Dr.Siri is beginning to enjoy the job as national chief coroner of Laos and protests a little less about his desire to retire.
He is a man with a backbone: Siri fights for his able assistant with the Down Syndrome, like Gil Grissom also might want to in Las Vegas, but he wouldn't stand a chance there, American lawyers would shred the evidence obtained by a 'handicapped' lab assistant. Just to show that progress is not always or entirely a good thing.
We learn a little more about Siri's biography, how he moved from poverty (orphaned, raised by an aunt) to religion (aunt passed him on to a monastery where he learned) to education (French charity gets him a proper medical training in France)to lust (meets this nurse and follows her) to communism (they join Ho Chi Minh's movement) to poverty (life in the jungles, then in the Socialist Republic of Laos, after an unexpected victory). The circle of life, at least this one's.
Siri's three cases this time: crashed helicopter pilots who had tried to rescue the deposed king's family; clearing a bear and accusing a tiger of serial murders; pacifying rebellious royal puppets with the help of Inthanet, a puppeteer.
Always in and out of the supranatural, frankly a bit too much for my taste. Another near-destroyer of stars: for me as a practicing amateur of Orwellogy, Cotterill's anachronism with Animal Farm is hard to forgive. Siri reads Animal Farm in a French translation while in the monastery school (i.e. around 1920), later learns in France that the book is anti-communist. Come on, Mr.Cotterill. By the time Animal Farm could have been read by Siri, he was already fighting with the Vietminh.
But then, the book is so likeable, I decide to forgive.
Just have a look at the chapter where the party chief of Luang Prabang tries to set an ultimatum to the local spirits, using the local shamans as mediators and translators: move away, or play for us, or we will have you exiled! Great satire in a nice little witches' ball.
Or the trial against Siri for treason, after he chops down the pole with the loudspeaker for government announcements. That makes up for an overdose of ghosts.
As Dr.Siri writes in his resume to his boss, the judge: he often weeps at the great honor bestowed upon him.
Rated by buyers -
This is the second novel of the series featuring Dr Siri Paiboun, the septuagenarian national coroner of Laos. In this engaging mystery, Dr Siri has a number of puzzles to solve with the assistance of his unlikely team of colleagues and friends. Oh, and some help from the spirit world as well.
The communist regime of Laos brings its own flavour to proceedings. From the ingenuity of making casts of teeth marks when plaster is not available and the identification of government workers through the existence of `triplicate syndrome', this story engages and amuses.
Dr Siri is called upon to travel to Luang Prabang on a national security matter so top secret that the Judge who has despatched him is unable to tell him anything about it. His motivations for accepting the task are not quite consistent with the Judge's renowned maxim:
`That's the spirit, Siri. It's moments like these that make the socialist system so great. When the call to arms comes the committed cadre even on his honeymoon would gladly climb off his young wife at the crucial moment sooner than let down the party.'
`If that were so, Siri thought to himself, it might explain the frustrated look he'd often seen on the faces of so many Party members.'
Nevertheless, Siri travels to Luang Prabang , solves one mystery and uncovers others. He also dines with the deposed king and attends a shamans' conference.
In the meantime, savaged corpses are still piling up in Vientiane. Could this be the action of a missing bear, or perhaps, a weretiger? Nurse Dtui undertakes some independent research of her own, after all:
`Where do you think the country would be if everyone conducted his or her daily business without the correct forms?' Where indeed!
If you are new to this series, I'd strongly recommend reading `The Coroner's Lunch' first.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Rated by buyers -
[***** = breathtaking, **** = excellent, *** = good, ** = flawed, * = bad]
... coroner in 1977 Communist Laos who solves some mysteries with supernatural overtones. Often very funny. Longer review at ImpatientReader-dot-com.
Rated by buyers -
This is the 2nd book in a series by Colin Cotterill featuring a 72-year-old mystery-solving coroner in communist-occupied Laos after the Vietnam War. It is an extremely interesting book due to the descriptions of the area, the people and the government, as well as quirky characters which are believable. Mr. Cotterill does an excellent job of bringing not only the people but the country and its mores to life with humour and an slyly observant eye. Two thumbs up!
Find other books like this one:
