Reluctant coroner to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Dr Siri Paiboun has been despatched to the country's mountainous north where the sudden appearance of a mummified arm protruding from a concrete path laid in front of the President's new mansion has caused an understandable degree of embarrassment
Dr Siri Paiboun may be in his seventy-third year, but he's still as sturdy as a jungle boar - and as crafty as one. Reluctant coroner to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, he's been despatched to the country's mountainous north where the sudden appearance of a mummified arm protruding from a concrete path laid in
front of the President's new mansion has caused an understandable degree of embarrassment. Dr Siri's disinterment and autopsy of the body attached to the arm provide some grisly surprises but it is his gifts as a shaman that put the septuagenarian doctor on the trail of the killer.
As Siri and his team close in, they must tackle a marriage proposal, brave the perils of the life on the open road, and come face-to-face with a horrific sacrificial ritual.
Is it any wonder Dr Siri takes up disco dancing?
(P)2011 Quercus Editions Ltd
Colin Cotterill was born in London. He has taught in Australia, the USA and Japan and lived for many years in Laos where he worked for nongovernmental social service organizations. He now writes full-time and lives in Chumphone, Thailand. He has been short-listed for the CWA Gold Dagger and has won the CWA Dagger in the Library.