DISCO FOR THE DEPARTEDColin Cotterill – Text Publishing - $37
Reviewed by Bookman Beattie in the Sunday Star TImes, June 8, 2008.
Here is a crime fiction title with a difference. It is set in the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos and features Dr.Siri Paiboun the reluctant national coroner. This title is the fifth featuring the septuagenarian coroner but the first I have read. It stands alone perfectly well but I’m sure will be even more enjoyable for those who have read the earlier titles in the series.
Dr.Siri as everyone calls him is an eccentric, irreverent, outspoken and skeptical old boy who has recently discovered his shaman ancestry, he is certainly not your usual hardened private detective found in most contemporary crime fiction.
“That May, Siri had arrived at his seventy-third birthday and was still as sturdy as a jungle boar. His lungs let him down from time to time, but his muscles and his mind were as taut as they’d been in his thirties. His head boasted a shock of thick white hair and his likeable face still drew flirtatious smiles from women half his age. None of his friends could imagine Dr.Siri Paiboun running out of steam, not for a long while yet.”
The year is 1977, just two years after the Communist takeover in the wake of the Vietnam War, and the story starts with Siri being summoned from the capital Vientiane to remote Vieng Xai in the mountains of Huaphan Province where for many years the present Pathet Lao government members had hidden out in limestone caves eluding American bombs and waiting for the day to come when they would overthrow the monarchy and assume power.
A major celebration of the still new regime is about to take place when human remains are found protruding from the concrete path that has been made from the President’s former cave hideout to his new and palatial home beneath the cliffs. Clearly an intolerable situation and as there is no police force to speak of Siri is called upon to resolve the situation along with his no-nonsense, sharp-witted, “solidly built young nurse” Dtui.
Left behind to look after the morgue is their loyal and competent mortuary assistant Mr.Geung who suffers from Down syndrome but has his own special genius. Unbeknown to his absent colleagues Mr.Geung is forcibly transferred to a northern work camp by a judge who has an axe to grind with Siri.
Once there Mr.Geung determines to escape and make his way back over the hundreds of miles and this adventure in itself makes the book worth reading.
In Vieng Xai Siri and Dtui meet a respected former colleague of Siri’s, Dr.Santiago a charismatic surgeon on loan from Cuba, who hesitantly reveals an exotic story of black magic featuring the murdered man, a Cuban attached to the nearby “advisory” unit, and another black Cuban soldier. Then the autopsy reveals the victim was buried alive. The story ultimately proves to be about a beautiful Vietnamese girl and doomed love but there are twists and turns and subplots all over the place with Siri’s ability to communicate with the spirit world proving invaluable.
Cotterill’s characters are wonderfully drawn and multi-dimensional with Siri, the Paris-trained physician, now reluctant pathologist and coroner, in particular proving to be a most appealing, irresistible character.
I am unaware of anyone else writing in English about Laos in the post-war 1970’s. London-born Cotterill spent several years in Laos working with UNESCO and more latterly has trained teachers in Thailand and on the Burmese border. He has also worked in child protection in the region and set up a training programme for care givers. I guess all these experiences have made him uniquely qualified to be writing novels with a Laotian setting.
Dr.Siri as everyone calls him is an eccentric, irreverent, outspoken and skeptical old boy who has recently discovered his shaman ancestry, he is certainly not your usual hardened private detective found in most contemporary crime fiction.
“That May, Siri had arrived at his seventy-third birthday and was still as sturdy as a jungle boar. His lungs let him down from time to time, but his muscles and his mind were as taut as they’d been in his thirties. His head boasted a shock of thick white hair and his likeable face still drew flirtatious smiles from women half his age. None of his friends could imagine Dr.Siri Paiboun running out of steam, not for a long while yet.”
The year is 1977, just two years after the Communist takeover in the wake of the Vietnam War, and the story starts with Siri being summoned from the capital Vientiane to remote Vieng Xai in the mountains of Huaphan Province where for many years the present Pathet Lao government members had hidden out in limestone caves eluding American bombs and waiting for the day to come when they would overthrow the monarchy and assume power.
A major celebration of the still new regime is about to take place when human remains are found protruding from the concrete path that has been made from the President’s former cave hideout to his new and palatial home beneath the cliffs. Clearly an intolerable situation and as there is no police force to speak of Siri is called upon to resolve the situation along with his no-nonsense, sharp-witted, “solidly built young nurse” Dtui.
Left behind to look after the morgue is their loyal and competent mortuary assistant Mr.Geung who suffers from Down syndrome but has his own special genius. Unbeknown to his absent colleagues Mr.Geung is forcibly transferred to a northern work camp by a judge who has an axe to grind with Siri.
Once there Mr.Geung determines to escape and make his way back over the hundreds of miles and this adventure in itself makes the book worth reading.
In Vieng Xai Siri and Dtui meet a respected former colleague of Siri’s, Dr.Santiago a charismatic surgeon on loan from Cuba, who hesitantly reveals an exotic story of black magic featuring the murdered man, a Cuban attached to the nearby “advisory” unit, and another black Cuban soldier. Then the autopsy reveals the victim was buried alive. The story ultimately proves to be about a beautiful Vietnamese girl and doomed love but there are twists and turns and subplots all over the place with Siri’s ability to communicate with the spirit world proving invaluable.
Cotterill’s characters are wonderfully drawn and multi-dimensional with Siri, the Paris-trained physician, now reluctant pathologist and coroner, in particular proving to be a most appealing, irresistible character.
I am unaware of anyone else writing in English about Laos in the post-war 1970’s. London-born Cotterill spent several years in Laos working with UNESCO and more latterly has trained teachers in Thailand and on the Burmese border. He has also worked in child protection in the region and set up a training programme for care givers. I guess all these experiences have made him uniquely qualified to be writing novels with a Laotian setting.
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