The Coroner’s Lunch

The Coroner’s Lunch, by Colin Cotterill (first book in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series)

Summary
Despite a total lack of training, an utter dearth of experience and a complete absence of inclination, Dr. Siri Paiboun has just been appointed state coroner for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. It’s 1976, the royal family has been deposed, the professional classes have fled and the communists have taken over. And 72-year-old Siri – a communist for convenience and a wry old reprobate by nature – has got the coroner’s job because he’s the only doctor left in Laos.

But when the wife of a Party leader is wheeled into the morgue and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers start bobbing to the surface of a Laotian lake, all eyes turn to the new coroner. Faced with official cover-ups and an emerging international crisis, Siri will be forced to enlist old friends, tribal shamans, forensic deduction, spiritual acumen and some good old-fashioned sleuthing before he can discover quite what’s going on…[from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coroner%27s_Lunch]

Group Review/comments:

12 thumbs up
0 thumbs down

First and foremost, the main character was loved by all. Almost every person in the group commented on what a great character Sirs is. We liked that he was an elder, we liked his compassion shown for his assistant, we liked his sense of humor, how resourceful he was, how he treated everyone well, that under the new regime he was easygoing and new “what to pay attention to and what to ignore.”

This was a well written story and pretty much everyone agreed that while the mysteries (there were at least a few!) were well plotted, described and concluded, it was the overall story itself about the characters, the place and time that won us over.

The writing was smart and witty and everything “hung well together.” All the loose ends of the plot were tied up at the end.

The setting was both interesting and well visioned. The group liked learning about this history of Laos, a place none of us knew much about. The poverty, the politics, the community were all conveyed with humor and subtlety. You weren’t hit over the head with data; the history and culture were woven into the story seamlessly.

It’s been a while since we’ve unanimously liked a book so you know this one must have been a winner!