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Anarchy and Old Dogs (Dr. Siri Paiboun) | 
 enlarge | Author: Colin Cotterill
Publisher: Soho Crime
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy New: $6.46
You Save: $5.54 (46%)
New (33) Used (12) from $4.00
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 31914
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 17.7 x 11.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 1569475016
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781569475010
ASIN: 1569475016
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
“A series of terrifically beguiling detective novels. . . . Whimsical, more personal stories that feature Siri and an equally memorable set of supporting characters. . . . A wry, seasoned, off hand style that has been the secret weapon of this unexpectedly blithe and charming series.”?Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Siri’s lingering idealism, hidden beneath his cynical?and often hilarious?digs at the government, provide unexpected emotional depth.”?Entertainment Weekly “Think What’s Up, Tiger Lily with Mao taking over for Woody Allen.”?Bloomberg.com “Delightful.”?Publishers Weekly An elderly man has been run down by a logging truck on the street in Vientiane just opposite the post office. His body is delivered to the morgue of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the official and only coroner of Laos. At the age of seventy-three, Siri is too old to be in awe of the new communist bureaucrats for whom he now works. Before he can identify the corpse, he must decipher a letter in the man’s pocket?it is written in invisible ink and in code. He was a blind retired dentist, his widow explains, and the enigmatic letters and numbers describe chess moves, but they are unlike any chess symbols Siri has previously encountered. With the help of his old friend, Civilai, now a senior member of the Laos politburo; Nurse Dtui; Phosy, a police officer; and Aunt Bpoo, a transvestite fortune-teller, Siri solves the mystery of the note to the blind dentist and foils a plot to overthrow the government of Laos. For more information, visit www.colincotterill.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Great November 2, 2008
R. Semmens (Phoenix, Az. USA)
Everyone else has said it nicely. The setting adds a great flavor to a good story. His writing is great and very descriptive and the characters are fresh. Unfortunately, I read this first without knowing there is a sequenced order and 3-4 books before this one. Do your self a favor and start at the beginning.
 Third world detective mysteries September 10, 2008
Timothy J. Wicker (Minneapolis, MN)
Amazon's algorithms somehow decided for me that I would enjoy this genre, and I have. This author and series are interesting in the insights they lend to post-revolution Laos as well as giving us story lines and characters that we cannot easily intuit, always a plus in detective novels. More character focus than the detective Chen series, even less western in feel. Give the series a shot.
great late 1970s Laos mystery August 7, 2008
Harriet Klausner
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
In 1977 Vientiane a truck ran over blind dentist Dr. Buagaew, killing him instantly. Everyone who witnessed the tragedy assumes the late pedestrian obviously owed karmic debt so no tears were shed. As is the case in these types of vehicular deaths, the Laotian National Coroner septuagenarian Dr. Siri Paiboun is directed to perform a cursory review. He and his capable assistant Nurse Dtui assume nothing of their inquiry even when they find an odd anomaly of blank papers on the victim.
Paiboun soon realizes the papers actually contain encoded notes written in invisible ink. He and Dtui with the assistance of his closest comrades Police Officer Phosy and Politburo member Civilai begin to find clues related to the secret writings that to their shock is simply moves in a game of chess that sends the coroner to the city of Pakse where he begins to piece the puzzle together of a plot to overthrow the Communist regime.
Combining humorous eccentric characters like a fortune telling transvestite Auntie Bpoo and the corpse as a practicing blind dentist inside a strong serious investigation, Colin Cotterill continues his great late 1970s Laos mystery series with another excellent entry. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the truck hits the dentist and never slows down until the final confrontation between anarchists and the old dogs like the coroner. Readers will appreciate Colin Cotterill's fine tale with newcomers seeking the backlist (see DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, THE CORONER'S LUNCH and THIRTY-THREE TEETH).
Harriet Klausner
 Crudest kind of propaganda July 26, 2008
Christopher Tricarick
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Mr. Cotteril has several of the talents necessary to a mystery writer. He creates likeable and believable characters, a gripping story, and some memorable description. Unfortunately he puts his talents to the service of a propaganda so pure you would have to go back to Jiang Qing's entertainments during the cultural revolution to find an equivalent. First we are led to like and trust a number of smart and funny characters. Then all these characters turn out, despite the lovable foibles which communism is shown to possess, to be devoted enough to the communist regime to devote all their energy to preventing an anti-communist coup. This is essentially a child's story, remember--the whole pleasure of reading it is supposed to consist in rooting for the group of good children in their attempt to overthrow evil--so that in order to derive any pleasure at all from this book the reader is forced to regard the communists as the good guys. It gets worse. We actually meet two people who support their deposed king, and it's not enough that they should be shown to be thoroughly unpleasant people: they turn out to have been the killers of a little boy. Think about that. You populate a novel with good people who all belong to the same political side, and the only people from the other side whom you introduce are child-killers. I feel disgusted for having spent money on this kind of drivel. The obligation of art to portray human complexities--the human obligation to tell both sides of a story--the obligation of anyone writing anything to respect the intelligence of his readers--Mr. Cotteril spits on and tramples on all of these things with such abandon that I feel disgusted for having spent money on and read his book.
On the level of simple facts, Laos had what by many accounts was a decent and honorable royal family whom the communists starved to death after taking power. Here they are vilified. Why? For being "running dogs of the French". Let's see. The French left in 1954--22 years is a little long to be serving people who'd left the scene. But there is no logic, no integrity, no honesty in this book. I called it crude propaganda because in many respects it is, but there is one respect in which it is quite crafty. Even the author of a book like this knows that if he portrayed his side as all good nobody would believe him. And so he allows his good communists to grumble about the shortcomings of the new regime. Expose some of the weaknesses as well as all of the strengths of your side, and allow the other side to be devils incarnate--that is the trick and Mr. Cotterill knows it well.
Turning for a moment to technique, while it is as I have said a gripping enough tale, there is very little in it that will be new to or surprise anyone who read Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys or any other of a plethora of juvenile fiction. Nobody could seriously compare this work to genuinely delightful detective fiction such as that of Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle.
`I'm a coroner, not a fortune-teller.' June 6, 2008
J. Cameron-Smith (ACT, Australia)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the fourth book in the Doctor Siri series. I have still to read the second and third in the series and I know that the fifth has just been finished. Ideally, of course, one should read these books in order. But linear patience is not amongst my virtues and having so recently discovered these wonderful novels, I find I must read them as quickly as I can obtain them.
In this novel, Dr Siri Paiboun, the reluctant national coroner of Laos, is initially asked to discover the identity of a corpse delivered to the morgue in Vientiane. This is simply the beginning of a series of events involving the problem solving skills of our hero Dr Siri, his friend Civilai (currently a senior member of the Laos politburo), Nurse Dtui, Phosy (the police officer), and Auntie Bpoo, a transvestite fortune teller. Set in the Laos of the 1970s, filled with action, unpredictable events, fascinating characters with wry observations on life, death and politics - this is truly a delightful series.
The writing is superb, and frequently had me laughing out loud. Who can resist:`It is hard to hold a serious debriefing with a man who's ripping off his pants in the middle of a town's main street.' Naturally, by this stage there were other crimes to be solved. After all: `A good socialist is not a dustbin, with a closed lid. He is a letter box, always open to receive news.' Fortunately for Dr Siri, in relation to one of the crimes: `.. the god of unnecessary paperwork intervened. Even before they had the powder, the crime solved itself.'
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of books two and three, and keenly anticipating the publication of the fifth book. After all, Dr Siri isn't getting any younger.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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