The Coroner's Lunch - (Laos)

As I am trying to read detective books set in foreign lands, it seemed natural that I would get around

Started: June 26, 2018

Finished: June 30, 2018

Setting: Laos 

Pages: 287 (epub)

Publication Date: April 7, 2015

to reading a book by Colin Cotterill, with his main character being Dr. Siri Paiboun living in Laos.  Siri is a wise-cracking coroner who happens to have mystical powers which enable him to talk to dead people. And it's this talent that helps him solve crimes perpetrated by the living. It's pretty good premise for a detective series of books. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I liked it as well as the numerous other readers on Goodreads. While I appreciated the humor in the book, at times I though the story lines were too complicated and as a result I got lost. I did appreciate the way the author wove in tidbits of history regarding Laos, Vietnam and American activity in that area during the 1960-1970s. And he did it in such a way that I realized I was learning without feeling like I was being taught.

But, at times I felt too lost in the book and where it was going. There is chapter or two where Dr. Siri is visiting a Hmong village, and while I found that interesting, it was too filled with the mysticism that seems to be central to Dr. Siri's character, and (unfortunately) I floundered there. I appreciate that he exposed me to elements of that part of Asia which I would otherwise never know about about, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Not sure that I would read another in his series, but if I did, it might been of the later books, if only to see how Siri has developed as a character, and how Cotterill has developed as a writer.

Kirkus review