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If you're like me, you know almost nothing about modern Laos. As it's portrayed in these amazing books by Colin Cotterill, who's spent years there, it's a country where the paper-happy bureaucrats and politicians spend far too much time on the wrong things, where there are lots of unmet needs, lots of paranoid politics and lots of smart, sane people trying to manage their lives in crazy times. Dr Siri is the only coroner left in Laos; his job, which involves trying to determine the cause of death when he has almost no equipment, not too much training, and no interest in the proper political boundaries can be complicated. In this very hot time (the recurring refrain throughout the book is "hot?" "damn hot" on the part of almost anyone having a conversation). There is a charm to this series, but it would be a mistake to consider that a synonym for either 'sweet' or 'cozy', so don't think Alexander McCall Smith, although the willingness to learn and visit other cultures that make the Precious Ramotswe books worth reading will come in handy here as well. it's just that Siri is such a disarming character, tolerant of so much and yet, in no way naive. His hesitance to accept that he has a very clear spiritual aspect to his life, as well as the every so often odd circumstance -- meeting a very interesting stranger in the beautiful, but neglected gardens of Luang Prabang -- could only happen to him. There are several threads in THIRTY-THREE TEETH, all of which get neatly -- but not too neatly -- connected by the coroner and his staff and myriad friends. Even the bear we meet early on in the tale is explained, definitely to my satisfaction. The uniqueness of this story and this series is not even so much that it's set in Laos, a strange place to most of us. And while I hesitate to use the word refreshing (especially with it's so "damn hot" in THIRTY-THREE TEETH) but I appreciate every minute I spent with these people and this story-teller. While he tries with his limited materials and outside pressures to do his job, solving several suspicious or even baffling deaths, Siri manages to accord respect to the strange people and circumstances he lives in. He's one of the most engaging characters I've met in fiction in recent years. I respect the hell out of him and have a feeling that as long as Cotterill is writing, I'll be reading.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, January 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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