Going Global from 2019: In Laos with Colin Cotterill, in South Africa with Tim Willocks

International mysteries abound now, and make up the second best way to get to know another location and culture -- the first best, of course, being a visit there in person. For those of us staying home this season, thank goodness for Colin Cotterill!

Cotterill's Siri Paiboun series keeps getting more off-beat and more fun, as his Laotian national coroner (circa 1980) ages. Dr. Siri in this 14th book is now 76, and his physical challenges are small compared to his spiritual ones, since he is possessed by a thousand-year-old shaman and finds the other world often intruding into his practical life of would-be retirement and comfortable meals with his noodle-making wife and their friends.

THE SECOND BIGGEST NOTHING refers to a quip of John Kerry's in the past, calling the Vietnam war "the Biggest Nothing in history." Then what was the overlapping war in Laos and Cambodia? To Dr. Siri, obviously it must have been the second biggest nothing! But a hangover from those days is the unresolved anger in some of the survivors, and now there's a major death threat in Dr. Siri's life as a revenge move. Spurring him to frantic action and passionate unraveling of his war-era actions is the size of the threat, which is directed at his family and friends as well.

Siri's police inspector buddy Phosy reminds him to start with the repetitive nature of the threat itself:

"I'm guessing that when he made that threat initially you would have sensed that it was more than just words. You would have seen him as capable of following through with it. It would have frightened you. For some time you would have been looking over your shoulder. On how many occasions have you experienced that kind of fear in your life?"

All eyes turned to Siri. He looked up at the lamp and seemed to be rewinding through his seventy-six years. He sniffed when he reached the end.

"Twice," he said. ... "Better make it three times," said Siri. "Just to be sure. .. I'm not given to panic, but I confess to missing a few heartbeats on those occasions."

As Dr. Siri spins out his personal history for his friends, he reveals the history of his country's war experience at the same time.

Brace for some shudders, as well as the sweet entertainment that Cotterill always provides, full of love of family and friends and efforts to set things right ... that sometimes go awry. A fun read, and one of the most enjoyable mysteries of 2019. From Soho Press, and easily available through orders at local bookstores, as well as online.

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The development of noir within the mysteries genre has often reflected on the term's roots in "film noir" and brought Los Angeles, New York, and many another city with vast socioeconomic inequality into dark fiction. It's also become a home for crime fiction that's rooted in historic injustice and bitterness, as in the Irish noir of Stuart Neville, or even landscapes that produce darkness for large parts of the year, such as the Arctic and Scandinavia.

But for crime fiction where violence is a steel-strong cultural strand, South Africa repeatedly hosts a driven darkness. The names of the authors may not be common in full-page ads in review magazines, but their power is fierce and their writing can shatter the everyday: I'm thinking of Jassy Mackenzie, Malla Nunn, Paul Hardisty, James McClure.

And, new to me this year: Tim Willocks. Willocks, who's also a screenwriter and hence lays out his fiction in action-packed scenes, wrote at least four published novels before MEMO FROM TURNER swept out from Blackstone Publishing. Count on that background for the strength and ferocity of this thriller, in which Turner, a black "warrant officer" with Cape Town's homicide unit, struggles to nail a killer across lines both racial and socioeconomic.

Readers will know early in the book the identity of the likely killer, who's casually injured a black street girl with his high-end Range Rover, while very much inebriated. It's the mandated cover-up by the young man's powerful mining-magnate family that becomes a threat to Turner himself, as he struggles to find a way to force a confession and some kind of justice.

[Jason] looked at. Turner as if giving him his full attention for the first time.

"Turner, right?"

"Right."

"Where's Rudy?"

"I thought we'd handle this without him ... Rudy said you'd make a witness statement."

Jason waved the jug. "I didn't hurt a f***ing fly in Cpae Town."

"I didn't think you did."

"Now Rudy tells me they want me in a cell, sh**ting in the same bucket as five blacks."

"Tell me what happened early Sunday morning, outside the shebeen."

"You know what happened."

"I wasn't there," said Turner. "I need to hear it from you."

... If Jason would have let him, Turner would have gone. The dash-cam video would be enough to push a warrant through. He felt no pity for the hulking young farmer; but he had no desire to kill him.

Unflinching in his portrayal of a landscape without pity and a stacked deck of injustice, Willocks slams Turner against all of it, and the body count rises swiftly. But there is always an aura of enormous regret in this thriller, something that also seems to ooze from the battered landscape and its terrible history.

It's a book that's hard to put down, and impossible to forget. So consider yourself warned -- but I hope you pursue a copy, and dare to read it all. It's worth all the unease and disturbance. And the deadly risks that Turner's willing to undergo.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Chasing Crime in Laos with Dr. Siri Paiboun, #13, DON'T EAT ME, Colin Cotterill

Dr. Siri Paiboun has retired from his Party-required position as national coroner of Laos (1980s style). That gives him plenty of time to spend with his wife, Madame Daeng, assisting at her noodle shop -- except somehow he's pretty often away on adventures instead. As DON'T EAT ME (number 13 in this highly entertaining international caper series) opens, Dr. Siri and his good friend Civilai -- Comrade Civilai, that is -- have smuggled a large, bulky item home on a raft. And the next morning brings them a regrettable visit from their friend Inspector Phosy, who has not retired and therefore needs to confront them with presumably smuggling a weapon into the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.

The good part is, it's not a weapon -- it's an enormous electrical movie camera, for the friends' ambitious notion to create a Laotian version of War and Peace on screen. Starring, of course, handsome young men like themselves (okay, like they Once Were).

A year earlier there had been an incident that resulted in the old boys coming into possession of some drug money. Quite a sum in fact. Siri had invested much of his in charitable acts while Civilai had smuggled in some delicious but rather expensive wines, a new lounge suite and a car -- not new but classic. Yet still they had not completely used up their ill-gotten gains. In fact they had enough not only to buy the camera, but also, with a little budget tweaking, to produce a modest film of tehir own. ... They removed the camera and wrapped it in an old parachute canopy. Getting it to the Lao side would be Siri's problem. ...

"How do we develop the film?" Civilai asked.

Siri laughed.

"Old Brother," he said, "on the eve of the race does the marathon runner worry about what drinks will be available at the winner's reception party? No. He takes one step at a time."

Once Phosy realizes he doesn't have to arrest his buddies, everyone relaxes. Which in turn leaves time to comtemplate the challenges for their plan: No power to run the machine. No operating manual. An interfering sort of local bureaucracy that's likely to rewrite the script for its own members, if it gives a shooting permit at all. And, oh yes, complications in the family circle, related to Mr. Geung.

Readers of the series will leap at the notion of hearing more about Mr. Geung's life, especially his planned marriage (!). If you haven't read any of the earlier books, be warned: You need to abandon disbelief, go with the flow, and let Dr. Siri and Mr. Geung demonstrate the fine points of the Laotian spirit world, where each of them keeps connecting.

But there's more to DON'T EAT ME than the madcap adventures of these rebels! There is, of course, a crime ... perhaps two or three? ... a skeleton (not yet bare) ... a criminal enterprise involving animal smuggling ... and conflict with the "real" bureaucracy.

Cotterill's passion for clever and unexpected twists that show the Party at its manipulative worst (and of course Dr. Siri fumbling his way toward a solution that his friends will help implement) takes the plot to drastic extremes this time. It felt like a lot of chapters spent wondering whether the team would ever be able to restore its usual lives -- and feeling highly anxious about missing family members!

Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri books are always a delight. DON'T EAT ME may be one of the most memorable in the series. And it's almost sure to send you back to the earlier titles, whether for the first time or the third (or more). Good fun, and a great summer read, from Soho Crime (an imprint of Soho Press).

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Humor, Paranormal, but Solid Investigation, with Dr. Siri Paiboun in Colin Cotterill's THE RAT CATCHERS' OLYMPICS

A new mystery in the Laotian Dr. Siri Paiboun series from Colin Cotterill (Soho Crime) is always worth celebrating -- and THE RAT CATCHERS' OLYMPICS is worth stopping all work and just plain enjoying the ride.

Actually Dr. Siri, who's been a coroner for his country in the frustrating 1970s, is now retired. But in this 12th in the series, Siri and his wife Daeng figure out how to join their politically connected friend Civilai on an exciting trip to Moscow with the athletes from Laos who are competing in the 1980 Olympics. That's the year that the United States and 64 other countries boycotted the summer games (a protest of Russian's presence in Afghanistan at the time). So Cotterill cleverly sets up the competition as a smaller-than-usual set of games that can let even the poorly trained and mostly unfinanced Lao team still show up well and have a great time.

But before the athletes -- and Siri, Daeng, Civilai, and their friend and nurse Dtui -- have left the ground in their rickety airplane, an unusual change in the passengers takes place, and Civilai realizes there's been a last-minute, unacknowledged substitution among the competing sharpshooters. Soon the friend decides they've witnessed the start of a major crime, to take place in Moscow. The fifth of their usual group, Inspector Phosy, left behind in Laos, tackles the groundwork to figure out what's planned. When Phosy's hoped-for informant is immediately murdered, the team knows they are all in danger. And the planned international crime is deadly serious.

But that's really the only serious part of this delicious and enjoyable romp through Moscow's hospitality in THE RAT CATCHERS' OLYMPICS. From Dr. Siri's own tendency to abruptly vanish into a land of spirits, to his wife's wagging tail (a long story!), to the love affairs of the athletes, and at last to the rat-catching competition impulsively added to the games, this is a page-turner of the best sort: full of characters worth caring about, a plot with just enough twists, and lots of joy. But it's also crammed with investigative efforts and speculation. For example, when the Moscow-placed suspect disappears:

"He might have gone for a jog," said Dtui.

"Or a walk on the roof," said Daeng. "Insomnia."

"Or he might be out casing the scene of the shooting," said Siri.

"Or actually committing the crime," said Civilai, still feeling guilty for his failure.

The four were seated in the B block cafeteria with stodgy Soviet breakfasts in front of them. Two tables away sat the shooting team with Sompoo in the middle telling jokes.

"This really is a fine time for an assassination, you have to admit," said Siri. "The local TV stations have nothing but Olympic news and smiling citizen interviews. I can't even imagine a murder report finding its way into the newspapers for the next three weeks."

Whether you're fitting in a bit more summer reading, or adding to your admirable shelf of Soho Crime international mysteries, THE RAT CATCHERS' OLYMPICS will reward your purchase. Might as well get one for a friend, too ... I'm already listing the people in my life who deserve this sweet reward.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Colin Cotterill's 14th Dr. Siri Paiboun Mystery, I SHOT THE BUDDHA

This time of year is perfect for curling up with an entertaining sort of mystery -- not too dark, not too serious, and yet full of adventure and fun. In other words, it's time to welcome I SHOT THE BUDDHA, as Colin Cotterill spins his 14th mystery of Dr. Siri Paiboun and friends, muddling through retirement, political chaos, and crime in Laos.

Cotterill provides a caution at the front of the book:

A mental health warning. Through necessity this edition is heavily spiced with supernatural elements. For those of you who prefer your mysteries dull and earthly, this is not the tome for you. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Cotterill might as well have also warned: Get ready to laugh, a lot. At least, I did ... Chapter 2 opens in the 1970s, as usual, with the aging (retired coroner) Dr. Siri and his noodle-cooking wife Madam Daeng attending a Communist Party seminar that condemns the pagan rituals of spirit worship. That could be seen as a poor match for the couple: Dr. Siri's struggle with the spirits that live in and around him now has him vanishing from time to time, without warning. And Madam Daeng's recent cure for arthritis left her with a small but presumable waggable tail. Add to this, later the same day, police inspector Phosy and his wife Nurse Dtui, and Dr. Siri's good friend Civilai Songsawat, a former politboro member. The good friends' enjoyment of another superb noodle dinner gets interrupted as Sirit shares the latest news of a Thai forest monk who's been living in Siri's official government residence with other homeless people (Siri's idea).

All of that's fine -- the problem is, the monk, Noo, appears to have been kidnapped. And he's left Siri a mission to complete for him that will involve crossing the border illicitly into Thailand.

Within a few more pages, all three friends -- Siri, Phosy, and Civilai -- have taken off, with their usual traveling companions, to try to solve various parts of Noo's disappearance and cope with the mission. And each one confronts questions about politics, religion, and mortality in his own inimitable way. Which is to say: with all the eccentricity of old friends who do things their own way. Spirit guides included.

Cotterill must have chuckled all the way through writing this one. Siri pulls off some great distractions of other police officers as needed ("Well, comrade," said Siri, "you know you can't hurry an eighty-year-old bladder) and wrestles with his spirit quandary, which turns out to be oddly linked to the crime he investigates. Civilai and Phosy keep in touch with him in odd ways. Even the dog Ugly turns out to have a useful role, and there are at least two forms of exorcism along the way, booting out evil and rescuing the good.

Ride along with the fun, and all the crimes and their solutions will make sense by the end of the book. But I'm still shaking my head over the wry insights on spirit and religion that Cotterill's characters dispense through the pages.

No, you don't "have to" read any earlier Dr. Siri investigations before you read this one -- but consider the author's warning and be aware that the charm and quirkiness of the early books in this wonderful series have now escalated to marvelously ridiculous (and hence quite deep!) adventures, discoveries, and friendship. (It will also help if you know the saying about what to do if you meet the Buddha along the road. It has nothing to do with the story, but it will keep you guessing in enjoyable ways.)

To browse some other reviews of Cotterill's tales, click here.

From Soho Crime, host to a range of international crime fiction that boggles the imagination in all the best ways.

Colin Cotterill's 10th Dr. Siri Paibun Mystery, SIX AND A HALF DEADLY SINS

Ever notice how hard it can be to relax, as summer arrives? In theory, it's playtime, and vacation time, and let's-go-the-beach time ... but in practice, it's also yard-care season, clean-out-the-closet time, give rides to family members no longer in school time, and time to learn new recipes for the grill.

That's why it is entirely necessary to grab the newest Colin Cotterill mystery, the tenth in the Laos-based series featuring the aging Dr Siri Paibun and his wise and tough wife, Madame Daeng. Dr. Siri is officially retired now, and the office where he's exhibited his government-mandated coroner's skills is closed. But a package has arrived, and he's puzzling over its contents with his friend Comrade Civilai Songsawat -- also retired, at least in theory. In fact, the pair should be just "two old men sitting on a log" beside the Mekhong River, taking things easy. But the package contained a traditional Lao skirt, or pha sin, with a severed finger sewn into the hem, which really can't be ignored easily.

"Do you suppose it might have belonged to the weaver?" asked Civilai. "Some loom accident?"

"What?" said Siri. "You mean she was so engrossed in her skirt-making that she didn't notice she'd sewn her own finger into the hem? Got home that evening, and her husband says, 'Hey, where's your finger?' And she looks down to find it gone and says, 'Hm. I must have inadvertently sewn it into one of the skirts'?"

Well, no. Obviously. And as Civilai reminds to his friend, "Sarcasm is like throwing a stick at your enemy when you've run out of bullets."

Fortunately, Dr. Siri's wife, Madame Daeng, along with her sometimes mysterious past and her esteemed skills in noodles, knows something about these traditional weavings, and can point the two men north. In fact, she even decides to travel with her husband, which turns out to be a very wise choice.

The journey to investigate the sin, however, is at least as complicated as the puzzle of the finger in the skirt hem. In fact, a map at the front of the mystery, before the tale begins, gives fair warning. Siri -- and who knows who else, at this point? -- is headed for a scenic and politically uncomfortable tour of northern Laos. Expect trouble ahead, because Cotterill has already said bluntly in the first paragraph that this season (December 1978) is also the time when Vietnam invaded Cambodia, a neighbor of Laos. If you're good at geography, or lived through the Vietnam war, you know China is involved in all these tilting power struggles, too. And Dr. Siri has never become a model citizen under the Chinese-led rule of his little nation anyway. Even with Madame Daeng at his side, he's sure to get into trouble.

I should have guessed from the chapter titles, but it took me a while to connect the book title with the goings-on (after all, I was watching for why it wasn't "seven deadly sins," a true red herring). To be honest, for a while, I wasn't trying to figure out things -- Cotterill's storytelling is so fluid and his characters' interactions are so entertaining that I just gave in, following the story and not trying to solve the crime, eager for the next twist of the plot.

Now look back at the start of this review -- the part about not managing to relax in the season that's supposed to be all about relaxing. This is the reason it's essential to pick up a copy of Cotterill's SIX AND A HALF DEADLY SINS. It's the fun part of the season, and it will remind you of why you wanted to read an enjoyable book (instead of just a challenging one, or one on the list of cultural must-reads, or any of that). This is the book that makes reading into a summer pleasure again!

It's from Soho Crime (of course!) and feels like a true sibling to Tim Hallinan's modern-day Thailand series (warmth and humor), a cousin to Martin Limón's Korean ones (friends facing risks together), and an uncle to Barbara Cleverly's Joe Sandilands investigations (paying attention to the politics will help you solve the case at about the same time that the protagonist) -- all of them Soho series.

But if you can only pick one to start your vacation (or pretend you can have one!), this is the one. For extra fun, visit Cotterill's website, too, and jump through the hoops of his graphic jests, en route to a pithy description of his newest book here.

Go Global: Colin Cotterill's Laos Mysteries -- Dr. Siri #9

Chatting at a gathering last week about mysteries, I happily rambled from the States to Britain to Ireland and the others in the conversation jumped to Scandinavian crime fiction, then asked what else to read for enjoyment. I mentioned Donna Leon's Venetian series, where I believe the warm, smart, engaged relationship between Commissariao Guido Brunetti and his professor wife Paola creates series-long fans. To the nodding half smiles across the table, I then added, "Just like Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri mysteries set in Laos."

The blank and then panicky looks back at me told me I was way, way wrong -- that not everyone knows about this enchanting crime series, and most of the people "my age" who first hear about a series set in Laos rummage desperately through their rusty memories of the 1960s and 1970s, trying to recall where Laos was in relation to the Vietnam war, and whether the conflict demolished Laos, and how guilty they should feel.

Stop right there! Yes, Laos and Cambodia are the west-side neighbors of Vietnam. But Colin Cotterill's series begins in 1975, when the Communists have taken over the country and 72-year-old surgeon Dr. Siri Paiboun is abruptly appointed national coroner. His adventures have little to do with wars and invasions, other than the very political ones often aimed at his impromptu morgue. And they have everything to do with the small group of people who gather around him, work with him, hold him in high esteem, love him ... including Nurse Dtui, and the woman who becomes Siri's wife, Madame Deng. The eight books THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE have celebrated the small triumphs of humor and integrity in a corrupt city, and the willingness of friends to help each other. As they resolve crimes that have brushed against the morgue operations, Dr. Siri and his friends also make the most of Lao life and food and tradition. And if Dr. Siri appears in some sense haunted by many of the spirits whose bodies have crossed paths with him, it's mostly an amused and tender sort of haunting.

Book nine, THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE (Soho Press), takes a startling new direction. Dr. Siri's official career is ending: He must accept retirement, which suddenly looks like a mixed blessing after all. Still he has a final assignment, one that includes a highly successful witch/fortuneteller. A bit unmoored by his life changes, he determinedly takes his wife, Madame Daeng, along with him to investigate the circumstances of the ba dong's supposed death and resurrection and the problems she is stirring up within the political leadership, some distance up river.

But there's another surprise coming. Early in the book, we learn this:

Madame Daeng was also owed a great deal by the old men in power. She had been in Vietiane only one year. In that time she had pursued and wed Dr. Siri, established the most popular noodle shop in the capital, and helped to solve a number of mysteries that had baffled many. The sixty-seven-year-old had skills far more reaching than the perfect combining of a few spices and herbs. Hers was a secret past that few in the capital knew of.

During the course of Dr. Siri's investigative work, his wife records her own memoir, opening up the secrets of the years before her marriage. And just in time -- because a long-running threat from her own past is catching up with her. At issue: Will Dr. Siri be too consumed by his fascination for the witch, the "woman who wouldn't die," to notice the danger to his own wife?

Sweet, funny, and with a delightful quick pace and quirky details, this ninth Dr. Siri mystery captures the affections and loyalty that make life worthwhile -- in the Lao countryside and cities, or elsewhere. Series fans will enjoy appearances and disappearances by tranvestite Auntie Bpoo and Crazy Rajid, as well as the detective assistance of Siri's friend Comrade Civilai.

Will there be tenth Dr. Siri book? Hard to say -- the ending of this one doesn't make a sequel mandatory. And while exploring Colin Cotterill's blog is a fantastic adventure, there are no promises on it. But whether or not another appears, readers who haven't yet found their way to this series are in for a treat -- and the rest of us can always start reading the Dr. Siri books again from the beginning. It's one of the most enjoyable items on my list of things to do next winter!