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The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1)
The Coroner's Lunch - Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1
Author: Colin Cotterill
Dr. Siri Paiboun, one of the last doctors left in Laos after the Communist takeover, has been drafted to be national coroner. He is untrained for the job, but this independent 72-year-old has an outstanding qualification for it: curiosity. And he doesn't mind incurring the wrath of the Party hierarchy as he unravels mysterious murders, becau...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9781569474181
ISBN-10: 1569474184
Publication Date: 11/2005
Pages: 272
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 91

3.9 stars, based on 91 ratings
Publisher: Soho Crime
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

NancyAZ avatar reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on + 94 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
This book was like a breath of fresh air. It is written very well with just the right amount of humor included with the mystery. Dr. Siri is a hoot!

Any book that can make me laugh out loud gets a bigs thumbs up from me. I can't wait to read more in the series.
MaGee avatar reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on + 43 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I forced myself to read this book by offering it in a swap. Why or why did I wait so long! I love Dr. Siri Paiboun. Although he has lived for 72 years, he is neither old nor crotchety. He rightfully feels his age with a sense of humor about his position and his time in history.

I've spent a lot of time on his age and humor which carries the book through to the end. The story and mystery are equally engrossing. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and hope there are more to come.
reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on + 155 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is one of the most enjoyable series I read -- the characters are well-crafted, the stories hang together without obvious solutions, and the setting is both exotic and quirky.
reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on
Helpful Score: 2
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Not only did the author create charming characters in a most unusual setting, but he also wrote a marvelous mystery. I have now read several more in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series, and they continue to be of the very best quality. I rank this author in my all-time top ten.
krisann avatar reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on + 76 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
If you're looking for something a little different in the mystery genre, try this! Interesting locale, great characters and an intriguing mystery make this a good book.

This novel takes place in 1976 in Laos. The royal family has been deposed, the professional classes have fled and the communists have taken over, and Dr. Siri Paiboun has just been appointed state coroner for the Laos People's Democratic Republic. The 72-year-old Siri has got the coroner's job because he's the only doctor left in Laos. But when the wife of a Party leader is found dead and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers surface on a Laotian lake, all eyes turn to the new coroner and his small staff to figure things out. Siri looks to old friends, consults tribal shamans, and uses forensic deduction to figure out what's going on.
Read All 15 Book Reviews of "The Coroners Lunch Dr Siri Paiboun Bk 1"

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MKSbooklady avatar reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on + 983 more book reviews
At times humorous, at times a little scary, at times fascinating. Dr. Siri is a coroner in Laos in the 1970's. Yep, the Vietnam war is over, and the communist have taken over Laos. You may find parts a little confusing (he talks with the dead). But stick with it, especially the part in Vietnam, and you'll have a good yarn.
maura853 avatar reviewed The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun, Bk 1) on + 542 more book reviews
Enjoyable oddball mystery thriller, with a mild supernatural twist. I enjoyed this, but felt that it was, perhaps, a bit too "busy" -- a symptom of "first novel in a long-running series" syndrome.

It's the local color that really makes this stand out, and makes me want to revisit the series: Laos in the 1970s Dr. Siri Paibourn is someone who fought for his whole life to liberate Laos from its monarchy and malign foreign influences (the USA and France), and establish a socialist state -- but is bloody-minded enough to recognize that the Communist regime that has taken over from that monarchy is far from paradise on earth, and the foreign influences that it has buckled under to (the USSR, China, Vietnam) aren't much better than what went before.

I can see this series getting better and better, as the author relaxes, and let's the character and story breathe a bit.

Regarding the ghostly element: My husband -- who is as supernatural-phobic as they come -- really enjoyed this. I was surprised that he wasn't turned off by the ghostly thread to the story, and I asked him about it -- and he said that he interpreted it as a manifestation of PTSD from Paibourn's wartime experiences. An interesting reading, I thought.

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