Short description
Reluctant coroner to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Dr Siri Paiboun has been despatched to the country's mountainous north where the sudden appearance of a mummified arm protruding from a concrete path laid in front of the President's new mansion has caused an understandable degree of embarrassment
Long description
Dr Siri Paiboun may be in his seventy-third year, but he's still as sturdy as a jungle boar - and as crafty as one. Reluctant coroner to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, he's been despatched to the country's mountainous north where the sudden appearance of a mummified arm protruding from a concrete path laid in front of the President's new mansion has caused an understandable degree of embarrassment. Dr Siri's disinterment and autopsy of the body attached to the arm provide some grisly surprises but it is his gifts as a shaman that put the septuagenarian doctor on the trail of the killer. As Siri and his team close in, they must tackle a marriage proposal, brave the perils of the life on the open road, and come face-to-face with a horrific sacrificial ritual. Is it any wonder Dr Siri takes up disco dancing?
Review
The story is good, the characters interesting, the hero delightful and the setting fascinating: a find - Literary Review an embarrassment of riches: Holmesian sleuthing, political satire, and a droll comic study of a prickly late bloomer - Kirkus (starred review) A wonderfully fresh and exotic mystery - New York Times Book Review