Martin's Reviews > The Coroner's Lunch

Dr Siri the national (and only) coroner of Laos has puzzles to unravel. One by one important and not so important people are being killed. Luckily he is helped by an unusual collection of good people.

The Glorious Revolution...
When he had arrived in Vientiane for the first time with the victorious Pathet Lao on November 23, 1975, he hadn’t expected, at seventy-two, to be learning a new career.

The promotion...
We’ve decided to make you the Republic’s chief police coroner.” He looked into Siri’s green eyes for a hint of pride, but saw only bewilderment. He might as well have told him he was to be the Republic’s new balloon bender or uni-cyclist.

“I’ve never done an autopsy in my life.”

“Ah. It’s all the same. Putting them together: taking them apart.”

“It certainly is not.”

Politics and puppets...
“Then there’s the ongoing puppet scandal.”

“Tell me.”

“The Party ordered the puppets at Xiang Thong temple in Luang Prabang to stop using royal language, and said they had to start calling each other ‘comrade’.”

“Quite right, too. We have to show those puppets who’s pulling the strings.” Civilai hit him with a lettuce leaf. “What happened?”

“Puppets refused.”

“Subversive bastards.”

“The local party members locked them up in their box, and they aren’t allowed out till they succumb.”

“That’ll teach ‘em.”

A mysterious death...
He’d read about forensic scientists around the world who reveled in mysteries such as these. He wasn’t yet one of them.

Make an appointment...?
His wasn’t an appointment culture: you’d turn up; you’d see if the person was there; you’d sit and wait for an hour if he was, go home if he wasn’t.

A murder mystery, a spiritual seance, people coping with their new communist leaders, what could be worse? And yet there are many happy, sweet moments of love and true friendship.

Enjoy!