Colin Cotterill

"1980: The Democratic People's Republic of Laos is proud to be competing in its first-ever Olympics. Of course, half the world is boycotting the Moscow Summer Olympic Games to protest Russia's recent invasion of Afghanistan, but that has made room for athletes from countries that are usually too small or underfunded to be competitive--countries like Laos. Ex-national coroner of Laos Dr. Siri Paiboun may be retired, but he and his wife, Madame Daeng,...

"Vientiane, 1980: Laos is celebrating its fifth anniversary of communist rule, and Dr. Siri and his crew couldn't be less thrilled. But really, things could be a lot worse. Madame Daeng's noodle shop is thriving, Tukta and Geung are on their honeymoon, and Siri and Civilai are still plotting their directorial debut. But before things get too comfortable, Dr. Siri finds something odd tied with pink ribbon to his dog, Ugly's, tail: a mysterious note...

Supervising an excavation for the remains of a U.S. fighter pilot who crashed in a northern Laos jungle a decade earlier, national coroner Dr. Siri becomes suspicious when a series of fatal accidents culminates in his team getting trapped in a cabin.

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, because the spirits of the dead are on his side. [from books back cover]

Dr. Siri Paiboun, the reluctant national coroner of Laos, has to identify the victim of a traffic accident who is carrying a message written in invisible ink and in code. Deciphering the note reveals that the corpse was a blind dentist and he was involved in a plot to overthrow the government. [From publisher's description]

Missing her former life after moving to rural Southern Thailand, Jimm Juree catches the eye of a successful European writer against a backdrop of a serial murder case, an imminent major storm and her ex-cop grandfather's disapproval.

"Laos, 1981: When an unofficial mailman drops off a strange bilingual diary, Dr. Siri is intrigued. Half is in Lao, but the other half is in Japanese, which no one Siri knows can read; it appears to have been written during the Second World War. Most mysterious of all, it comes with a note stapled to it: Dr. Siri, we need your help most urgently. But who is 'we', and why have they left no return address? To the chagrin of his wife and friends, who...

Someone in Laos is wooing and wedding country girls--and then killing them on honeymoon and binding their bodies to trees. The horror of what this monster does to his victims causes Chief Coroner Dr. Siri and his morgue team to vow immediate revenge. But before they can realize their plans, they are distracted by the disappearance of local madman Crazy Rajid. But how to you trace an itinerant mute? A trail of elaborate clues and remarkable disclosures...