The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had been looking for this book for a while. I had an all too brief holiday in Laos a couple of years ago & would go back in a heartbeat. & while a lot of tourists are disappointed in Vientiane, I wasn’t. I liked the France meets Asia charm.
The beginning of this book was really good, packed full of characters, wit & charm. The politics of Laos & how the septuagenarian Dr Siri Paiboun became the Laotian coroner was hilarious.
The trouble is, it became too packed full of characters, & I had a lot of trouble keeping them all straight. It also sagged badly in the middle & ended up having to push myself to finish. & a fair bit of the old woo-woo. I’m not fond of magic realism & this seems a cheat’s way to solve a mystery.
I’m not sure if I will continue with this series, but I may try Cotterill’s Jimm Jurree series, as my library system stocks quite a few of these titles.
Carol - She's So Novel! 