The Merry Misogynist

June 8, 2009
Setting and character more than compensate for a routine plot in Cotterill's sixth procedural to feature Laos's irreverent 73-year-old national coroner, Dr. Siri Paiboun (after 2008's Curse of the Pogo Stick
). In March 1978, Siri gets into trouble after the authorities discover he's been living above his wife's noodle shop rather than in the housing assigned him by the inept and corrupt socialist government. Luckily, he's soon called to examine the body of an attractive young woman, who was found strangled, sexually abused and tied to a tree outside the capital of Vientiane. The country's backward communication methods, which even affect law enforcement, make identifying other similar crimes difficult, but Siri's doggedness eventually uncovers other such cases. While some may find the light tone the author takes in presenting the brutal crimes off-putting, the glimpses of everyday life in Laos will appeal to those readers curious about a culture unfamiliar to most Americans.

August 1, 2009
Adult/High School-In this sixth volume in the series, the protagonist is as delightfully eccentric and unpredictably clever as ever. The national coroner of Laos, 73-year-old Dr. Siri Paiboun, may dream of a carefree retirement, but he knows he will enjoy neither peace nor quiet anytime soon. While hounded and threatened by overly zealous bureaucratic bean counters, Dr. Siri is presented with the corpse of a beautiful young woman from the remote hill country. The examination of the body reveals several unaccountable details and one clear conclusion: she was brutally murdered. Further investigation points to a serial killer targeting women in remote villages. Readers learn in detail the means by which the murderer sets up his prey, but not the identity of the killer until Dr. Siri assembles all the pieces of the puzzle. Cotterill provides a detailed look at the life, customs, and political realities of a place and time unfamiliar to most Americans: Laos in the 1970s. And again he does this with his trademark combination of crisp plotting, witty dialogue, political satire, and otherworldly phenomena (although not as much in evidence here as in previous books). "The Merry Misogynist" is a suspenseful, informative read."Robert Saunderson, formerly at Berkeley Public Library, CA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2009
A curmudgeonly coroner matches wits with a serial killer.

Elderly Dr. Siri Paiboun (Curse of the Pogo Stick, 2008, etc.) continues to thumb his nose at the officious communist government in Laos. When an agent from the Department of Housing Allocation named Koomki attempts to take him in for a scheduled hearing, Siri snatches the summons out of his hand and brazenly burns it. A few years into the new regime, experience and his advanced age have made Siri blithely sarcastic and pointedly heedless of authority. He's instilled confidence in his sidekicks, Nurse Dtui and lab assistant Geung Watajak, and given them increased responsibilities; increasingly they behave like him. This is not to say that they're professionally neglectful: The autopsy of a young woman who has been sexually brutalized before her murder prompts tears in Dtui and anger in Siri. Eerie, italicized chunks of narrative put the reader into the head of Phan, a killer several steps ahead of Siri. As he stalks his next victim, a flirtatious young schoolteacher named Wei, Siri and his office amass evidence that a serial killer is on the loose. Predictably, Koomki returns with reinforcements, ensnaring Siri in the Laotian bureaucracy, which for all its absurdity presents a genuine danger to him and his freedom.

The plot is more conventional than in previous Dr. Siri mysteries, but Cotterill unfolds it expertly. Siri's morgue is as entertaining as a comedy club.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2009
Cotterill returns to his popular character, national coroner and dedicated detective Dr. Siri, and his atmospheric and exotic locale, Laos in the late 1970s. Dr. Siri is one of the most engaging amateur sleuths around; an elderly but remarkably spry man, he zips around on his Triumph motorcycle, often accompanied by his new wife, noodle shop owner and former spy Madame Daeng. A man of contradictions, Dr. Siri is a scientist andan excellent coroner committed to scientific evidence, yet he also sees ghosts and talks to spirits; this time it is hisdead dog who keeps appearing as he struggles to solve the vicious murder of a sheltered young woman. As usual, one mystery is not enough for Siri, wholaunchesa parallel investigation into the disappearance of a seemingly crazy Indian man. The consistently fine characterizations of the entire cast are matched by a tightly constructedplot in which tension is heightened with excerpts from the killers point of view.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)