BOOK REVIEW

Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill. Dilys Award

See the Mystery Series List for the Dr. Siri Paiboun series

(Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com)  It is 1977 in Communist Laos, and unbelievably hot.  In fact, that is what people remark on whenever conversation falters: "Hot, isn't it?" and "Damned hot!"  Thirty-Three Teeth opens when an aging bear escapes from its concrete cage where it had been kept and neglected for years as an "attraction" outside a hotel. This will lead to strange repercussions to come.

But 72 year-old Siri Paiboun is unaware of this. He is the national coroner of Laos, and has just moved to an ugly concrete bungalow in the suburbs that reminds him of a mausoleum. His neighbor to one side is a busybody widow who brings him cooked dinners that are inedible, and tries to press housekeeping services upon him.  His other neighbor is a surly gangster.  Even worse, there is a loudspeaker mounted on a pole down the street that broadcasts Party propaganda early in the morning.

Siri's best friend Civilai shows up in the black limousine in which all high-ranking Party officials are transported. He brings good Soviet vodka. The two old geezers get drunk and chat.  In the back of his mind, Siri mulls over his unusual life.  Just recently, psychic powers have awoken within him. Apparently he houses within his robust body the spirit of a powerful Hmong shaman named Yeh Ming.  He has started to see ghosts and have prophetic dreams, and he is still coming to terms with it.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, an elderly woman visits the outhouse only to have a creature with fangs maul her to death.  Could the poor escaped bear have killed her?

In the morning, nursing a hangover, Siri goes to the morgue to join his assistants:  assertive nurse Dtui, a large, studious woman; and sweet-natured Geung, a young man with Down's Syndrome.  Two male corpses have been brought in for autopsies:  they were found dead last night in the street on top of a badly crushed bicycle. 

Siri comes to the conclusion that Mr. B, a laborer with rough hands and clothes, was riding the bicycle.  Mr. A, a soft clerical type, jumped out of the government building overhead in an attempt to commit suicide, and happened to fall directly on top of Mr. B. So what made Mr. A want to kill himself?

Another friend Inspector Phosy helps Siri to investigate the government building from which Mr. A. jumped to his death.  In a room on the top floor is a locked wooden chest.  It bears the royal seal; obviously, it was seized when the royal family was deposed. Siri senses malevolence emanating from within, and warns his policeman friend not to try to open it.  If that weren't enough excitement for one day, when he returns to the morgue, he has to autopsy the body of the elderly woman who was chewed up by some fanged creature.

Soon the people of Vientiane are terrified, believing that the old escaped bear is murdering them in retribution for her years of ill-treatment.  The cops put out a shoot-on-sight warrant on her.  Siri and his coworkers lament that decision, but have no time to argue against it. The government has requested Siri's presence on a top-secret mission to one of the northern provinces to investigate the burned corpses of two downed helicopter pilots.  It is a journey that will open him to the dying spirits of the old monarchy which he encounters during a surrealistic evening of chatting and drinking with an unusual gentleman in an overgrown orchard.

Thirty-Three Teeth is a haunting mystery (no pun intended).  It swirls gracefully between its three unrelated investigations, never wasting a word.  (The title refers to the fact that most of us have 32 teeth, and those with the extra one, including Siri and Lord Buddha, are thought to be highly psychic.) 

Stick with the rowdy old protagonist, and you too will encounter malevolent puppets, a despairing king, a bizarre serial killer, a Soviet circus troupe, and an old bear who (thankfully) ends up among loving people.  Thirty-Three Teeth is not to be missed.  It is the second book in Cotterill's Laos series (the first is The Coroner's Lunch), and can be found on Amazon through this link: 

Thirty-three Teeth

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