The Coroner’s Lunch is a crime novel by British author, Colin Cotterill, and is the first installment in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series, set in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic during the 1970’s.
The novel surrounds Dr. Siri Paiboun, who is appointed state coroner for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. It’s 1976, the royal family has been deposed, the professional classes have fled and the communists have taken over. 72-year-old Siri – a communist out of convenience – has got the coroner’s job because he’s the only doctor left in Laos.
As the story progresses, bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers start bobbing to the surface of a Laotian lake, and Dr. Siri is faced with uncovering the truth of the crisis.
Colin Cotterill was born in London after studying education, began traveling the world, picking up odd-jobs as he went. He worked as a physical education instructor in Israel, a primary school teacher in Australia, a counselor for educationally handicapped adults in the US, and a university lecturer in Japan. The latter part of his career was spent in Southeast Asia, where Cotterill taught and trained teachers in Thailand and on the Burmese borde worked for several years in Laos, initially with UNESCO.
Ten years ago, Colin became involved in child protection in the region and set up an NGO in Phuket which he ran for the first two years. After two more years of study in child abuse issues, and one more stint in Phuket, he moved on to ECPAT, an international organization combating child prostitution and pornography. He established their training program for caregivers. When his books based in Laos gained in popularity in the 2010’s, Cotterill set up a project to send books to Lao children and sponsor trainee teachers.
I would say that this book ended up being more of a beach read, but it did still teach me a bit about Laos under the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In particular, I thought it was interesting to see Dr. Siri’s irreverent thoughts about his political party and the regime ruling Laos throughout the novel.
“If the truth were to be told, he was a heathen of a communist.”
The Coroners Lunch by Colin Cotterill
It left me craving more in terms of the political dynamics of the era. Laos, like Vietnam and Cambodia, have a deeply complex history that will take a lot of study and experience to really understand. I hope to return here someday to continue that education.
Sam
Sam on Sabbatical 