The Merry Misogynist (Dr. Siri Paiboun Series #6)

by Colin Cotterill

Overview

The sixth Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery

When the corpse of a rural beauty turns up in Dr. Siri’s morgue, his curiosity is piqued. The victim was tied to a tree and strangled, but she had not, as the doctor had expected, been raped. On a trip to the hinterlands, Siri learns that many women have been killed this way, and he soon discovers that not only pretty maidens are at risk. Seventy-three-year-old coroners can be victims, too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781569476543
Publisher:	Soho Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/01/2010
Series:	Dr. Siri Paiboun Series , #6
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.58(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Colin Cotterill is the Dilys Award–winning author of nine other books in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series: The Coroner’s Lunch, Thirty-Three Teeth, Disco for the Departed, Anarchy and Old Dogs, Curse of the Pogo Stick, Love Songs from a Shallow Grave, Slash and Burn, The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die, and Six and a Half Deadly Sins. He lives in Chumphon, Thailand, with his wife and five deranged dogs.

Table of Contents

1 Five Dead Wives 1

2 Bo Ben Nyang 25

3 The Oversized Monday 49

4 Hindipendence 61

5 Doomed 71

6 In the Belly of the Brainless One 95

7 An Invisible Rice Farmer 113

8 Palace of the One-Hundred and Eleven Eyes 127

9 The Lao Patriotic Women's Association 137

10 Dancing with Death 151

11 Broken Water 157

12 In a Stupa 165

13 A Honeymoon in Hell 179

14 Coming to One's Census 199

15 A Lack of Police Intelligence 213

16 Swimming Through Rocks 223

17 There Goes the Bride 241

18 The Buddha Amusement Park 259

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Merry Misogynist

"This wonderful series has consistently managed to convey the beauty and sadness of this damaged country through the wisdom and humor of its protagonist."
—The Boston Globe

"With the help of a macabre sense of humor, and a jolly coroner, Colin Cotterill has concocted a wryly entertaining mystery that makes tracking a psychopathic killer more enjoyable than you would expect . . . [The Merry Misogynist] reads like series of sardonic vignettes, stylishly written in a way that indicates that the author has a merry take on the vicissitudes of life, and wants the reader to enjoy it with him. Long live Dr. Siri."
—The Washington Times

"Delectable."
—The Huffington Post

"It is part of Colin Cotterill's skill that he grips the reader by intercutting between the cerebral deductions of Siri and the determined planning of the killer. Clever plotting spins out tension alongside the Mekhong . . . Tight plotting and a background full of the sounds and colour of the Orient make this a fascinating read."
—The Independent, UK

"The consistently fine characterizations of the entire cast are matched by a tightly constructed plot in which the tension is heightened with excerpts from the killer's point of view."
—Booklist

"Siri's morgue is as entertaining as a comedy club."
—Kirkus Reviews

"[Dr. Siri] is as delightfully eccentric and unpredictably clever as ever . . . 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."
—School Library Journal

"The glimpses of everyday life in Laos will appeal to those readers curious about a culture unfamiliar to most Americans."
—Publishers Weekly

"[Dr. Siri is] a wonderful character, and a rather unique one in detective fiction . . . Highly and most enthusiastically recommended."
—Mysterious Reviews

"A very enjoyable read . . . Siri is a character worth pursuing."
—Reviewing the Evidence

"A funny, sweet and devilishly complex mystery . . . Colin Cotterill is a master of sleight of hand."
—Curled Up with a Good Book

"The Merry Misogynist (and all the other Dr Siri books) are carefully crafted police procedurals and each book has a decided twist in the tail—none of which I've yet managed to anticipate . . . Dr Siri can be decidedly unsettling."
—The Bookbag, UK


Praise for the Dr. Siri Paiboun Investigations

“Terrifically beguiling detective novels steeped in local color and history.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Like Dr. Siri, Colin Cotterill has a touch of magic about him.”
—The Boston Globe

“A delightfully fresh and eccentric hero.”
—John Burdett

“Unpredictable . . . Tragically funny and magically sublime.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“A crack storyteller and an impressive guide to a little-known culture.”
—The Washington Post Book World

From the Publisher

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. (Aug.)

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Publishers Weekly

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

School Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews