Thirty-Three Teeth
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3.9 • 17 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The highly anticipated sequel to The Coroner's Lunch and winner of the Dilys Award for Crime Fiction, 2006.
Laos, 1977. Something wild and evil has been let loose in the city of Vientiane and a series of mutilated corpses lands in the morgue of Dr Siri Paiboun—the reluctant national coroner.
Just as things in the capital start to get interesting, 72-year old Dr Siri is sent to the old royal capital Luang Prabang, where he becomes involved in the Communist Government's plot to rid the country of its king and all the royal spirits.
Meanwhile, back in Vientiane, Dr Siri's helpers—Mr. Geung, a mentally challenged lab technician, and Nurse Dtui, whose nickname means "Fatty"—investigate the strange deaths. But is the killer man or beast? It'll take all the coronial team's powers to crack this gruesome mystery.
With a great sense of fun and a lively, loveable cast of characters, Thirty-Three Teeth will delight fans of The Coroner's Lunch and win Cotterill a whole new bunch of readers.
'Thirty-Three Teeth triumphantly braves the tightrope between quirky humour and the surreal macabre...magically sublime.' Entertainment Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dr. Siri Paiboun of Laos "reluctant national coroner, confused psychic, disheartened communist" employs forensic skills and spiritual acumen to solve a series of bizarre killings in Cotterill's quirky, exotic and winning second novel, set in 1977. Could an old escaped bear be mauling Vientiane citizens? Or is it something more mystical say, a weretiger? When Paiboun is summoned to the capital to identify the nationality of a pair of charred bodies, he quickly flags them as Asians killed in a helicopter crash, and his ability to connect them to the royal family annoys Communist Party leaders. As Paiboun learns of an effort to get the remaining royal family members out of town, he's arrested, accused of damaging government property. But the witness's testimony is questionable, and Paiboun, representing himself in court, escapes this scrape as handily as he's escaped others before. Paiboun's droll wit and Cotterill's engaging plot twists keep things energetic; the rather grisly murders are offset by comedy, including a scene in which a Party member attempts to impose regulations on the spirit world. The elegant, elderly Paiboun seems an unlikely vehicle to carry a series (he debuted in 2004's The Coroner's Lunch), but he does so with charm and aplomb.
Customer Reviews
Thirty-Three Teeth
Columbo, Quincy M.E. and Henry Lawson rolled into one and set in South East Asia,