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The coroner's lunch / Colin Cotterill.
Van Pelt Library PR6053.O778 C67 2004
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cotterill, Colin.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Older people--Fiction.
- Older people.
- Coroners.
- Laos.
- Physicians--Fiction.
- Physicians.
- Coroners--Fiction.
- Laos--Fiction.
- Genre:
- Fiction.
- Historical fiction.
- Mystery fiction.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 257 pages ; 20 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Soho Press, [2004]
- Summary:
- The Coroner's Lunch beguiles and fascinates as it shows us not only an exotic place and an intriguing people, but also reveals their soul.
- Set in Laos, once part of Indochina, recently taken over by the Communist Pathet Lao party, its protagonist, Dr. Siri Paiboun, is a physician trained in Paris. For lack of other candidates-most of the educated class has fled-he has been appointed chief coroner. A lofty title, but the reality is humbling: a barely equipped morgue, staffed by a retarded morgue technician and a poverty-stricken, homely nurse whose brilliant improvisation keeps them functioning. Dr. Siri is no slouch at cost-containment either; at one point he employs cockroaches in a novel experiment to provide him with a telling clue.
- After months of boredom there is a sudden spate of bodies, one slain more mysteriously than the next. Three have risen from the dark waters into which they'd been cast. The Party wants certain answers, but at his advanced age Dr. Siri feels immune from bureaucratic pressure. His bosses aren't happy with him nor are the dead who come into his care, whom he cannot fail without risk of incurring their boundless displeasure. Eternity could be a long time to have the spirits mad at you.
- Contents:
- People's Democratic Republic of Laos, October 1976 1
- 1 Vientiane, Two Weeks Later 3
- 2 Comrade Kham's Wife 26
- 3 The Boatman's Requiem 62
- 4 Tran the Elder 71
- 5 The Chicken Counter 79
- 6 Autopsy Envy 95
- 7 The Pathological Rebel 101
- 8 A Little Fishing Trip 105
- 9 Assassination 113
- 10 To Khamuan by Yak 123
- 11 The Exorcist's Assistant 146
- 12 A Fear of Landing 161
- 13 Time to Kill 165
- 14 The Hairdresser's Bruise 179
- 15 Succubus Terminal 191
- 16 Death by Intercourse 194
- 17 The Disappearing Room 202
- 18 A Hospital Without Doctors 210
- 19 Talking to Dead People 217
- 20 How to Miss the That Luang Festival 224
- 21 The Other Case 236
- 22 Thrice Dead 241
- 23 The Dead Coroner's Lunch 245
- 24 Just When You Think It's All Over... 254.
- ISBN:
- 1569473765
- OCLC:
- 54960595
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