Review: The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

Title: The Coroner’s Lunch (the first Dr Siri Investigation)

Author: Colin Cotterill (and he blogs here)

Publisher: Quercus [originally 2005?, this edition 2007]

ISBN: 978-1-84724-196-2

Length: 400 pages

Setting: Laos, 1976

Genre: Amateur sleuth

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 5/5

One-liner: An engaging, funny, staunchly un-categorisable book. With subversive puppets!

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The book opens Laos in 1976. A fledgling Communist regime is in power for the first time and Dr Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old doctor and former warrior, has been appointed the country’s sole Coroner. He has no training for the role, most of the available books on the subject are in a language he doesn’t speak and he has little of the necessary equipment. Despite all this he’s required to investigate an assortment of peculiar deaths, including the wife of a Party Leader and what appear to be tortured Vietnamese soldiers. Helping Dr Siri are nurse (and wannabe trainee Coroner) Dtui, morgue assistant Mr Geung and the spirits of dead people who inhabit Dr Siri’s dreams.

The highlight of the book for me was the humour which has the same witty, haphazardly surreal quality as Douglas Adams’ writing. In the past I have lamented the lack of books with this kind of sensibility but I now realise it’s a terribly difficult thing to achieve and am simply grateful whenever I stumble across an example. I don’t re-read books very often but books like this, that offer something wonderful quite independent of their narrative, tend to make it to the shelf of books I re-acquaint myself with from time to time.

The characters are delightful too. Dr Siri is reluctant in his roles as communist and coroner though he performs the latter with increasing diligence. He treats the people he meets with the amount of respect and compassion each deserves and his struggle to cope with the supernatural aspect to his life is handled well (it’s a theme normally guaranteed to turn me off). There are a myriad of other players, major and minor, alive and not, good and evil, who are all equally well depicted and credible.

The book also offers a marvellous sense of time and place although I’m so woefully ignorant of this particular part of the world and its history that I’ve no clue if it’s a realistic depiction. For all I know it could be as much a production of Cotterill’s imagination as his protagonist’s corpse-inhabited dreams but, realistic or not, it’s a glimpse into a fascinating world.

For once the prominent blurb on my copy of The Coroner’s Lunch, which likens it to Alexander McCall Smith’s African series, isn’t wildly inaccurate. Dr Siri certainly shares characteristics with Mme Ramotswe of Smith’s series although I think the plot of this book is far more intricate and it tackles weightier social issues, albeit with a delicate touch and wry humour. I found myself wanting more of this writing and these people almost before I’d even finished and, happily for me, there are already five more books in the series. What joy I have to look forward to.

Other stuff

The Coroner’s Lunch is reviewed by Helen at It’s Criminal, Maxine at Euro Crime, Karen at Euro Crime.

 

Review: The Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

Title: The Consequences of Sin

Author: Clare Langley-Hawthorne

Publisher: Penguin [2007]

ISBN: 978-0-14-311293-8

Length: 262 pages

Setting: England and Venezuela, 1910-11

Genre: historical crime fiction

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 4/5

One-liner: Historically accurate, delightfully complex yarn full of wonderful imagery.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

In Edwardian England Ursula Marlow is the only daughter of a widowed self-made man. She is woken one morning by a frantic phone call from one of her suffragette friends, Winifred “Freddie” Stanford-Jones, who has discovered her lover dead covered in blood in the bed beside her. Although she doesn’t want to be beholden to him, Ursula calls upon her father’s legal adviser Lord Wrotham to smooth the waters with the Police. Despite this Freddie is soon arrested and as Ursula tries to clear her friend’s name she discovers that the murder of Freddie’s lover may relate to a troubled expedition to Venezuela’s famed Orinoco Delta that her father financed 20 years previously.

I love it when a book surprises me. I was expecting a frothy historical romp and although this book does have its frothy moments there’s also a more melancholic, even sombre, thread that I, perhaps perversely, enjoyed. Also, Ursula is also more complex and credible heroine than I anticipated. She’s not the over-the-top force of nature that Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody is but nor is she an Austen-esque woman constantly being overcome by the vapours. At times she’s a take-charge gal forging ahead regardless of danger but at other points she’s indecisive and clearly scared by unfolding events. This dichotomy is far more realistic than the extremes you often find in fiction and it made Ursula more interesting and the book less predictable than others in this crowded space.

I’m no expert on the period but the historical setting seems to have been captured rather beautifully. There were many details of Edwardian life depicted that demonstrated that the past is indeed a foreign country: one fun to visit but nice to return home from. While exploring in South America a hundred years ago or sailing first-class on the Lusitania (5 years before it sank) might have been great experiences I wouldn’t trade them for being able to vote and look after my own finances.

While I revelled in the details of the explorers of the past and Edwardian life in general there was a solid mystery playing out at decent pace although there weren’t many red herrings or alternative suspects whose guilt I could ponder. The remaining characters other than the two leads played fairly minor roles and but perhaps other characters will participate more fully in future books. The only one here that I struggled with was the policeman (in fact I’m still not sure if he was supposed to be incredibly dumb or vaguely corrupt). However the book was crammed with enough other delights to keep me occupied and I’ll even admit (as long as you promise not to tell anyone else) that I was quite engaged by the romantic element to the story (which was almost entirely lacking in soppiness thank heavens).

Other stuff

This book has been reviewd at Books and Musings from Down Under and Bookgirl’s Nightstand

 

Review: Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Title: Crocodile on the Sandbank (the 1st Amelia Peabody mystery)

Author: Elizabeth Peters

Publisher: Warner Books (original edition 1975, this edition 1992)

ISBN: 0-445-40651-8

Length: 262 pages

This is the first book to introduce the impossibly unbelievable heroine Amelia Peabody. It’s around 1880 and Amelia is a 32 year old single woman who has just inherited a sizable fortune. She leaves her native England and, after a short stop in Europe where she acquires a companion by the name of Evelyn who has been ruined by an unfortunate love affair, she heads for Egypt. While waiting for their boat to be ready for a trip down the Nile, Amelia and Evelyn meet the Emerson brothers, Radcliffe and Walter, who they later encounter at Armanah where they are excavating. When the ladies join the dig a mysterious mummy frightens the local workmen away but Amelia is not so easily scared.

This series is something of a guilty reading pleasure for me. I have always been a little obsessed with things Egyptian and so love the tales of the digs and discoveries that are full of fun and adventure. It’s rare for me to want to swap lives with the fictional people I read about but I’d happily switch places with Amelia if such things were possible. Peters clearly knows her subject as even in this first book the historical details are accurate and she takes care to depict the excavations and other events as they would have been carried out at this period (assuming that a force of nature such as Amelia had taken part any way).

This book does a nice job of introducing all the characters of the series: providing some back story but leaving some things too for revelation in later books. Over-the-top Amelia is able to master all manner of skills including medicine, archaeology, negotiation, languages and virtually anything else she turns her mind to. I’m sure she’d be annoying to be around at times but her total disregard for the social conventions of the day would, I think, make up for her superiority complex. The rest of the characters are either equally wonderful human beings (Amelia wouldn’t settle for anything less in her friends) unless they’re dastardly rascals intent on mischief.

If you fancy a girls own adventure with a heroine you can’t help but admire and a liberal dose of humour then try Crocodile on the Sandbank for yourself. The plot is a little convoluted at times but it all works out in the end and, anyway, I like these books more for their sense of time and place and can forgive some annoyances with the plot.

My rating 3.5/5

 

Review: Search the Dark by Charles Todd

Title: A search in the dark

Author: Charles Todd

Publisher: Recorded Books [2008]

ISBN: n/a (digital download from audible.com)

Length: 11hrs 40 minutes

Narrator: Samuel Gillies

Following the end of the first World War Ian Rutledge has returned to his work as an Inspector with Scotland Yard after nearly dying on the battlefield. He is called to a case in Dorset where a man has been arrested for killing the woman he believed to be his wife, despite the fact his wife and two children had supposedly died during a bombing raid two years earlier. Rutledge is assigned as a trouble-shooter to coordinate with the jurisdictions involved to locate the children who were assumed to have been with the murdered woman when she was killed. His presence is not universally welcomed by the local coppers.

The slant to this book is that Rutledge has a partner of sorts: a voice in his head. The voice belongs to Hamish McLeod, a soldier that Rutledge was required to shoot during the war when McLeod refused to lead his men into a particular battle. Rutledge seems resigned to Hamish’s presence which is at times angry and taunting and at other times almost supportive of Rutledge’s ways. He copes remarkably well with the interruptions at any rate. This is the third book in a series of what is now 11 books and frankly I’m not sure where else this particular element can go as, after only a short while, the novelty value had worn off for me and I simply accepted Hamish as a normal, fairly minor character. In a way I suppose this is good as it means it’s less of a gimmicky element than it might otherwise be, but the downside is that there’s less to differentiate this book from similar books in the crowded police procedural genre.

As historical fiction goes the book is first rate. It captures the immediate aftermath of the war and its effect on both the people who fought in it and those who stayed behind. Although the book explores the psychological impact of the war in a way that a contemporary whodunnit might not have done, I don’t think that makes the exploration less legitimate and, for me, it was the most interesting aspect of the book. The depiction of the torment many people went through without the medical knowledge and social support systems that are available today is powerful and quite sobering to ponder. Of course this makes the book quite a sad one with an ending that should not have had to happen (but realistic nonetheless).

A combination of slower pacing than I like and Rutledge’s way of working things out in his mind (with Hamish’s help) led to each twist and turn of the plot being telegraphed to me slightly before it actually happened so that in the end there were few genuine surprises in the story. However the plot, though somewhat convoluted, is logical and does hang together well. The characters more than make up for the duller moments.

I’d definitely recommend this to fans of historical fiction (I have a friend who adores Foyles War and I think she’ll love this series) and those who like a solidly written police procedural with a touch of melancholy.

Audio book specific comments: A great narrator who manages the balance between performance and reading too perfection. I did find myself looking forward to getting back to this one and was quickly lost in the story each time I came back to it.

My rating 4/5

Other stuff

Reviewed by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise (in fact I have Kerrie to thank for the recommendation and I did enjoy the book although perhaps for different reasons than Kerrie as I wasn’t terribly taken with the whole notion of Hamish).

This is yet another book written by a pair of writers, this time mother and son (Caroline and Charles Todd). Who knew so many relatives could work productively together without killing each other? It wouldn’t happen in my crazy (but much loved) family.

There are 11 books so far in this series with another scheduled for release next year and, according to this Publishers Weekly article, the authors are starting a new seires of historical whodunnits also set around the time of WWI but this time featuring an army nurse as the investigator. The first book in this series is due for publication in September.

 

Review: It’s a Mod Mod Mod Mod Murder by Rosemary Martin

Title: It’s a Mod Mod Mod Mod Murder (the first Murder A Go-Go Mystery)

Author: Rosemary Martin

Publisher: Signet Books [2005]

ISBN: 0-451-21470-6

Length: 260 pages

It’s 1964 and Elizabeth ‘call me Bebe’ Bennett has just moved from the genteel South in America to a New York apartment. When she and her airline stewardess roommate Darlene visit a luxury hotel for a date with two members of a new band that Bebe’s boss, Bradley Williams, has signed to his record label life gets complicated. The lead singer of the band is found murdered, Darlene is a suspect and ordered not to leave town (difficult for an international stewardess) and the man Bebe’s in love with, Bradley Williams, might lose his job. As is the way with all good cosy mysteries, Bebe struts into the role of amateur sleuthery with a great deal of enthusiasm and a load of luck.

Although it concerns a more recent past than is normally the case with historical crime fiction I’m still putting this one in that sub-genre as the main feature of the book is its focus on the swinging 60’s. There are loads of cultural and fashion references and the author clearly has a love of the time period. Bebe working for a record company offers lots of scope for name-dropping and the two girls lead quite the high-life. I wasn’t born until the end of the 60’s so have no first hand memory of the time but I grew up listening almost exclusively to the music from the era  and could probably tell you the plot of every That Girl episode (thanks to mum for both of these influences) and so I thoroughly enjoyed the setting of this story.

The plot was fairly typical of a cosy mystery in that the amateur sleuths have a number of scrapes and brushes with danger and there are red herrings and false suspects galore. However ‘routine’ it might be it does fit together logically and the resolution was satisfyingly unpredictable. The romance element was a bit higher than I like, particularly as Bebe was hopelessly in love with her boss and spent a bit too much of the book mooning about the place and being soppy. In fact she and the rest of the characters are a bit too two-dimensional to be truly memorable but there is potential for them and the friendship between Bebe and Darlene is a nicely written relationship.

This was a fun, quick book to read that delivered exactly what it promised. If you’re a fan of the 60’s and fancy a bit of escapsit fun (or a trip down memory lane) you could do a lot worse.

My rating 3/5

Other stuff

There are two more books in the series, Twist and Shout and Secret Agent Girl.

 

Review: Silent in the Grave

Title: Silent in the Grave (the first Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane novel)

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira Books [2007]

ISBN: 978-0-7783-2524-6

No. of Pages: 511

I’m going to get this out of the way up front. I wouldn’t have finished this book if I hadn’t promised to lead a discussion about it for the online book club Oz Mystery Readers. I found it excruciatingly dull, cliché ridden and utterly devoid of suspense.  So if you don’t want read a disgruntled rant you might want to stop now.

Plot synopsis: In London in 1886 Lady Julia Grey’s husband dies of what is presumed to be a pre-existing condition. When a mysterious gentleman, Nicholas Brisbane, tells Lady Julia that her husband may have been murdered she scoffs. Twelve months later she finds a scrap of evidence to support his claim and makes contact. Together they investigate, amidst scads of sexual tension and the occasional stop to be kind to the poor.

I’m quite partial to historical fiction but I think the writing of it is deceptively difficult. Raybourn has actually done a decent job of depicting the world of wealth in the Victorian era but she’s given far too much of a modern sensibility to her characters for them to be credible for me. The entire Grey family (minus one token Tory) are radically liberal and totally accepting of society’s misfits and all the things that would have been considered highly immoral at the time. The rest of the minor players (we’ll talk about Nicholas in a minute) are either worthy stereotypes (warm-hearted prostitutes, hard-working widowed char ladies and misunderstood but honest gypsies etc) or vaguely unsavoury n’er do wells. All of which I might have been able to swallow if it weren’t for the fact that the whole thing was so very serious. Whereas Rhys Bowen or Elizabeth Peters write their respective historical fiction containing unbelievably free-spirited female heroines with their tongues firmly in their cheeks, Raybourn seems to treat the whole thing as Important Work (capitalisation deliberate) because there’s not a jot of humour in the 511 pages. The damn book even has its own ‘graceful and elegant’ font reflective of Lady Julia. Groan.

Relatively speaking Lady Julia is an OK character. I didn’t like her or find her particularly credible but when compared to Nicholas Brisbane she’s fascinatingly unique. Because Brisbane is Sherlock Holmes under an assumed name. He’s got a mysterious background, is dark and brooding, has a problem with drugs and a faithful confidante. Heck he even plays the violin. He’s good at everything he tries (from boxing to music) and annoyingly protective of Lady Julia (remember that sexual tension). And he’s a crashing bore.

While I found the book overdid the romantic element of ‘romantic suspense’ it under-cooked the suspense. Not only was the killer evident from very early on (primarily due to the complete and total absence of red-herrings) but many of the minor threads were blindingly obvious to0. One of the (many) problems stemming from Raybourn’s choice to make everyone so wonderfully liberal is that it took the element of surprise away from the supposed twists. I can’t write what I want to write without giving away spoilers so I will just say that I felt like an older child who’s been dragged along to the Christmas Pantomime with a younger sibling, and all the fun of yelling “lookout he’s behind you” to the hapless actor has long worn off.

It took me a long week to plough through every tiresome, melodramatic moment of this book. I won’t be looking for the next two books in the series and I shan’t be hurrying to volunteer to lead any book discussions in the foreseeable future.

My rating 1/5

Other stuff

Most people enjoyed this way more than I did and below are links to reviews at various other places

Material Witness, Books and Musings from Down Under, Euro Crime

 

Review: Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner

Title: Murder on the Eiffel Tower (#1 in the Victor Legris series)

Author: Claude Izner (the website is in French)

Publisher:  Gallic Books [2007]

ISBN: 978-1-906040-01-7

No. of Pages: 286

The book is set in Paris in 1889 which was the setting for the World Expo at which what was then the world’s tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower, was officially opened. A woman collapses and dies on one of the Tower’s platforms and the official story is that she died of a bee sting. Even when other people die, also purportedly of bee stings, the Police do not appear to be taking much interest in the deaths. However, Victor Legris, a local bookseller, becomes convinced the deaths are more than coincidences and commences an investigation of sorts.

The historical part of this historical crime fiction is fascinating. The book manages to depict the time beautifully, giving a real sense of the place and the people and the truly wondrous thing that the Tower and the associated Expo must have been at the time. There are references to the art movements centred in Paris at the time and numerous other facts that we associate with the city and it all has a very realistic feel. There are a couple of instances where I thought modern day sensibilities had been unrealistically ascribed to 19th Century Parisians but overall I thoroughly enjoyed losing myself in this setting.

Unfortunately the crime part of the book wasn’t nearly as riveting. The amateur sleuth, Victor Legris, doesn’t really detect anything. He leaps from one misplaced conclusion to another and the ultimate resolution to the mystery was achieved more in spite of his actions than because of them. Not that there were a heck of a lot of clues pointing in the direction of the villain (I had guessed the culprit but it was the same kind of guesswork that Victor engaged in and not based on a single fact provided in the book). It felt to me as if the various ‘acts’ of the plot were used more to depict some aspect of the city or the Expo that the author wanted to highlight than to advance the plot with the result that the plot was weaker than it should have been.

The characterisations in the book varied in their success. I never ‘bought’ Legris because he was far too willing to believe his friends to be guilty of murder and thought nothing of spying on them or going through their possessions. In addition he’s ridiculously melodramatic and not terribly bright and I really can’t see that kind of protagonist sustaining a series. His love interest, Tasha the struggling Russian artist, started out strongly but towards the end I found her a bit insipid and inconsistent with her earlier self. However some of the minor characters, including Joseph the bookseller’s assistant and mystery aficionado, were far more engaging and credible.

Claude Izner is the pseudonym for two French sisters who are modern Parisian booksellers with particular expertise in this time period so the historical aspect of this book is first rate. The whodunnit side of the book is less well developed but it’s a fun read in spite of that.

My rating 3/5

Other stuff

Reviewed by Terry at Euro Crime