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Curse of the Pogo Stick (Dr. Siri Paiboun)
Colin Cotterill
Soho Crime, 2008
solid historical Laos mystery
In the late 1970s the Laotian National Coroner seventy-three years old Dr. Siri Paiboun is attending some governmental Communist Party function (waste of time if you ask him) in the north. Meanwhile back in the capital Vientiane a corpse of a soldier booby trapped ...
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Anarchy and Old Dogs (Dr. Siri Paiboun)
Colin Cotterill
Soho Crime, 2008
`I'm a coroner, not a fortune-teller.'
This is the fourth book in the Doctor Siri series. I have still to read the second and third in the series and I know that the fifth has just been finished. Ideally, of course, one should read these books in order. But linear patience is not amongst my virtues and ...
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Death of an Englishman: A Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation
Magdalen Nabb
Soho Crime, 2001
Forza Firenze
The re-release of Magdalene Nabb's Florentine stories is long overdue ( and shame on her UK publisher for dropping her ). Congratulations are due to SoHo Press for their continuing ressucitation of some of the finest crime writers ( Van Der Wetterring , Tokagi and ...
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Death of a Red Heroine (Soho Crime)
Qiu Xiaolong
Soho Crime, 2003
Mystery? No. Enjoyable? Yes.
I'm sure it's been covered in other reviews but "Death of a Red Heroine"is no great mystery novel or police procedural, but, the investigation (in my opinion)is merely a pretext to explore the zeitgeist of post-Tiananmen Shanghai. Overall I found the novel enjoyable ...
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Murder in the Marais (Aimee Leduc Investigation)
Cara Black
Soho Crime, 2003
A Good First Novel
I bought the book at a university bookstore because I wanted something to read while waiting for my husband to complete a meeting with an architect and I'd already finished reading the book I had with me. Partly I bought it because of the beautiful buildings in the ...
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The Coroner's Lunch
Colin Cotterill
Soho Crime, 2005
CSI Vientiane, Season 1: The Sixth Sense
First of all, thanks to V.J.Canberra for recommending this historical/esoteric/ethnic series of crime novels around Dr.Siri.
Meet the hero: the man is 72 and reluctantly (he would rather retire) national chief coroner of the recently turned Republic of Laos under ...
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Thirty-Three Teeth
Colin Cotterill
Soho Crime, 2006
Dr.Siri's first encore: the Inthanet connection (wireless)
Dr.Siri is beginning to enjoy the job as national chief coroner of Laos and protests a little less about his desire to retire.
He is a man with a backbone: Siri fights for his able assistant with the Down Syndrome, like Gil Grissom also might want to in Las Vegas, ...
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White Sky, Black Ice
Stan Jones
Soho Crime, 2003
Tony Hillerman on a snowmobile
I don't know if I've ever read a romantic novel about Eskimos. The land is savage and so are the stories. Two Eskimo men commit suicide at the beginning of "White Sky, Black Ice" and no-one seems to question the coincidence except for 'Dudley Do-Right' Alaska State ...
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Disco for the Departed (Soho Crime)
Colin Cotterill
Soho Crime, 2007
Socialism has a negative effect on the weather; this is clear to the simplest minds
In 1977, the newly victorious Pathet Lao did away with some traditional folk festivals, for fear of trouble and disorder; what they got was a serious drought, which was obviously caused by the cancellation of the parties by the party.
That's the historical background ...
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Vita Nuova
Magdalen Nabb
Soho Crime, 2008
strong Italian police procedural
Just above Florence in her bedroom someone shoots and kills twenty-five years Daniela Paoletti. The victim is connected as the oldest daughter of an affluent Florentine nightclub owner. Marshal Guarnaccia puts aside his personal concern of life after the military to ...
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When Red Is Black
Qiu Xiaolong
Soho Crime, 2005
Fascinating Foray
In this detective novel, Qiu Xiaolong gives a detailed account of the tragic effects of the Cultural Revolution on ordinary -- and extraordinary -- people living in Shanghai in the 1990's. I could not solve the mystery, but I adored the poetry-spouting detective (who ...
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A Grave in Gaza (An Omar Yussef Mystery)
Matt Beynon Rees
Soho Crime, 2008
"...the flies left the flooded toilets to examine him."
One of the more interesting literary trends of recent years is the notable increase in the number of novels, mysteries and stories set in the Middle East and told from the points-of-view of those born to the region. Some of this fiction is written by citizens of that ...
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The Glass Devil (Inspector Irene Huss Investigation)
Helene Tursten
Soho Crime, 2008
Excellent Swedish police procedural
His cousin Georg, the principal of a high school, calls worried about dedicated teacher Jacob Schyttelius not coming to work or calling in. Though vague, Goteborg Criminal Superintendent Sven Andersson drafts Detective Inspector Irene Huss to accompany him when he ...
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Murder in Montmartre (Aimee Leduc Investigation)
Cara Black
Soho Crime, 2007
Very very good series!!
The people who have said they don't like this series, well, that's OK. We all like different things. Now, as for myself, I can't stand a single book which has won the Booker Prize, except for The English Patient. I like this series of mysteries. I feel like I have ...
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The Marshal and the Murderer
Magdalen Nabb
Soho Crime, 2002
The potters Tale
SoHo continue to delight by re-issuing Nabb's superlative Florentine novels ( although why they aren't being put out in chronological order defeats me ). The story revolves around Guarnaccia's gradual unravelling of a decades old feud and it's tragic echo in the ...
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