Mystery Author Interviews

MBTB manager Dean James & employee McKenna Jordan interview Colin Cotterill, debut author of The Coroner's Lunch (Soho; $24)

Dean/McK: Where did the character of Dr. Siri come from?

CC: Siri’s an amalgam of several friends in Laos. He’s also a symbol of the resilience and wisdom of many of the older educated Lao people. His name belongs to my friend who, with his wife Soun, has survived terrible tragedies in his life but remains positive. His build, demeanor and philosophy are those of a man I met in the south and didn’t forget. His politics belong to my friend’s father. He also represents a generation I consider to be sadly underrepresented in fiction. Some of the most colorful characters I know have waved farewell to 70 and have much more to offer than a lot of these young whippersnappers that hog the limelight in novels these days.

Dean/McK: Why did you set the book in Laos in the mid-1970s, as opposed to some other time frame?

CC: I’m a foreigner writing about a country I don’t belong to, and, as such, I’m an imposter. Ideally, a Lao writer should be telling you about his own country, but all the writing I’ve seen by Lao people is written from the point of view of this or that faction. I don’t believe we’re far enough removed from the conflict for a Lao to see his or her country from the fence. Laos has always been at war with invaders and colonists and with itself. Yet it’s a place populated with some of the calmest and most peaceful people I’ve met anywhere. I wondered how such nice people always managed to find themselves in a battlefield, and soon came to realize the majority of the Lao didn’t really know what was going on. They were eternal victims of bullies. All they asked was to work their fields and raise their children. In the early seventies, the Royalists and the Pathet Lao signed a cease-fire and for the first time anyone could remember, the fighting stopped. People liked the idea of peace, whatever the price. So, when the communist PL took over the country in 75, most people agreed they couldn’t do much worse than their corrupt predecessors. The new government, fresh from the caves of the northeast with backing from the powerful Vietnamese, could pretty much do what it liked. The intellectuals and administrators of the old regime had escaped to Thailand so the reds found themselves with a country to run and few ideas of how to go about it. They were scared, and fear leads to paranoia. The Coroner’s Lunch is set amid this period of political upheaval. It was a time when even the most banal activities became difficult, when you couldn’t sell a chicken without written permission. It added a new dimension to a mystery story, like a boxer going into a ring with his feet tied together. The books follow the chronology of Lao history through these times and refer to real events that I found fascinating. I hope you all do too.

Dean/McK: Dr. Siri has two rather unusual assistants, Dtui and Mr. Geung, and readers love these characters. How did you come to write about characters with such interesting challenges to face in life?

CC: My work here has allowed me to travel to remote places and meet interesting characters. I wanted to introduce these people through my books; to give a personality to a nation. For a lot of readers I imagine Laos has little more meaning than being a side theatre to Vietnam. But it’s a rich culture with colorful personalities who have been able to survive many years of hardship and still maintain a sense of humor. I know people who have lived through events I could never survive yet remain philosophical. It’s this trait that endears me to the Lao and I want to give them the honor they’re due. We’ll be seeing communists, royalists, Tai Dum farmers and Hmong, not as sides in a conflict, but as people with opinions and personalities. As the books progress, Dtui and Geung grow and through them I hope we can struggle through a difficult time in Lao history with the same smile on our faces.

Dean/McK: There is a fascinating mix of cultures and belief systems in the book. Even Dr. Siri seems taken aback by some of his experiences. How do you think Western audiences will react to experiences often radically different from their traditions?

CC: I think I can only answer that as a reader (and I confess I don’t read that much fiction). When I take the time to read, I expect some sort of service from the writer. I want to be a little bit wiser at the end of the book. I want to grow in some way, to learn something I didn’t know, to have experiences I can’t have in my own life, to see the world through the eyes of someone else. Through Siri, a reluctant but lifelong communist, we get a commentary on what works and doesn’t work in the system. Through Siri the host of a shaman spirit, we look at the animistic belief systems compared to institutionalized Buddhism. Through Siri the jungle dweller, we see suburban Vientiane and its society. None of these views are lectures as Siri isn’t really sure what he thinks either. The reader’s left to draw his or her own conclusion about the state of play, and that’s the type of book I like to read. But, above all, I like to turn over the last page, read the last line, and have a little smile on my lips. I want to thank the writer for letting me accompany him on a ride through something magical.

Dean/McK: Has your work in southeast Asia (for UNESCO, working with abused children, the prevention of child prostitution) influenced the writing in any way?

CC: If it weren’t for the UNESCO position I wouldn’t have made it to Laos and fallen in love with the place. But it wasn’t until the work with kids that I got fired up enough to start writing seriously. I’d done a lot of funny stuff, cartoons and humorous columns, but seeing and learning about the horrors children face, got me angry enough to start writing for effect. I wanted people to know what I knew and I figured the best way to do that was through fiction. I wrote two novels with a theme of child protection and I think it was quite a therapeutic activity. I think these were angry books. I was a bit calmer when I wrote a third and decided to make it a comedy (but still with a child trafficking theme). But these books were published locally in Thailand where the English language readership is about eleven. I didn’t ever get my message across to ‘a public’. I guess I imagined Oliver Stone coming for a holiday and picking one of them up to read on the beach. I’m still waiting for the call asking me to do the screenplay. But, the reaction to the books was good and I decided to take some time off to write fulltime.

Dean/McK: What kind of research did you have to do for this book? (For example, pathology?)

CC: The research for these books takes longer than the writing, not because I need to use all the information I get, but because it’s so much fun. It falls into three categories, the history, the pathology and the supernatural. In Laos there is little recorded modern history. Most of the writing about the country is to be found outside it. But for personal accounts and family histories there’s nothing better than sitting down with Lao friends and listening to their stories of what life was like at the social level. Then, by cross referencing through text books you can explain why this or that was happening. The toughest job was the pathology. If Siri had cable he could solve most of his cases through modern techniques, but he didn’t have up to date textbooks, just old French texts from the sixties. I had to know only what Siri knew and eliminate any methodology involving science or equipment that weren’t available to him. Fortunately I live in Chiangmai where a lot of library books are out of date. I was also fortunate to meet a local coroner who rescued some very old forensic pathology texts from his hospital. I can imagine hardened Patricia Cornwell readers going, “Gee anyone knows you just have to do the xxx test and you can answer that question”. But Siri doesn’t have any of this information. If any old coroners are reading this, I really would appreciate donations of pre 1970 textbooks. The last area for research is the most fun. A lot of research has been done locally into spiritual beliefs and rituals. All the supernatural descriptions in the books are based on documented events and ethnic folk lore (and one or two séances I saw myself).

Dean/McK: Can we expect to see Dr. Siri again? Can you tell us a little bit about the next book?

CC: Yes, I’m afraid you’re stuck with Siri and the team for a few years yet. The second book is due out around August and I’ve just signed a contract with Soho for two more. The next book is called Thirty-Three Teeth. Siri finds himself in the north in the old royal capital of Luang Prabang. There, he becomes entangled in the government plot to remove the royal family and banish all the royal spirits from the city. Meanwhile, Dtui sets out to prove the innocence of the old brown bear, recently escaped from the Lan Xang Hotel zoo. But her discoveries lead to her mysterious disappearance and the unleashing of a terrible evil. (I’m such a tease). You can get updates and other information on my new website colincotterill.com. Thanks to everyone for liking the book and for your very kind words. I hope I don’t let you down in the future. Best wishes. Col.

Colin Cotterill is the author of The Coroner’s Lunch (Soho; $24), one of our store’s favorite debuts of 2004. Here’s what Dean said in his review of the book in the last issue of TDB: “This wonderfully quirky first novel is set in a location sure to sound exotic to American readers: Laos in the mid-1970s after the Pathet Lao have taken over… The Coroner’s Lunch is perhaps not to everyone’s taste, because of its unusual mix of mysticism, violent death, and gently satiric humor, but I found this book utterly charming. Dr. Siri Paiboun is one of the most delightful characters I’ve encountered in mystery fiction in recent years, along with Maisie Dobbs and Precious Ramotswe. If you enjoy the truly original, don’t miss this one!”