Colin Cotterill has 21 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 7 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 19 ratings. The most-rated is Thirty-Three Teeth.
Disco for the Departed
Summary
Dr. Siri Paiboun is summoned to the mountains of Huaphan Province, where for years the leaders of the current communist government hid in caves, waiting to assume power. Now a major celebration of the new regime is scheduled to take place, but an arm is found protruding from the concrete walk laid from the president’s former cave hideout to his new house beneath the cliffs. Siri must supervise the disinterment of the body attached to the arm, identify it, and determine the cause of death. The autopsy provides some surprises, but it is his gifts as a shaman that enable the 73-year-old doctor to discover why the victim was buried alive and to identify the killer.
©2006 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Thirty-Three Teeth
Summary
Feisty Dr. Siri Paiboun is no respecter of persons or party; at his age he feels he can afford to be independent. In this, the second novel in the series, he travels to Luang Prabang, where he communes with the deposed king who is resigned to his fate: it was predicted long ago. And he attends a conference of shamans called by the Communist Party to deliver an ultimatum to the spirits: obey party orders or get out. But as a series of mutilated corpses arrives in Dr. Siri’s morgue, and Nurse Dtui is menaced, he must use all his powers—forensic and shamanic—to discover the creature—animal or spirit—that has been slaying the innocent.
©2005 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Curse of the Pogo Stick
Summary
In Vientiane, Laos, a booby-trapped corpse intended for Dr. Siri, the national coroner, has been delivered to the morgue. In his absence, only Nurse Dtui’s intervention saves the lives of the morgue attendants, visiting doctors, and Madame Daeng, Dr. Siri’s fiancée. On his way back from a Communist Party meeting in the north, Dr. Siri is kidnapped by seven female Hmong villagers under the direction of the village elder so that he will—in the guise of Yeh Ming, the thousand-year-old shaman with whom he shares his body—exorcise the headman’s daughter, whose soul is possessed by a demon, and lift the curse of the pogo stick.
©2008 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Second Biggest Nothing
Summary
A death threat to Dr. Siri and all his friends sends the ex-coroner down memory lane. From Paris in the '30s to war-torn Vietnam in the '70s, Dr. Siri must mine his past to figure out who's trying to kill him now. Vientiane, 1980: For a man of his age and in his corner of the world, Dr. Siri, the 76-year-old former national coroner of Laos, is doing remarkably well - especially considering the fact that he is possessed by a 1,000-year-old Hmong shaman. That is, until he finds a mysterious note tied to his dog's tail. The death threat is not just aimed at him, but at everyone he holds dear. And whoever wrote the note claims the job will be executed in two weeks. Thus, at the urging of his wife and his motley crew of faithful friends, Dr. Siri must figure out who wants him dead, prompting him to recount three incidents over the years: an early meeting with his lifelong pal Civilai in Paris in the early '30s, a particularly disruptive visit to an art museum in Saigon in 1956, and a prisoner of war negotiation in Hanoi at the height of the Vietnam War in the '70s. There will be grave consequences in the present if Dr. Siri can't decipher the clues from his past.
©2019 Colin Cotterill (P)2019 Recorded Books
Don't Eat Me
Summary
Between getting into a tangle with a corrupt local judge and discovering a disturbing black-market business, Dr. Siri and his friend Inspector Phosy have their hands full in the 13th installment of Colin Cotterill's quirky, critically acclaimed series. Dr. Siri Paiboun, the ex-national coroner of Laos, may have more experience dissecting bodies than making art, but when he manages to smuggle a fancy movie camera into the country he devises a plan to shoot a Lao adaptation of War and Peace with his friend Civilai. The only problem? The Ministry of Culture must approve the script before they can get rolling. That and they can't figure out how to turn on the camera. Meanwhile, the skeleton of a woman has appeared under the Anusawari Arch in the middle of the night. Siri puts his directorial debut on hold and assists his friend, the newly promoted Senior Police Inspector Phosy Vongvichai, with the ensuing investigation. Though the death of the unknown woman seems to be recent, the flesh on her corpse has been picked off in places as if something - or someone - has been gnawing on the bones. The plot Phosy soon uncovers involves much more than single set of skeletal remains.
©2018 Colin Cotterill (P)2018 Recorded Books
Slash and Burn
Summary
Dr. Siri might finally be allowed to retire (again). Although he loves his two morgue assistants, he’s tired of being Laos’ national coroner - a job he never wanted in the first place. Plus, he’s pushing 80 and wants to spend some time with his wife before his untimely death, which has been predicted by the local transvestite fortune teller. But retirement is not in the cards for Dr. Siri after all. He’s dragged into one last job for the Lao government: supervising an excavation for the remains of a US fighter pilot who went down in the remote northern Lao jungle 10 years earlier. The presence of American soldiers in Laos is a hot-button issue for both the Americans and the Lao involved, and the search party includes high-level politicians and scientists. When a member of the party is found dead, a chain of accidents that Dr. Siri suspects are not completely accidental is set off. Everyone is trapped in a cabin in the jungle, and the bodies are starting to pile up. Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot’s mysterious story before the fortune teller’s prediction comes true? Colin Cotterill was born in London. He has taught in Australia, the United States, and Japan and lived for many years in Laos, where he worked for nongovernmental social-service organizations. He now writes full time and lives in Thailand. His books have been Book Sense Picks, and he won the Dilys Award and a Crime Writers’ Association Library Dagger for Thirty-Three Teeth.
©2011 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Anarchy and Old Dogs
Summary
An elderly man has been run down by a logging truck on the street in Vientiane just opposite the post office. His body is delivered to the morgue of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the official and only coroner of Laos. At the age of 73, Siri is too old to be in awe of the new communist bureaucrats for whom he now works. Before he can identify the corpse, he must decipher a letter in the man’s pocket—it is written in invisible ink and in code. He was a blind retired dentist, his widow explains, and the enigmatic letters and numbers describe chess moves, but they are unlike any chess symbols Siri has previously encountered. With the help of his old friend, Civilai, now a senior member of the Laos politburo; Nurse Dtui; Phosy, a police officer; and Auntie Bpoo, a transvestite fortune-teller, Siri must solve the mystery of the note to the blind dentist and foil a plot to overthrow the government of Laos.
©2007 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Woman Who Wouldn't Die
Summary
The long-awaited follow-up to Slash and Burn and the ninth installment in Colin Cotterill's bestselling mystery series starring the inimitable Lao national coroner, Dr.Siri In a small Lao village, a very strange thing has happened. A woman was shot and killed in her bed during a burglary; she was given a funeral and everyone in the village saw her body burned. Then, three days later, she was back in her house as if she'd never been dead at all. But now she's clairvoyant and can speak to the dead. That's why the long-dead brother of a Lao general has enlisted her to help his brother uncover his remains, which have been lost at the bottom of a river for many years. Lao national coroner Dr. Siri Paiboun and his wife, Madame Daeng, are sent along to supervise the excavation. It could be a kind of relaxing vacation for them, maybe, except Siri is obsessed with the pretty, undead medium's special abilities, and Madame Daeng might be a little jealous. She doesn't trust the woman for some reason. Is her hunch right? What is the group really digging for at the bottom of this remote river on the Thai border? What war secrets are being covered up?
©2013 Colin Cotterill (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
I Shot the Buddha
Summary
A fiendishly clever mystery in which Dr. Siri and his friends investigate three interlocking murders -and the ungodly motives behind them. Laos, 1979: Retired coroner Siri Paiboun and his wife, Madame Daeng, have never been able to turn away a misfit. As a result they share their small Vientiane house with an assortment of homeless people, mendicants, and oddballs. One of these oddballs is Noo, a Buddhist monk who rides out on his bicycle one day and never comes back, leaving only a cryptic note in the refrigerator: a plea to help a fellow monk escape across the Mekong River to Thailand. Naturally, Siri can't turn down the adventure, and soon he and his friends find themselves running afoul of Lao secret service officers and famous spiritualists. Buddhism is a powerful influence on both morals and politics in Southeast Asia. In order to exonerate an innocent man, they will have to figure out who is cloaking terrible misdeeds in religiosity.
©2016 Colin Cotterill (P)2016 Recorded Books
The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot
Summary
After 15 cunning, mischievous, heartbreaking, hilarious, eye-opening, and atmospheric installments, Colin Cotterill's award-winning Dr. Siri Paiboun series comes to a close. Make sure you don't miss this last chapter, a deliciously clever puzzle that illuminates the history of World War II in Southeast Asia. Laos, 1981: When an unofficial mailman drops off a strange bilingual diary, Dr. Siri is intrigued. Half is in Lao, but the other half is in Japanese, which no one Siri knows can read; it appears to have been written during the Second World War. Most mysterious of all, it comes with a note stapled to it: Dr. Siri, we need your help most urgently. But who is “we”, and why have they left no return address? To the chagrin of his wife and friends, who have to hear him read the diary out loud, Siri embarks on an investigation by examining the text. Though the journal was apparently written by a kamikaze pilot, it is surprisingly dull. Twenty pages in, no one has died, and the pilot never mentions any combat at all. Despite these shortcomings, Siri begins to obsess over the diary’s abrupt ending...and the riddle of why it found its way into his hands. Did the kamikaze pilot ever manage to get off the ground? To find out, he and Madame Daeng will have to hitch a ride south and uncover some of the darkest secrets of the Second World War.
©2020 Colin Cotterill (P)2020 Recorded Books
Love Songs from a Shallow Grave
Summary
Three young Laotian women have died from fencingsword wounds. Each of them had studied abroad in an Eastern bloc country. Before he can complete his investigation, Dr. Siri is lured to Cambodia by an allexpensespaid trip. Accused of spying for the Vietnamese, he is imprisoned, beaten, and threatened with death. The Khmer Rouge is relentless, and it is touch and go for the dauntless, 74-year-old national—and only—coroner of Laos.
©2010 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Merry Misogynist
Summary
In 1978 in poverty-stricken Laos, a man from the city with a truck was somebody—a catch for even the prettiest village virgin. The corpse of one of these bucolic beauties turns up in Dr. Siri’s morgue, and his curiosity is piqued. The victim was tied to a tree and strangled, but she had not, as the doctor had expected, been raped. And though the victim had smooth, pale skin over most of her body, her hands and feet were gnarled, callused, and blistered. On a trip to the hinterlands, Siri discovers that many women have been killed in this way. He sets out to investigate this unprecedented phenomenon—a serial killer in peaceful Buddhist Laos—only to discover, when he has identified the murderer, that not only pretty maidens are at risk: 73-year-old coroners can be victims too.
©2009 Colin Cotterill (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Rat Catchers' Olympics
Summary
It is 1980, and the Democratic People's Republic of Laos is proud to be competing in its first-ever Olympics. Of course half the world is boycotting the Moscow Summer Olympic Games to protest Russia's recent invasion of Afghanistan, but that has made room for athletes from countries that are usually too small or underfunded to be competitive - countries like Laos. Ex-national coroner of Laos Dr. Siri Paiboun may be retired, but he and his wife, Madame Daeng, would do just about anything to have a chance to visit Moscow, so Siri finagles them the job of medical oversight for the Olympians. Most of the athletes are young and innocent village people who have never worn shoes, never mind imagined anything as marvelous as the Moscow Olympic Village. As the competition heats up, however, Siri begins to suspect that one of the athletes is not who he says he is. Fearing a conspiracy, Siri and his friends investigate, liaising in secret with Inspector Phosy back home in Laos to see if the man might be an assassin. But Siri's progress is derailed when another Lao Olympian is accused of murder. Now in the midst of a murky international incident, Dr. Siri must navigate not one but two paranoid and secretive government machines to make sure justice is done.
©2017 Colin Cotterill (P)2017 Recorded Books
Dr. Siri und der explodierende Drache
Summary
Sieht aus, als könnte Dr. Siri endlich in Rente gehen. Obwohl der Pathologe seine Arbeit liebt, ermüdet den bald Achtzigjährigen der Job zunehmend. Außerdem möchte er vor seinem baldigen, vom örtlichen Wahrsager prophezeiten Tod mehr Zeit mit seiner Gattin verbringen. Doch zu früh gefreut! Siri erhält einen Auftrag von der laotischen Regierung: Er soll die internationale Suche nach einem amerikanischen Piloten überwachen, dessen Hubschrauber ein Jahrzehnt zuvor über dem thailändischen Dschungel abstürzte. Ein plötzlicher Todesfall überschattet das Suchprojekt - gefolgt von einigen Unfällen, die dem scharfsinnigen Siri nicht ganz zufällig erscheinen. Kann er weiteres Unglück abwenden, bevor sich die Prophezeiung des Wahrsagers erfüllt?
©2011 / 2015 Colin Cotterill / Manhattan. Übersetzung von Thomas Mohr (P)2015 der Hörverlag
Dr. Siri sieht Gespenster
Summary
Mysteriöse Todesfälle im exotischen Laos führen Dr. Siri diesmal in die alte Königsstadt Luang Prabang. Etwas Wildes und Böses macht die Hauptstadt von Laos unsicher. Es scheint, als würde ein entlaufener Bär hilflose Frauen angreifen und töten. Dr. Siri, der einzige Leichenbeschauer von Laos, hat es aber noch mit einem weiteren Fall zu tun: Auch zwei Tote auf einem Fahrrad geben ihm Rätsel auf. Mit Unterstützung seiner Helfer, der Krankenschwester Dtui und ihres Kollegen Herrn Geung, geht Siri den Todesfällen auf gewohnt unorthodoxe Weise nach. Dabei bekommt er es mit einer seltsamen Holztruhe, einem toten Elefanten und einem geheimnisvollen Gärtner zu tun...
©2009 Goldmann Verlag (P)2011 Der Hörverlag
Dr. Siri und seine Toten
Summary
Dr. Siri Paiboun hatte bislang nur mit lebenden Patienten zu tun. Doch nun wird er mit 72 Jahren noch zum einzigen Pathologen von ganz Laos. Ohne jedes Fachwissen, aber unterstützt von zwei ebenso unqualifizierten Assistenten, versucht er sich an seinem ersten Fall: die Frau eines Parteibonzen ist plötzlich verstorben, und Dr. Siri argwöhnt, dass es dabei nicht mit rechten Dingen zuging...
(c)+(p) 2009 Random House Audio, Deutschland
Der Tote im Eisfach
Summary
Der fünfte LAOS-KRIMI mit dem außergewöhnlichen Dr. Siri. Viel lieber würde Dr. Siri Paiboun wie gewöhnlich Leichen untersuchen, doch ist er zu einer politischen Konferenz im Norden von Laos geschickt worden. Da fällt einer der Genossen tot vom Stuhl, Dr. Siris Diagnose: Langeweile. Währenddessen schlägt sich seine Assistentin Dtui in der Hauptstadt mit einer Leiche herum, die sich als höchst explosiv erweist. In ihrem Bauch findet sich eine Handgranate, die wohl für Dr. Siri gedacht war. Und plötzlich bekommt Dr. Siri es mit einem Fall zu tun, der die Langeweile rasch verfliegen lässt. Mit Cotterill-typischem Witz und der unschlagbaren Ironie, ohne die dessen Krimis nicht mehr denkbar wären, beschwört Jan Josef Liefers den charmant chaotischen Dr. Siri und dessen mysteriöse Fälle herauf.
©2009 / 2012 Colin Cotterill / Goldmann Verlag. Übersetzung von Thomas Mohr (P)2012 Der Hörverlag
Dr. Siri und die Geisterfrau
Summary
In einem laotischen Dorf geschieht Merkwürdiges: Bei einem Überfall wird eine Frau getötet. Es folgen Trauerfeier und Einäscherung - kurz darauf taucht das Opfer wieder auf, kerngesund und bester Laune. Und weil die Frau seit dem Vorfall offenbar eine spirituelle Verbindung ins Jenseits pflegt, gelingt es ihr, den Fundort lange verschollener Gebeine zu bestimmen. Selbige sollen nun vom Grund eines Flusses geborgen werden, und der Pathologe Dr. Siri soll die Aktion überwachen. Könnte eine hübsche Reise für ihn und seine Gattin Madame Daeng werden. Das Problem: Siri verspürt großes Interesse für das weibliche Medium, Madame Daeng spürt den Stachel der Eifersucht - und ein finsterer Franzose spürt beide inmitten des Dschungels auf...
©2013 / 2016 Colin Cotterill / Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag. Übersetzung von Thomas Mohr (P)2016 Der Hörverlag
Briefe an einen Blinden
Summary
Das unglückselige Zusammentreffen mit einem Holzlaster in Laos' Hauptstadt Vientiane hat einen blinden Zahnarzt zu Dr. Siri geführt. Der Leichenbeschauer staunt nicht nur über die seltene Todesursache - in Laos sind Autos rar, und zwei Fahrzeuge auf einer Straße gelten bereits als Verkehrschaos -, sondern auch über einen eigenartigen Fund: Der Tote hat einen Brief bei sich, der eine mit unsichtbarer Tinte geschriebene, verschlüsselte Botschaft enthält. Dr. Siri geht der Sache nach und kommt einem brisanten Geheimnis auf die Spur. Bei seinen Ermittlungen konsultiert er den Kartenleger und Transvestiten Tante Bpoo, sieht Bruce Lee beim Sieg über den Kapitalismus zu, schwimmt mit einem Delphin und verliert sein Herz an eine bezaubernde Frau...
©2011 Manhattan (P)2011 Random House Audio
Six and a Half Deadly Sins
Summary
Laos, 1979: Dr. Siri Paiboun, the twice retired ex-National Coroner of Laos, receives an unmarked package in the mail. Inside is a handwoven pha sin, a colorful traditional skirt worn in northern Laos. A lovely present, but who sent it to him, and why? And, more importantly, why is there a severed human finger stitched into the sin's lining? Siri is convinced someone is trying to send him a message and won't let the matter rest until he's figured it out. He finagles a trip up north to the province where the sin was made, not realizing he is embarking on a deadly scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, the northern Lao border is about to erupt into violence—and Dr. Siri and his entourage are walking right into the heart of the conflict.
©2015 Colin Cotterill (P)2015 Recorded Books