The Coroner's Lunch

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill (2004)

Reader's Annotation

72-year-old Dr. Siri Paiboun becomes national coroner for the newly formed Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Summary

72-year-old Dr. Siri Paiboun is tired. He spent the last fifteen years practicing medicine in the jungle. Ten years ago he lost his wife. He'd much rather retire than start a new career, but, because he is one of the few medical doctors left in Laos and a member of the Communist Party (though an indifferent one), he is appointed state coroner—despite his lack of training as a medical examiner. Dr. Siri decides that if he must take the job, he will not let an ignorant bunch of bureaucrats dictate to him—at his age he has nothing left to lose—he'll follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Dr. Siri's integrity is soon tested when the wife of an important Party official turns up dead at the morgue and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers are found in a reservoir. With the help of his very intelligent nurse Dtui, his man of all work Geung, who has Down's Syndrome, and the occasional ghost, Dr. Siri follows his curiosity to find and expose corruption.

Evaluation

I found this a well written and charming book as well as an intriguing look at an unfamiliar culture. The Coroner's Lunch is full of interesting and quirky characters, not the least of which is Dr. Siri himself. I enjoyed the mix of logic as Dr. Siri follows the forensic evidence and mysticism as the ghosts of the bodies in the morgue visit his dreams. I'm looking forward to reading the rest in this series.

Those who enjoy the Dr. Siri Paiboun series, may want to try other mysteries set in exotic locales such as Bangkok 8 by John Burdett set in Thailand and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana.

Genres: Mystery/Crime
Subgenres:

Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (1993)

Reader's Annotation

Vampire hunter Anita Blake is hired to find out who has been murdering innocent vampires.

Summary

Anita Blake lives in Saint Louis, Missouri, but it's not exactly our Saint Louis. In Anita's world, magic, vampires, werewolves, and the like are and have always been "out of the closet."  Anita is an animator with the ability to raise and lay to rest zombies. She also works as a vampire executioner; however, in her world, vampires have rights just like anyone else. That means she needs a court order to kill one.

At the story's open, Jean-Claude, master vampire and proprietor of the vampire strip-club Guilty Pleasures, tries to hire Anita to investigate a recent string of vampire murders—the vampires were the victims NOT the perpetrators—but Anita isn't interested; she doesn't like vampires and would much rather be killing them. Jean-Claude, who literally cannot take no for an answer, must blackmail her into taking the job.

Anita finds herself working for Nikolaos, the master vampire of the city. She is a thousand years old, very powerful, and looks like a prepubescent girl. She is not a good boss.

In the curse of her investigation, Anita befriends Philip, a human vampire junkie who strips at Guilty Pleasures. When Nikolaos' minions torture and kill Phillip then bring him back as a zombie, Anita vows to bring Nikolaos down.

By story's end, Anita has not only stopped the vampire killer but also, with Jean-Claude's aid, destroyed Nikolaos, leaving Jean-Claude master vampire of the city.

Evaluation

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick fun read. The writing and plot have a bit of the clunkiness of a first novel but I'd definitely read another. The world of the novel goes beyond just vampires and seems to have the potential to grow into something rich and complex as the series progresses. And I expect to see Anita Blake's relationship with Jean-Claude grow into something more as well. The tone of the writing is hard-boiled with a fair bit of violence, blood, and sex.

If you like this book, you should try Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series and Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series.

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery/Crime
Subgenres: Urban Fantasy, Vampire Romance, Paranormal Romance

The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Reader's Annotation

A madman kidnaps Jane Eyre from the pages of Charlotte Brontë's famous novel.

Summary

In Great Britain circa 1985, time travel is routine, and even travel into works of literature is possible. If you enter the world of a book, you can change it—but only for that one copy. However, if you enter the original manuscript, any change will affect every subsequent copy of that work. Naturally there are laws against that sort of thing, and it's the job of Thursday Next, Special Operative in literary detection, to enforce them. When a madman kidnaps Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday faces the challenge of her career. With the help of her time-traveling father, an executive of the all-powerful Goliath Corporation, and Edward Rochester himself, Thursday must track down the criminal and enter the novel herself to avert an act of literary homicide.

Evaluation

This was a fun and silly novel. I loved all the literary references, the funny names, and the made-up words. It may be a little hard to suspend disbelief for such a silly conceit as traveling into the pages of a novel, but The Eyre Affair is not meant to be taken seriously. If you liked this book, try the rest of Fforde's Thursday Next series or perhaps one his other series such as Nursery Crimes Division or Shades of Grey.

For even more silly British humour in the vein of the Thursday Next series, try the works of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and P.G. Wodehouse.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Subgenres:

Faceless Killers

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (1991)

Reader's Annotation

When it's leaked that a murder victim's last word was foreign, anti-immigrant sentiments flare.

Summary

When an elderly couple are tortured and killed in their farmhouse in Lunnarp, Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander has little to go on. What motive could there have been for killing the elderly farm couple? A possible clue, that the wife's last word may have been foreign, is one that Wallander would really prefer not to deal with. The choice is taken out of his hands when the wife's possible last word is leaked to the media, sparking a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. A series of anonymous threats culminate in the killing of a Somali refugee, giving Wallander another murder to solve.

Wallander does solve it and begins to make progress on the original case as well. It turns out that the husband had significant money of his own that the wife didn't know about. The final irony is that the original clue was accurate—the murderers were foreign immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Evaluation

This was an accurately drawn police procedural in which solving a case is more about following the leads, doing the work, and not giving up than it is about flashy forensics and brilliant insights. Kurt Wallander is a bit of a sad sack: his wife has left him, his daughter won't talk to him, he's drinking too much, and his father is sinking into dementia. He may not always be very likable but he's a sympathetically well rounded character that is somehow admirable in his dogged determination to keep at these cases even when he seems to be making little progress. The tone of this novel is realistically hard-boiled. The look at issues of immigration in Sweden is interesting.

This series should have a common appeal to fans of other Scandinavian crime novelists such as Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo and, of course, Stieg Larsson. I'd also suggest the Detective Inspector John Rebus stories by Ian Rankin set in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Genres: Mystery/Crime
Subgenres: Police Procedural

Halfway to the Grave

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost (2007)

Reader's Annotation

Half-vampire Cat hunts vampires hoping one day to kill the one that fathered her.

Summary

Half-vampire Cat Crawfield hunts vampires—any vampires. They're all evil, according to her mother—especially the one that raped her and fathered Cat! Then one day, Cat tries to kill a vampire so old and experienced that she might just as well have been a kitten. But the ancient vampire—Bones is his name—doesn't kill her. Instead he agrees to train her in the art of vampire killing, IF she will agree to kill only evil vampires—the ones he says are evil. Soon she is ready, and together they begin to hunt. As she and Bones fight side by side, Cat begins to think that Bones may not be so evil after all—she may even have feelings for him! But as Cat's feelings for Bones' grow, she worries that her mother will never understand.

Evaluation

I enjoyed this one and intend to try more in the series. The characters are likable—especially Bones—and the action is fun and suspenseful. The world seems likely to develop a richness as the series progresses—ghosts have already been added into the mix. The book does have a good bit of sex and violence including vampiric blood exchange but the descriptions of vampiric sex are brief and don't become tedious as they do in some other vampire romances—at least for my tastes.

If you like this book, you should try Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series and Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series.

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery/Crime
Subgenres: Urban Fantasy, Vampire Romance

In the Heart of the Canyon

In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde (2009)

Reader's Annotation

Over the course of thirteen days, twelve passengers, three rafting guides and a stray dog together run the rapids of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.

Summary

J.T. Maroney has made 124 trips down the Colorado River, but one thing he accepts is that you're never completely in control, not of the river and not of the people you're guiding. No matter how good you are, how carefully you plan, circumstances can always throw you a curve. A stray dog, two mischievous boys, a know-it-all, an Alzheimer's case, and a teenage girl in a delicate condition ensure that this is one trip that does not go according to plan.

Evaluation

I enjoyed this book. The descriptions of life on the river were vivid and of running the rapids exciting and involving. They matched my own experiences of day trips white-water rafting. The characters were well drawn and interesting. It took me a little while to get them all straight but really no more so than if I'd gone on a rafting trip with 14 other people myself. The author did a good job of helping me get to know the characters and of differentiating them as individuals. I enjoyed the way she gradually built up suspense as one seemingly minor  problem after another came into play until it seemed certain that they would combine together into a perfect storm. And I especially enjoyed the mystery of Amy's pregnancy—all the clues were there to figure it out.

I'm not sure what I'd recommend to someone else who liked this book (besides another book by Elisabeth Hyde), but I think I'd like to try There's This River... Grand Canyon Boatman Stories edited by Christa Sadler.

Genres: Adventure
Subgenres:

Island in the Sea of Time

Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling (1998)

Reader's Annotation

Through a mysterious Event, the island of Nantucket is transported 3,000 years back in time.

Summary

A mysterious phenomenon transports the island of Nantucket and the United States Coast Guard ship Eagle back in time to the Bronze Age, around 1250 BC. Chief of Police Jared Conklin struggles to maintain order and establish a provisional government as the islanders slowly come to terms with the changed world around them. Realizing that the island will not be able to feed their population without new sources of seed and livestock, Conklin sends the Eagle, commanded by Captain Marian Allston, on a trading expedition to the island that will one day be Britain. The local tribes are awestruck by Allston and the Americans, and the expedition is a great success, returning with everything Nantucket needs. Unfortunately Lieutenant William Walker of the Eagle has seen that with a little modern technology he could be a king. He gathers allies and steals a boat along with most of the Nantucket's guns and ammunition. By the time the people of Nantucket can mount an expedition to stop him, Walker is well on the way to carving out his kingdom.

Evaluation

This was a fun story in the tradition of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It was interesting to observe how the Nantucket Islanders re-adopted whaling and fell back on earlier technologies that don't require the full infrastructure of a modern civilization. The book was competently written with interesting characters. The peoples of ancient Britain were well described and seemed to fit what is known about the history, language, and culture of those times. Warfare, both ancient and modern seemed accurate to the best of my knowledge and was entertainingly described. For similar reads, try the rest of Stirling's Nantucket series, his related Emberverse series (beginning with Dies the Fire), and Eric Flint's 1632, the first of his Ring of Fire series in which a small West Virginia town is mysteriously transported back in time and space to Germany in 1632.

Genres: Science Fiction
Subgenres: Time Travel, Military SF