Why a Booktrail?
1977: Dr Siri is a coroner who sees dead people – literarily and spiritually. Savaged bodies are turning up at his morgue and he has to find out why..
The Coroner’s Lunch (Dr Siri 1)
What you need to know before your trail
Siri Paiboun has only been in his new job as coroner for five months when he is called from his home in Vientiane to Luang Prabang on a ‘matter of national security’. There’s good and bad about this call up – since it is in the mountains, the city is a lot cooler than sweaty Vientiane but he’s not here for a holiday – dining with the deposed king, and being rescued by the ghost of an elephant are not exactly holiday activities.
Back at the morgue, he sets about investigating just what has caused an alarming number of bodies to arrive at the morgue savagely mauled as if by a wild animal. Examining the bite marks and scratches on the body, whatever animal it is seems to have thirteen teeth!
Travel Guide
Luang Prabang
Spirited away from Laos’ steamy capital on a Matter of National Security might seem like an adventure but Luang Prabang is no holiday destination. With a deposed king and a shamans conference to attend to, Siri is one busy man.The Laos Royal Palace is the impressive and mythical setting for the mysteries and bodies Siri comes into contact with. The former King and the former palace are difficult places to visit – signs of a former way of life before the Royal family were deposed by the communist regime.
The history and mythology of the country shines through. From the mystery and significance of the thirteen teeth to the changes that communism has brought, times are difficult and upheaval is everywhere. Communists took over Laos in 1975 and the country became the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
From the That Luang temple, to stupas (burial mounds) the landscape is one captured between mysticism, the spiritual and the living world. This is where Siri returns to the place of his birth and he finds out about his family and his sharman tendencies. A meeting of shamans for example –
Those without spiritual connections were turned away and joined the large crowd of bemused locals gathered beyond the wall. They pointed to well-known but barely seen shamans like stars arriving at the Oscars.
The Shaman Oscars? Now there’s an image we’re unlikely to forget.
Vientiane
Whilst Siri is away in Luang Prabang, bodies pile up in the morgue. There is a missing black bear which is suspected of being the cause of the teeth marks but do bears have 33 teeth?
Siri returns to his role as counsel,a bridge to the dead and the living world and with his links to a former Hmong Shaman, he has an ability which transcends any one else’s. It is 107 degrees in Vietiane,as Siri and his colleagues try to go about their work. Now, the heat is even dictating the morning greeting –
“Hot, isn’t it.” “Damned hot.”
As communist propaganda fills the city’s streets, Siri along with Nurse Dtui have an alarming case on their hands. She is the one who takes on the matter of the missing bear and the possibility of animal attacks. She is ‘the unbreakable one’ and opens up a new avenue for investigation as well as an insight into the work of a Laos nurse with a mind of her own.
Where Next?
