Category: mystery

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill This mystery truly transported me to Laos in the late 1970s, an exotic place and time that was completely unfamiliar to me. The Communist Pathet Lao party has just taken over control of the country, and Dr. Siri Paiboun, instead of receiving the retirement he thinks he deserves, is appointed chief, and only, coroner. The morgue is poorly equipped and Siri often finds himself in conflict with his superiors and the system. Siri takes his job seriously, has to do the best he can for the dead who come to him, and not only because their spirits have a tendency to visit him in his dreams. Now, after months of quiet, Siri has three cases to deal with, the death of an important official’s wife, the discovery of bodies that could lead to an international incident between Laos and Vietnam, and uncovering the reason why the commanders of an Army base, located in...

A flock of crows swooped down and ate the caterpillars that contained small bits of Siri. Then whales somehow managed to eat the crows. And the whales were swallowed up by volcanoes and suddenly Siri, or at least bits of Siri, was in every creature and every geological feature on Earth. It was one hell of a good finish.  (pg. 143, The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill) I just started this book, but I believe Siri's dreams, like the excerpt above are going to figure prominently in the story. In my own story, dreams don't have much of an impact. I remember few of my dreams and those that I do are either fairly random or I can easily tell what happened recently to prompt them. What about you? Do you have vivid dreams? Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. I cheated, but the rules are easy. Grab your current read, ...

The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost by Nate Evans, Paul Hindman and Vince Evans (Suggested reading level: Grades 3-5) Amber (10) and I read this follow-up to The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop together. It's a fun little read, although the abundance of Merlin/King Arthur mythology in various books, TV shows and movies is getting confusing, since each story takes it's own spin. Amber kept wanting to correct the book, and I kept saying it's not the TV show. I'm actually reading a book right now that uses the Arthur, Camelot story with a unique twist. My review on it should be up tomorrow. Humpty Dumpty, Jr. is on the case again, along with his side-kick, Rat, investigating a ghost at Merlin's Institute for the Knowledge of Everything. Merlin isn't the client, though, a cute girl who calls herself Princess Lily is, and Merlin doesn't like the interference at his school. Well, he doesn't like Dumpty's presence. Rat he's happy...

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle I think the title of this one is perfect. Vintage refers to the wines that are stolen from a hot-shot Hollywood lawyer. Sam Levitt, a former crook turned PI, is hired by his ex-girlfriend who works for the insurance company to find the bottles. The caper follows the wine's trail from Hollywood to Bordeaux and Marseille in the south of France, where Sam and his French colleague make some questionable decisions, skirting the law a little, but for the right reasons. As a mystery, it doesn't hold up too well. The plot is fairly predictable, no twists or turns to speak of. The clues are more long-shot guesses that turn out helpful. As a fun romp though, it's thoroughly enjoyable. And the sumptuous wines, delicious meals and gorgeous scenery are what truly carry the book. It really is a book for wine-lovers, not necessarily mystery-lovers. And the characters are delightful to spend some time with. I actually listened...

"A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle When we watched Sherlock Homes a while back, I mentioned that it made me want to reread the Sherlock Holmes adventures. I started with "A Scandal in Bohemia" simply because Irene Adler was featured so prominently in the movie. "A Scandal in Bohemia," the first of 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories, was published in The Strand Magazine in July 1891. In the story, the King of Bohemia hires Holmes to recover a photo for him. He is engaged and afraid that the photo of him and his former lover, the adventuress Irene Adler, will ruin his future if it is sent to his fianceé's family. I won't tell you the ending, in case you don't know, but Irene Adler is one of the few people, male or female, who manages to outwit Holmes. Irene herself is as sexy as she was portrayed in the movie. She's a singer, prima donna of the Imperial Opera...