as the National Coroner of Laos. Dr. Siri is the hero of a series of mysteries by Colin Cotterill.
Dr. Siri is a hero of the Communist Pathet Lao revolution that kicked the French out of the country. He himself has no illusions about the Party, but believes that Laotians have the right to be mismanaged by their own people--as opposed to the French or for that manner, the somewhat arrogant Vietnamese. Siri started out as a medical student in France. There he fell in love with another student who it so happens was an ardent Communist and supporter of the cause for Laotian independence. So Siri joined the Laotian Communist Party. What else could he do? Subsequent to his training he and his wife spend years in the jungle waging guerilla warfare against the French. Unfortunately, Siri becomes a widower in the course of the struggle. When the Pathet Lao unexpectedly win, Siri is already getting on in years and wants nothing more than to retire. But the Party insists on making him the National Coroner even though he has no training or background for it--but he is virtually the only person in the whole country with complete medical training.
Given his age and his friendship with a member of the Central Committee (still powerful, but somewhat marginalized), Dr. Siri figures that the Party can't do much to him if he wants to do things *his* way. Part of the fun of reading the novels is watching Siri slyly circumvent the often absurd impositions of the bureaucracy.
As a western-trained medical doctor, Dr. Siri does not share the worldview of his fellow Laotians when it comes to, say, the existence and influence of the spirit world. But at one point he discovers he can see spirits (but maddeningly can't hear them) and moreover that he is the incarnation of a 1000-YO Hmong shaman. This leads to considerable cognitive dissonance.
There is some mystery about Dr. Siri's origins. He has uncharacteristically green eyes and there is the suspicion that he may be Hmong or part Hmong himself.
The setting for the novels is Laos in the mid-70's. Colin Cotterill spent a considerable amount of time in the area and seems to be genuinely knowledgeable about Laos (as if I would know).
Interestingly, Colin Cotterill illustrated the book, *Dude de Ching* touted by Jeff Bridges on the *Daily Show* not long ago as a Dudeist updating of Taoism.
My favorites include *Disco for the Dead* and *Love Songs from a Shallow Grave.* The latter is more serious in tone and brings home the horror of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.
R.
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/
