Chew on this: Thirty-Three Teeth

I hope you had a chance to pick up some great deals this weekend on Careful of Thy Wishes and other great deals. Some of them may still be available.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill is the second book that I have read in the Dr. Siri Paiboun Mystery series. (And though it is the second book in the series, the other one that I have read is actually #4, Anarchy and Old Dogs.) This mystery series is very different from any I have read before. It is steeped in the Lao setting and culture, with lots of fascinating plant names (like dog fart flowers and bull testicle trees), political red tape, and history.

Since the protagonist, Dr. Siri Paiboun, has been possessed by the spirit of an ancestor and has frequent encounters with the spirit world, there is a lot of Buddhist spiritualism as well. (If I have the terminology wrong, someone please correct me.) Dr. Siri Paiboun is the national coroner, and as such, he comes across some interesting deaths. However, in this post-communist-takeover era, he has only the most basic tools at his disposal and has to come up with some interesting methods of solving crimes.

She was constantly surprising him. Siri went over and held up Mr. A’s hand. All the fingertips were purple: triplicate syndrome.

Colin Cotterill, Thirty-Three Teeth