Thirty-Three Teeth, by Colin Cotterill

The second installment of Cotterill's mystery series featuring the aging sleuth, Dr Siri Paiboun, is a world apart from your average crime thriller. Set in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos in the late 1970s, following the takeover of the Communist Pathet Lao, Dr Siri is the national coroner whose task it is to investigate a succession of peculiar killings. The venerable detective is sent to the old royalist capital of Luang Prabang, but becomes embroiled in a plot to rid the country of its King and all the royal spirits. Meanwhile, a terrifying beast is on the loose in the city of Vientiane, leaving a trail of brutalised bodies in its wake. An intriguing blend of mysticism and communism, there is little doubt that Cotterill's many years spent in South East Asia have helped to bring real colour and exoticism to this fascinating tale. "Confused psychic [and] disheartened communist", Dr Siri, is at times as infuriating as he is affable, but he lends real humour to the macabre findings that punctuate the book. Cotterill's characters are engaging, the plot twists gripping and the political and geographical situation make for a very refreshing angle on the detective genre. [Rebecca Isherwood]