The Low Down in Laos

So to preface this tale, I'd like to point out two things. First, it's cold, gray and drizzly today, as it was yesterday and as it is expected to be all week. So I picked a good time for ghost-with-a-twist week. Secondly, I am very popular with other people's mothers. And ocassionally wives. But mostly it's that "boyish" charm of mine. It'd be nice if women my own age appreciated it, but instead mostly what happens is that countless "not what yo mama said last night" jokes look very different when I'm involved. My best friend from highscool, for instance. His mother is a librarian. I'm (trying) to make a living in publishing. Long story short, his mother likes me and we tend to talk about books. Between presents, books I've obtained from positions in the industry, stuff I borrowed from friends, and copyright free e-books, I basically haven't had to physically go to my local library in over a year. Not something that goes over well when talking to a Librarian. So she told me about the BIG THING, at least in the WLS recently. Colin Coterill. Sounded neat, so I went to the library (!) and took a few out. Aaaaand I'm only like the second to do so despite the books being four years old. Clearly what's big amongst the librarians and what people read doesn't always line up. That said, I am enjoying them quite a bit. I don't want to spoil any of the stories, and the plot is a comparitively small element, especially by mystery novel standards, so forgive me for talking in generalities.

The first of which is: Not only are the books not plot driven like most mysteries, they're not really even character driven. Don't get me wrong, many of the characters are fun and seem realistic enough. But I'd have to say that the books are setting driven more than anything else. They take place in 1970s Laos after the communist revolution succeeds in overthrowing the old royal family, and fails miserably to establish a credible government in its place. So for those of you who, like me, like realistic Asian settings with political commentary, these books already have quite a bit to offer. But while many such books are autobiographies or autobiographical fiction, and almost always written by women (see for instance Wild Swans for China, Still Life with Rice for Korea or The Day Heaven and Earth Changed Places for Vietnam. That one was actually made into a not-atrocious-but-not-as-good-as-the-book movie years ago by Oliver Stone)Coterill is pure fiction, and the tone is a little more a combination of skepticism and wistfulness that makes a much lighter read than how these actual women had to run for their lives from one army or another or things like that. So it already had a point in my book for the setting, then another for the humor.

Second: It's a bizarre mix of genres. They're fun mystery books, but if you, like some people I know cannot stand ANYTHING that isn't a legal thriller or police procedural aiming for hyper realism that only makes absurdities (like being shot in the head point blank and surviving- and yes, I've had many arguments about such things with mystery fans in the past) stand out like a sort thumb then you won't like this. On the other hand, you tell me that the main character of a series is a seventy something retired field surgeon, one time communist and current skeptic who gets roped into being the one and only coroner in all of Laos at the same time he realizes he's possessed by the thousand year old spirit of a shaman named Yeh Ming, and I'm all over that. While I wouldn't say the books are laugh out loud funny as they were presented to me, they're full of bizzare images. I'm reading them horribly out of order right now, so I started with what I believe is the third- Disco for the Departed. In quick sucession you have an Elvis-type "suit" made of thousands of tiny, living white spiders, and a midnight Disco-Rave with nothing but one old doctor and a whole lot of wandering spirits. I want you to picture that. In an underground cavern. In Laos. In 1977. Now imagine you can't see the ghosts and you're the security guard who happens upon a frail old man wildly leaping about in a restricted area.

Third: I'm sick to goddamn death of police procedurals and legal thrillers. So, Coterril for the win. Read them. Tell corporate America (through SoHo Press (who I swear isn't paying me to say nice things, as unusual as it is to hear them coming from me)) that mysteries don't all have to be CSI. Join me next time for "Smote Ghost" or "Spirits With a Twist on the Rocks."