Slash and Burn

Slash and Burn is the eighth book of the Dr. Siri mysteries by Colin Cotterill. It is set in Laos in the 1970s. Dr. Siri Paiboun is the national coroner of the Laos People’s Democratic Republic. This is not a job he sought or wanted. No one else was willing to take the job. Dr. Siri is 78 and has been promised he can retire after one last case. He decides to blackmail the officials into allowing him to bring his wife, his nurse, and morgue attendant along.

The trip north into the mountains is being funded by a United States senator. The senator is looking for his son Boyd Bowry, who has been missing in action for ten years. Also coming along with Dr. Siri and his crew are American soldiers, a Hawaiian pathologist and Auntie Bpoo, a fortune teller. Soon everyone is headed to the hills in a military helicopter.

When the motley crew arrives, news from a village near the hotel says a dragon landed there. Soon members of the group start dropping like flies and Dr. Siri must investigate. This is a unique series of books with history, politics black humor and quirky, amusing characters.