Disco for the Departed

Book excerpt: The septuagenarian coroner—and bodily host of an 1,000-year-old Shaman—tackles another strange case in 1970s Laos in this murder mystery with a touch of humor and mysticism. Dr. Siri Paiboun, reluctant national coroner of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, is summoned to a remote location in the mountains of Huaphan Province, where for years the leaders of the current government had hidden out in caves, waiting to assume power. Now, as a major celebration of the new regime is scheduled to take place, an arm is found protruding from the concrete walk that had been laid from the President’s former cave hideout to his new house beneath the cliffs. Dr. Siri is ordered to supervise the disinterment of the body attached to the arm, identify the corpse, and discover how he died.