Colin Cotterill – författare

What do you do when you find a severed head on the beach? With her former cop grandfather as back up, crime reporter Jimm Juree sets out to discover how the poor fellow got there. On their journey they uncover gruesome tales of piracy, slavery, violence and murder, yet the authorities show no interest at all. Is it because the victims aren''t Thai? Whatever the reason, Jimm and her team are going it alone. Airport hostages and hand grenades, monkeys and naked policemen - once more the sublime and the ridiculous clash in the Gulf of Thailand.

Dr Siri''s bagged himself a holiday with his friends - an all-expenses-paid trip to the mountains of Laos. He is to assist a US-funded search for a lost CIA pilot - Boyd Bowry - missing since 1968, though Siri strongly suspects that when the helicopter exploded, the pilot followed suit.But, just hours into the trip, it becomes apparent that ulterior motives are at work within the group and those associated with the airman start dropping like the insects that frequent the surrounding landscape.Siri and co are caught up in something big. Something that goes way back and is way over their heads. And, if this wasn''t bad enough, a psychic of unquestionable repute then informs Siri that he''s about to die - in ''a day or two'', to be precise.

On the gulf of Thailand, the Juree family are managing their run-down beach resort for the second year - still stalked by disaster. Daughter Jimm has a new love in her life, but finds herself pursued by another man with a markedly different agenda in mind. Meanwhile, Jimm''s new case is that of Dr. Somluk, a champion of the rights of rural mothers, who is missing following a run-in with the marketeers of infant formula. As ever, there is blood, brine and bedlam aplenty at the Gulf Bay Lovely Resort.

Until the French government declassified documents concerning their ignominious defeat at Dien Bien Phu, Madam Daeng''s past had been a well-kept secret. Now Dr Siri''s wife is vulnerable and being stalked by a killer. But when Dr Siri whisks her away for a romantic working weekend, they encounter an even greater threat. For Dr Siri falls under the spell of a beautiful witch they call the Used-To-Be Woman.

Siri Paiboun is suddenly a busy man. Five months into his new role as National (and only) Coroner, he has been called to the capital on a ''matter of national security''.Soon enough, he''s examining carbonized corpses, meeting the deposed king and attending a shaman''s conference.Meanwhile, back at his woefully inadequate morgue, savagely mauled bodies are piling up and Siri''s assistant decides to investigate. Can she be dealing with a weretiger, or is it a bear of some kind? Whatever kind of animal has thirty-three teeth?

Life has taken a funny turn for Siri Paiboun. After years in obscurity, his country needs him. He is to be their only coroner. Because he''s the only doctor left.

It''s not as flattering as it could be, and when one of the leaders'' wives turns up in his hot, shabby, smelly morgue, and he''s expected to solve her murder, things take a turn for the worse. He has no experience, training or equipment to speak of, and his only hope are his two trusty assistants - neither of whom know anything either - and his own mental resources.

As if this weren''t enough, the tortured bodies of several soldiers start floating to the surface of a lake and this second case is even more politically charged than his first. Only Siri''s wit, charm and sense of the ridiculous will get him through this…

Dr Siri Paiboun may be in his seventy-third year, but he''s still as sturdy as a jungle boar - and as crafty as one. Reluctant coroner to the Lao People''s Democratic Republic, he''s been despatched to the country''s mountainous north where the sudden appearance of a mummified arm protruding from a concrete path laid in front of the President''s new mansion has caused an understandable degree of embarrassment.Dr Siri''s disinterment and autopsy of the body attached to the arm provide some grisly surprises but it is his gifts as a shaman that put the septuagenarian doctor on the trail of the killer. As Siri and his team close in, they must tackle a marriage proposal, brave the perils of life on the open road, and come face-to-face with a horrific sacrificial ritual. Is it any wonder Dr Siri takes up disco dancing?