Killed at the Whim of a Hat

Starred review from May 2, 2011
At the start of Cotterill's excellent first in a new series, 34-year-old Jimm Juree, who's poised to become only the second female senior crime reporter in all of Thailand, has her professional ambitions dashed when her eccentric mother abruptly sells the family home and business in Chiang Mai in the north of the country. Juree must join her relatives in an obscure southern province, where she seizes the opportunity to exercise her atrophied journalism skills after two human skeletons are found in a buried Volkswagen van. With the help of her grandfather, a former policeman forced off the job for his excessive honesty, Juree persistently probes the story behind the grisly discovery as well as the truth behind a more recent crime. Cotterill (The Coroner's Lunch and six other mysteries featuring Laotian coroner Dr. Siri Paiboun) combines a wry narrative voice with an appealing picture of a world unfamiliar to most Americans.

August 1, 2011

Stuck in the boondocks, a former crime reporter finds salvation by getting back into that gritty game.

In Thailand's rural Chumphon province, farmer Old Mel discovers a Volkswagen van buried on his oil plantation. Even more unusual, inside are two corpses. It's just the kind of crime that Jimm Juree would have covered in her previous life as a reporter in the bustling city of Chiang Mai, but the decision by her eccentric mother Mair to give up the family business—"a sort of rustic 7-Eleven" near Chiang Mai University—has thrown the whole family into chaos. Jimm, her bodybuilder brother Arny and their Granddad Jah have grimly followed Mair to southern Chumphon. After a year, Jimm's favorite activity has become grousing about her situation; she even makes a list of her complaints. When she reads of the corpses, she seizes on the story like a lifeline, rushing to quiz Old Mel, lying to police about her experience and even turning on the flamboyant charm with a gay cop who has special access. Her appetite whetted, Jimm begins to poke into other crimes. Some are as loopy as her family, like the bloody murder of a visiting abbot who's investigating sexual shenanigans between nuns and monks at a monastery. Cotterill devotes equal time to the comic antics of Jimm's relatives.

An ebullient series kickoff by the author of the Dr. Siri series (Love Songs From a Shallow Grave, 2010, etc.). Character and quirky comedy trump mystery, and lay a great foundation for further involving adventures. 

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Starred review from May 1, 2011

Jimm Juree, disgruntled journalist and loyal daughter banished to the Thailand hinterlands by her mother's rash decision to buy a run-down resort, is jubilant when the remains of a long-buried VW bus complete with two skeletons are unearthed in a field. But wait, there's more! A second mystery opens up when an abbot is stabbed to death at the local monastery. Soon Jimm has befriended the local police (already smarting from the put-downs by the big-city types), a local nun, and a priest. She's enlisted the help of her transgendered sibling (an Internet guru) and her grandfather, a retired cop. Laugh-out-loud observations coupled with George W. Bush quotes make this book remarkably fresh. Jimm knows she has the newspaper story of her life--that is, if she can stay alive to write it. VERDICT This outstanding series debut from the author of the Dr. Siri Paiboun mysteries (Love Songs from a Shallow Grave) would appeal to crossover readers who enjoy well-developed ensemble casts and a sense of the absurd. It's not just about Thailand; Cotterill understands people and writes subtle humor like a master.

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