I was introduced to Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri Paiboun series by the F2F mystery group that I attend a number of years ago. I said then that the first Dr. Siri novel, The Coroner's Lunch,was delicious. I have loved this 20th century Lao doctor and his circle of friends, but I've never reviewed any of the books in the series on this blog. It's about time that I did. I received a free copy of The Rat Catchers' Olympics from Edelweiss and this is my review.
The first eleven books of the Dr. Siri series took place primarily in Laos though there was a foray into Thailand and a nightmarish journey into Pol Pot Cambodia. The series has also dawdled in the 1970's for more years than that decade had. With The Rat Catchers' Olympics Cotterill finally turns to 1980. He also leaves Southeast Asia for the circus like atmosphere of an Olympics in the Soviet Union.
Don't get me wrong. I love the Olympics. I watch my favorite events with rapt attention. I also adore the human feats of skill and daring at circuses. So calling the Olympics a circus wasn't intended to be a disparaging comment. Yet it is a very different background for a Dr. Siri novel.
The 1980 Summer Olympics was unique for a number of reasons. Up until I read this Cotterill novel, I only knew that it was the Olympics that the Western nations boycotted due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
I researched all the tidbits of info about this Olympics that Cotterill dropped into the narrative. This was indeed the first Olympic appearance of athletes from Laos. I thought that Cotterill was engaging in wordplay when he told us that the pole vault was won by a Pole--especially when he followed it up with the shameless puntification that the gold medal in boxing had not been won by a box. It did turn out that Polish athlete Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz won pole vault gold and he made a defiant gesture for which he became famous. I couldn't confirm the Cotterill assertion that more women athletes participated in the 1980 Moscow Spring Olympics than in any previous Olympics, but it was true that the most dramatic result was the victory of the inexperienced Zimbabwe women's field hockey team who were only invited because the Soviet women's field hockey team found themselves unopposed due to the boycott.
I didn't research the post-Olympic rat catching contest in this novel because it seemed pretty clear that it was purely fictional. Cotterill invented it for the entertainment of his readers like all the wonderful dialogue that always appears in every Dr. Siri novel.
Oh yes, there are also murders in Moscow that need to be solved. The resolution certainly wasn't what I expected, but it was in keeping with our current atmosphere of political cynicism.
The only thing I missed was the shamanic aspect which wasn't at all prominent in this particular Dr. Siri book. As a fan of the paranormal, I consider this the best part of the series. I hope that the most recent Dr. Siri novel, Don't Eat Me, includes lots of communications from spirits.
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