Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
Following a rash moment of insolence, Dr Siri Paiboun, Laos reluctant national coroner, confused shaman and disheartened communist, is forced to go on a road trip with Judge Haeng and the Justice Department.

While newly pregnant Nurse Dtui is left at the morgue to defend the staff against exploding corpses and geriatric gunslingers, Siri has his own problems. On a deserted jungle trail, Siri is kidnapped. His only route to freedom is to exorcise the local village of its demon - but that means lifting the curse of the pogo stick...

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick. A Dr Siri Investigation. Quercus, ISBN: 9781849160117 (November, 2009), 215 p., £7.99.

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick (USA 2009)

From the Publisher:
Seven female Hmong villagers kidnap Dr. Siri on orders from the village elder who hopes that Yeh Ming, the thousand-year-old shaman who shares the doctor’s body, will consent to exorcise the headman’s daughter. He fears that her soul has been possessed by a demon due to the curse of a mysterious Western artifact. Siri agrees to help and, in so doing, brings to pass a prediction of Auntie Bpoo, a transvestite fortune-teller.

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick. A Dr. Siri Paiboun Investigation. Soho, ISBN: 9781569475904 (August, 2009), 238 p., $13.00.

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
Dr Siri Paiboun, Laos reluctant national coroner, confused shaman and disheartened communist, takes an unwanted holiday and finds himself facing kidnap, demonic possession and - obviously - a cursed pogo stick.

Following a rash but perhaps not unexpected moment of insolence, Dr Siri is forced out of the morgue and on to the road with Judge Haeng and the Justice Department. On a deserted jungle trail they are ambushed and Siri is kidnapped by Hmong tribeswomen. His only route to freedom is to rid the headman's daughter of demonic possession and - you've guessed it - lift the curse of the titular pogo stick.

Meanwhile, back at the morgue, newly pregnant Nurse Dtui and Dr Siri's fiancée, Madame Daeng, are left alone to track down an assassin intent on wiping out the mortuary staff. Before the case is solved they'll face exploding corpses, toxic savoury snacks, undead muggers and geriatric gunslingers.

Just another day at the office for the Laos National Morgue, then.

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick. A Dr Siri Investigation. Quercus, ISBN: 9781847248091 (May, 2009), 215 p., £14.99.

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick (USA 2008)

From the Publisher:
Dr. Siri Paiboun, the spry seventy-three-year-old reluctant national coroner of Laos, is out of town when a booby-trapped corpse is delivered to the morgue in Vientiane. The lives of visiting doctors, the morgue attendants, and Madame Daeng, Dr. Siri's fiancée, are saved by the intervention of Nurse Dtui, the doctor's longtime assistant, but it is a near thing. Who is responsible for this outrage?

On his way back from a Communist Party meeting in the north, Dr. Siri is kidnapped by seven female Hmong villagers. The village elder had ordered them to bring Siri to him, hoping that Yeh Ming, the thousand-year-old shaman who shares the doctor's body, would consent to exorcise the headman's daughter. He fears that her soul has been possessed by a demon due to the curse of a mysterious artifact that they have placed on an altar.

Siri agrees to help and in so doing, brings to pass a prediction of Auntie Bpoo, a transvestite fortune teller.

Colin Cotterill: Curse of the Pogo Stick. A Dr. Siri Paiboun Investigation. Soho, ISBN: 9781569474853 (August, 2008), 238 p., $24.00.