I picked this up as part of a 3-books-for-£5 deal and felt I more than got my moneys worth out of it, which isn't always the case!
The book is set in Laos, in 1976 when the royal family have recently abdicated and left the country in Communist hands. Dr Siri Paiboun, now 72 and a long-standing member of the Party, is looking forward to a quiet retirement when his outspoken nature is 'rewarded' by the post of chief coroner - he is, after all, one of the few doctors left in the country. Settling into his new role, Siri is called upon first to examine the wife of a Party official who has died suddenly, as well as the corpse of a man who appears to have been tortured and killed by the secret police. Of course, it becomes clear quite early on that nobody wants either of these cases looked into with anything like Siri's level of determination.
The Coroner's Lunch is very nicely written, with both the major and minor characters being well fleshed-out. In particular, the author is quite tricksy at times when pulling something of a bait and switch towards the end of the book, in which the supernatural also plays a significant part - Siri can see the spirits of the dead in his dreams (and sometimes when he is awake as well!), and his own history may be more mysterious than he imagines. The next book in the series is 33 Teeth, and I'll been keeping an eye out for more of Cotterill's books...
A.