Colin Cotterill spins another quirky, entertaining mystery in his 11th Dr. Siri novel, I Shot the Buddha. Since the doctor retired as the national coroner of Laos, his days have been filled with local gossip, seminars put on by the ruling Communist Party and managing his houseful of oddball monks, mendicants and homeless people. When Noo, a Buddhist monk who has been sleeping on Siri's back porch, disappears, he leaves Siri a cryptic note urging the doctor to help a fellow monk escape across the border into Thailand. Siri and his wife, Daeng, and their group of friends are drawn into a mystery involving the local secret police, a mechanic claiming to be the Buddha reincarnated and more than a few troublesome spirits from the afterlife.
Although Cotterill plunges straight into 1970s Laos with little context, readers can quickly pick up on its salient features: government inefficiency, low-level conflict between Buddhism and Communism, lingering traces of French colonial rule. Cotterill pokes fun at all of the above, as when Siri's friend Civilai drives an ancient Renault "at the pace of a government committee meeting" or is "held prisoner by his country's non-communication system." Siri is also accustomed to regular, brief visitations from supernatural beings, which begin as an irritation and eventually become a key plot point. While Siri and Daeng's paranormal adventures require a serious suspension of disbelief, Cotterill's twisty mystery plot will entertain readers while his cast of eccentric characters charms. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams