Just Read : I shot the Buddha by Colin Cotterill

Last week, while my wife and I were browsing the 'new arrivals' section in Tuckhoe library, she picked a book and said 'You should read this one'. I saw the title and I was intrigued. 'I shot the Buddha' with picture of a monk riding a bicycle. Like i mostly do, I googled the book name, and found it to be a murder mystery, with goodreads giving it a 3.9. Not bad, I thought. It could be a good light read while i was getting back into reading books (Is there such a thing?) in new year.

The book is set in 1970s Laos and Thailand, when Laos was under communist regime and Thailand was vehemently against it. The bureaucratic ways of communist government on one side, and authoritarian ways of military led government on other, pumps humour and chaos (life blood) to the whole story line.

The story revolves around strangely misfit bunch of characters who are good friends, in three different story lines - First, led by Dr. Siri, a retired coroner and with special connection to supernatural side, and his wife Madame Deung, who runs a noodle shop, sign up to smuggle a monk to Thailand and then toil on to solve a multiple-murder mystery. The second plot is led by Mr. Civilai, a 75 year old senior member of Laos's Politburo and Dr. Siri's best friend, who went on to look for Buddha reincarnation and managed to unearth a cult following Mara (the demon in Buddhism). The third is led by Inspector Phosy, a smart but underappreciated middle aged officer, who look for a monk abduction in midst of a strange situation.

The book is very smartly written. The facts are used perfectly to make fiction look real, with right amount of humor, mystery and err... supernatural elements. Yes, I did not heard of Siri Paiboun mystery series before, so I was somewhat surprised when words like shaman, phibob, spirits and ghosts appeared in a mystery set in communist era. To author's credit, he has a 'mental health warning' published just before Table of contents which i only read after completing three chapters.

The book is an interesting read, and for me I got to know something new - About Laos. Now i know it's a landlocked country, ruled by french before independence, had communist rule in 70s, and monks were used as tools to propagate communism during that time.

I will definitely pick another Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery book sometime soon.