Six and a Half Deadly Sins

1
The First Deadly Sin

On December 25, 1978, the concrete public-address system pole in South That Luang s Area Six unexpectedly blew itself up, a Lao skirt with a severed finger sewn into the hem passed through the national postal system unchallenged and Vietnam invaded Cambodia. A few weeks had passed since then, but the two old men sitting on a log beside the milk chocolate colored Mekhong River hadn t yet exhausted their opinions on the three events. Dr. Siri Paiboun ex-national coroner for the Lao People s Democratic Republic had been responsible for the first of them. Comrade Civilai Songsawat ex-politburo member had predicted the latter, and nobody had listened to him. But the finger? Well, neither man could make heads or tails of that.
       Do you suppose it might have belonged to the weaver? asked Civilai. Some loom accident?
      What? said Siri. You mean she was so engrossed in her skirt-making that she didn t notice she d sewn her own finger into the hem? Got home that evening, and her husband says, Hey, where s your finger? And she looks down to find it gone and says, Hm. I must have inadvertently sewn it into one of the skirts ?
      There followed a brief silence while the old boys worked on their baguette lunches. They d noticed how much more difficult it had become to chew the crusty beasts since reaching their mid-seventies. Siri surmised that just as the rice whiskey distiller had added ingredients that increased the odds of a raging hangover, and the bicycle manufacturers had removed the gears that allowed one to climb hills without becoming winded, so the baker had changed to a more leathery dough recipe. All were signs of the declining standards of modernization.
      Civilai took a mouthful of tamarind juice and swirled it around his mouth before swallowing. Sarcasm, he said, is like throwing a stick at your enemy when

Colin Cotterill is the Dilys Award–winning author of ten other books in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series: The Coroner’s Lunch, Thirty-Three Teeth, Disco for the Departed, Anarchy and Old Dogs, Curse of the Pogo Stick, The Merry Misogynist, Love Songs from a Shallow Grave, Slash and Burn, The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die, and I Shot the Buddha. He lives in Chumphon, Thailand, with his wife and five deranged dogs.

Praise for Six and a Half Deadly Sins

"Dr. Siri and his misfit friends have relied on caustic humor to stay sane . . . The question is: Can his cynical sense of humor get him out of this jam?"
The New York Times Book Review

"Dr. Siri Paiboun will be a gladdening complement to many mystery-reader s table. Some of you have likely already shared your happy table with Dr. Siri; others of you will poo-poo the suggestion. But if you are unfamiliar with Paiboun works, it is time to crawl out of whatever cave you have been living in. This is for you."
The Christian Science Monitor

"Always delightful . . . The doctor and his profoundly eccentric friends, wife and (now former) colleagues retain their sardonic senses of humor in a vexing and sometimes scary time."
The Seattle Times

"When the first sentence of a book starts with a 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, a public address system mishap, and a severed finger sewn into a skirt, you know you're not in for a run-of-the-mill mystery . . . But it's marvelous fodder for Cotterill's laugh-out-loud humor."
Mystery Scene

"Dr. Siri s iconoclastic spirit and caustic wit are a delight to witness."
Booklist

"A rollicking installment . . . Guaranteed to delight fans and new readers alike."
BookPage, Top Pick in Mysteries

"Neatly combines humor, detection, and politics."
Publishers Weekly

"Generous dollops of wit and humor . . . We can never be sure what clever ruse is being employed."
Dayton Daily News


Praise for the Dr. Siri series

"Laughter is a subversive weapon when you live under a repressive regime. That's the take-away lesson from Colin Cotterill's gravely funny novels set in Indochina in the 1970s."
The New York Times Book Review

"The latest Dr. Paiboun novel by Colin Cotterill, showcases both author and detective at the top of their games. It's an entertaining and