From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Set in 1978, Cotterill's superb seventh mystery to feature Dr. Siri Paiboun (after 2009's The Merry Misogynist) finds "the national and only coroner of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos" nearing his 74th birthday chained to a lead pipe in a Cambodian prison. Siri's captivity is wrapped around investigating the puzzling deaths of three Laotian women, each skewered by dueling swords that are a decided rarity in Laos. A strong supporting cast, including Siri's recently acquired wife, Madame Daeng, and morgue colleague Nurse Dtui, who's married to Inspector Phosy, enriches the narrative. The unfathomable violence of the Khmer Rouge reign emerges during Siri's unexpected ordeal and forms a vivid contrast to his humanity in seeking to protect the murder suspect in the three sword deaths. This immensely satisfying mystery has it all--a heroic protagonist, a challenging puzzle, and an exotic setting. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistCotterill’s mordant mystery series set in 1970s Southeast Asia features septuagenarian Siri Paiboun, national coroner of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos. In this dark seventh entry, Dr. Paiboun investigates the deaths of three Laotian women who have died of fencing wounds. The killer, the doctor presumes, must be someone proficient with an épée, a rarity in his country, to be sure. Connections are found between the women—all pursued advanced studies in Eastern bloc countries—but that link doesn’t bring Paiboun much closer to solving the crimes. The offer of an all-expenses paid junket to Cambodia puts a fire under Paiboun, and he hastily cracks the case (or so he thinks). Despite a reputation for consorting with the spirit world, Paiboun ignores otherworldly warnings not to go to Cambodia. Now it’s too late; he’s a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge. Cotterill interweaves details of Paiboun’s investigation with an account of the doctor’s ghastly incarceration. Though his trademark levity lifts the tale, it’s still pretty grim stuff, but Cotterills many fans know that, in this series, wit comes at a price. --Allison Block

In rural Thailand, former crime reporter Jimm Juree must grapple with her quirky family, a mysterious mother and daughter on the lam and the small matter of a head on the beachWhen Jimm Juree's mother sold the family house and invested in a rundown 'holiday camp' at the southern end of Thailand on the Gulf of Siam, the family had little choice but to follow. Jimm Juree, who was well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming the primary crime reporter for the major daily newspaper in Chiang Mai, is less than thrilled to have lost her job as a reporter and to be stuck in the middle of nowhere where little of interest happens. So it is with mixed feelings that she greets the news that a head has washed up on the beach. It's tragic, of course, but this could be the sort of sensational murder that would get her a byline in a major daily and keep her toehold on her journalism career. Now all she has to do is find out who was murdered, and why.

Since Jimm Juree moved, under duress, with her family to a rural village on the coast of Southern Thailand, she misses the bright lights of Chiang Mai. Most of all, she’s missed her career as a journalist, which was just getting started. In Chiang Mai, she was covering substantial stories and major crimes. But here in Maprao, Jimm has to scrape assignments from the local online journal, the Chumphon Gazette—and be happy about it when she gets one. This time they are sending her out to interview a local farang (European) writer, a man in his late fifties, originally from England, who writes award-winning crime novels, one Conrad Coralbank. At the same time, several local women have left town without a word to anyone, leaving their possessions behind. These include the local doctor, Dr. Sumlak, who never returned from a conference, and the Thai wife of that farang writer, the aforementioned Conrad Coralbank. All of which looks a little suspicious, especially to Jimm’s grandfather, an ex-cop, who notices Coralbank’s interest in Jimm with a very jaundiced eye. With a major storm headed their way and a potential serial killer on the loose, it looks like Jimm Juree, her eccentric family, and the whole town of Maprao is in for some major changes. The Axe Factor is a Jimm Juree mystery from Colin Cotterill.**Review“Outstanding . . . outrageously funny.”      —Publishers Weekly [HC starred review](Publishers Weekly) “In addition to a clockwork plot and an intriguing setting, what really makes this book sing is Jimm’s own caustic, ribald observations. A stunner of a novel, third in the Jimm Juree series.”      —Booklist [HC starred review](Booklist) About the AuthorBorn in London, COLIN COTTERILL has worked as a teacher in Israel, Australia, the U.S., and Japan before he started training teachers in Thailand. Cotterill now lives in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Siam in Southern Thailand. He’s won the Dilys and a CWA Dagger, and has been a finalist for several other awards.