The Woman Who Wouldn't Die

The Dr. Siri Investigations, Book 9

By: Colin Cotterill

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

The long-awaited follow-up to Slash and Burn and the ninth installment in Colin Cotterill's bestselling mystery series starring the inimitable Lao national coroner, Dr.Siri

In a small Lao village, a very strange thing has happened. A woman was shot and killed in her bed during a burglary; she was given a funeral and everyone in the village saw her body burned. Then, three days later, she was back in her house as if she'd never been dead at all. But now she's clairvoyant and can speak to the dead. That's why the long-dead brother of a Lao general has enlisted her to help his brother uncover his remains, which have been lost at the bottom of a river for many years.

Lao national coroner Dr. Siri Paiboun and his wife, Madame Daeng, are sent along to supervise the excavation. It could be a kind of relaxing vacation for them, maybe, except Siri is obsessed with the pretty, undead medium's special abilities, and Madame Daeng might be a little jealous. She doesn't trust the woman for some reason. Is her hunch right? What is the group really digging for at the bottom of this remote river on the Thai border? What war secrets are being covered up?

©2013 Colin Cotterill (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Another great Dr. Siri story

If you could sum up The Woman Who Wouldn't Die in three words, what would they be?

Worth the time.

What did you like best about this story?

The story captured a time and place well. The characters are well developed and likable without being so over the top that they are caricatures. The plot is not the same old, same old and you will not figure it out by the second chapter.

What about Clive Chafer’s performance did you like?

The performance added depth to the characters. He did a great job.

Enjoying the entire series

The characters set in a foreign Country become real people with the interpretations of the author Colin Cotterill and the Narrator Clive Chafer.

Looking forward to more of the same.

continued the series...I enjoyed my latest book !

I am jonesing for the next installment of the series. The narrator is very good and the characters vivid.

One of my favorite yet.

Definitely not best enjoyed as a stand alone, as the characters are growing over time and books, but a much less dark story than some of the more recent installments. The characterization of the Vietnamese and was a little troubling to me but I hugely enjoyed the expansion of Madame Deng’s (?sp) background.

Dr. Siri does it again another fantastic book

Another great Book with Dr. Siri. I specially like this one because it went into some detail why people did things during the war. I also like that the author puts in specific details regarding Southeast Asia including food items and just a general way of life. Anyone would love these books. The book shows how people can live A minimalistic life and be happy and make the best of their situation

plot

just pure art. good balance of humor and mystery. finally opens up more of the spirit world

Yes, it's that good.

Comrade Dr. Siri Paiboun, the retired National Coroner of Laos, inhabits a world so vividly written it already stands the test of time. Colin Cotterill's Siri Paiboun series is set in late 1970's Laos, after the Pathet Lao overthrew the Lao monarchy, and at the beginning of a new country. Laos, as I've learned listening to Cotterill's books, is a rich collection of tribes, cultures, and languages. Their histories are as complex and fascinating as the legendary tribes of North America - the Navajo, the Ojibwa, and the Lakota. Cotterill's fiction is a window into daily living in the ascendency of Sino-Communist nations, just as Arthur Conan Doyle's (1859 - 1930) Sherlock Holmes stories are a glimpse into daily Victorian England and Tony Hillerman's (1925 - 2008) Lt. Joe Leaphorn series explores the culture and beliefs of the tribes of the American Southwest along with daily practicalities.

I visited China in 1981, shortly after it 'opened up' to western travel. It was a China of sturdy blue Mao suits; one speed no-brake bicycles instead of cars; of grain drying on city streets; of Hutongs instead of high rises; and of intermittent electricity even at the second best hotel in Beijing, the Friendship Hotel. If Laos was similar to China at about the same time, Cotterill's books are historically accurate. But it's not the details that bring me back to the series - it's Cotterill's characters.

"The Woman Who Wouldn't Die" (2013) finally - and finely - creates a real Madame Daeng, Siri's second wife. Madame Daeng and Siri met in the revolution, but he was married to the exemplary revolutionary heroine, Bua. Bua was the public role model of every aspiring Lao female warrior, including Daeng It turns out that Daeng was, covertly, as brave, clever and perhaps more deadly than Bua - but because her success was predicated on secrecy, no one - including Siri - knew.

Madame Daeng's autobiography is laid out in parallel chapters as Siri and Daeng solve a vexing mystery, along with his comrades - Nurse Dtui and her husband, Inspector Posey; founding communist party member Comrade Civilai; and Mr. Tsung, the extremely capable morgue assistant who coincidentally has Down syndrome. The mystery's a good one, and the Cotterill's more adept in this book than his previous books at laying out the clues without making them stand out as clues.

Cotterill's made a good choice of narrator in Clive Chafer. Chafer's good at switching between Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, and English. He's English and he's reading with an accent - not British, but? Whatever it is, I like it.

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Amazing

This book and series has lots of great history, color, humor and dare I say it, wisdom

Delightfully and Historically Rich

This book, like all the others that I have listened to in this series, has delightful characters who are so very human. While enjoying the plot, I can also learn so much history about an area of the world I knew little about.

Narrator was sometimes hard to listen to

I personally love this series. I read the first eight books, and this one was included so I got it. When I started I noticed the narrator drags out the last word in every sentence and it was driving me a little mad. If you can get passed that the content is great. Along with the previous eight books! I read four in four days!