A lover of adventure, London-born Colin Cotterill has taught primary school, speech and drama in Australia, the United States and Japan. In Laos and Thailand, Cotterill does humanitarian work, draws cartoons and writes humorous novels.
His latest novel is "Anarchy and Old Dogs," set in 1970s Laos, the fourth in a series that has included "The Coroner's Lunch," "Thirty-Three Teeth" and "Disco for the Departed."
The chief character is 73-year-old Dr. Siri Paiboun, an amalgamation of different people Cotterill has known. "I knew a man who looked like Dr. Siri and another who had the right personality," he said by phone from his home in Cheng Mai, Thailand. "When I go to mystery festivals, hard-line types come to me and say, 'Dr. Siri is a breath of fresh air.' Perhaps some readers needed a different place to hang out."
In "Anarchy and Old Dogs," Dr. Siri, "the reluctant national coroner of Laos," is trying to identify the body of a man who turns out to be a retired blind dentist, killed by a logging truck in front of the post office. He was delivering a letter written in invisible ink.
When Siri discovers the letter was also written in code, he decides to investigate — with the help of his best friend, Civilai, a senior member of the Laos politburo and also in his 70s; Nurse Dtui; Phosy, a police officer; and Auntie Bpoo, a transvestite fortune teller.
It's a crazy but wonderful story, told with wit and color — and it's especially strong on dialogue.
Cotterill is 55, but his novel about septuagenarians who are clever and highly intelligent is refreshing. He thought it was time to feature older characters, "because they're being wasted."
He has spent most of his life drawing cartoons, but because his sense of humor is "peculiar," as he puts it, "Not everyone gets them."
A latecomer to reading — because his family had no books around the house — Cotterill read the classics in adulthood. But he's not sure any other writers had an impact on his work.
When he has a writing block, he does something artistic — such as designing a book jacket — to break the monotony. "I was always trying to get away from home. In my teens, I could jump on a ferry and go to France and hitchhike to Spain. If I went 500 miles I could travel through seven countries. Australia was my ultimate aim.
"I thought I'd work my way back, but I kept branching out to Asia. I feel more at home here. Now I can't imagine living in the West again. I may have been picked up by the wrong parents at the hospital!"
Cotterill said that when he returns to England, he feels threatened. "People get more upset about things than seems necessary — like traffic jams, what's on TV, the prices at shops. I just keep thinking, 'Calm down!"'
The Asian setting of his books surprises people who expect it to be New York or London. "The place itself might be of as much value as the story line. I didn't realize I was writing mystery stories until the American reviews started appearing. I just thought I was a storyteller."
Cotterill views Laos as a poor country, a communist state and a victim of history, meaning that "sarcasm and the tongue-in-cheek approach is the only way to do it. You can't preach to people about poverty and communism. I always tell stories better anyway through humor. I like to make people laugh, but I do it through writing and illustrating — not as a stand-up comedian. I can't do jokes."
Four or five years ago, when Cotterill started to lose his memory, he started to rely more on his imagination. "So maybe these characters really are people I actually knew! I do caricatures of the people around me all the time, such as a transvestite fortune teller. Sometimes people confuse me with a historian who actually knows what he's talking about. No, I just make it up. When someone quotes me as an expert on Laos, they make me into a professional liar."
To start another book, he goes to an isolated bungalow south of Bangkok, "a place where I won't be disturbed, where I pretend I don't speak English, and I just write for 13 hours a day."
Cotterill doesn't know what will happen on the next page, or how the characters will get out of a given situation — or how the story will end. "That means I get on a few tangents that must be reversed. But it's more fun to write like that. I write until I'm finished — which is usually one month."
He said he never worries about breaking the rules because he doesn't know what they are. And he plans to keep writing about the canny coroner until he gets bored with him — which hasn't happened yet, even though he claims he is not yet getting rich.
But Cotterill said he doesn't mind, as long as he has enough money to finance his projects to make life better for Laotian children.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com