After 15 cunning, mischievous, heartbreaking, hilarious, eye-opening,
and atmospheric installments, Colin Cotterill's award-winning Dr. Siri
Paiboun series comes to a close. Make sure you don't miss this last
chapter, a deliciously clever puzzle that illuminates the history of
World War II in Southeast Asia.
Laos, 1981: When an unofficial mailman drops off a strange bilingual
diary, Dr. Siri is intrigued. Half is in Lao, but the other half is in
Japanese, which no one Siri knows can read; it appears to have been
written during the Second World War. Most mysterious of all, it comes
with a note stapled to it: Dr. Siri, we need your help most urgently.
But who is "we," and why have they left no return address?
To the chagrin of his wife and friends, who have to hear him read the
diary out loud, Siri embarks on an investigation by examining the text.
Though the journal was apparently written by a kamikaze pilot, it is
surprisingly dull. Twenty pages in, no one has died, and the pilot never
mentions any combat at all. Despite these shortcomings, Siri begins to
obsess over the diary's abrupt ending . . . and the riddle of why it
found its way into his hands. Did the kamikaze pilot ever manage to get
off the ground? To find out, he and Madame Daeng will have to hitch a
ride south and uncover some of the darkest secrets of the Second World
War.
