50. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill

My mother had several of the books from this series in my family's bookshelf and I was curious to read them but had too many other books to read at the time.  I found this one in a box on the street where some neighbour (whom I heard has since moved) had put some good 80s sci-fi and other miscellaneous paperbacks. I debated choosing something more auspicious for my 50th book of the year (a new speed record for me), but ended up just going with something consumable.

This is part of a series featuring national coroner and amateur detective, Dr. Siri Panboum.  It takes place in post-revolutionary Laos.  I feel like there needs to be a name for this sub-genre, the cozy regional/other culture detective series.  There is probably one for almost every part of the world, Alexander McCall Smith's No 1 Ladies Detective Agency being the big name.  I guess the difference here is that is also a period piece.  

The investigation is triggered here by a blind man who is killed by a runaway truck, revealing an invisible ink letter on his person.  Siri uncovers a possible royalist sponsored military coup and heads south with an old revolutionary colleague to investigate.  We get lots of interesting locations, culture and history.  The history was informative and I appreciated learning more about what happened to Laos in the revolutionary period after WWII.  There are also two side murder mysteries, a deputy governor who is electrocuted in his bathtub and a village boy who is drowned.  The last one was quite sad. 

I enjoyed the book but didn't get deeply caught up in it.  It might have been that I jumped in late in the series and did not have a strong connection to Dr. Siri.  He's a fun character, with a spiritual side.  There is a lot of drinking as well.  

A note on reading 50 books in under 5 months.  It's rather intense.  My mind feels a bit jumbled but wants to keep pressing on, like at the end of a long-distance race.  A big factor here is just consistently reading, with a few late nights.  Mainly, though, I think it's because I have cut movies and most TV out of my life these days (though still watching a lot of basketball).  I've also cut way down on Twitter, though it still sucks me into its maw from time to time.