If humour is the essence we find here no shortage of it, actually we have plenty to make us laugh, a bit too much for my taste but again this is Colin Cotterill, a prolific and eccentric crime writer and cartoonist who is more than able to produce stories that will certainly throw us off guard, bring a sort of escape, provide an exotic ambiance and strike the right nuance between funny and subtle.
Told in the first person by Jimm the story opens with the discovery of a severed head on the beach where the Thai ex-crime reporter lives and works. Outraged when no one of authority is interested or wants to get involve and with the help of family and friends Jimm springs into action and sets out to track down what circumstances brought the poor fellow on her beach. On the journey this bunch of mishmash wannabes uncovers gruesome tales of piracy, slavery, violence and murder. Once more we have a tale where the amazing and the ridiculous clashes.
The story takes its merry time before getting to the meat of the mystery. Half the book’s dialogues is a play on words and seem funny but there is more to this laugh out loud silliness it does have an underlying seriousness. The plot centers on the situation Myanmar refugees in Thailand find themselves in, where some are kidnapped, forced into slavery aboard fishing ships and in a situation where some will never return to dry land. Although the story may sound rather grim, the hilarious spots make this book a really light read, one to enjoy to a degree
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