The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot

Colin Cotterill

Jun 2020 · RB Media · Narrated by Clive Chafer

About this audiobook

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.

Ratings and reviews

historical-fiction, historical-research, historical-setting, historical-places-events, Southeast-Asia, spirits, devils, Japanese-lore, satire, senior-citizens, situational-humor, sly-humor, spiritism, supernatural, superstitions, suspense***** Once again there are several mysteries to be solved in 1981. Chief Inspector Phosy is tasked with finding out just how a prominent man came to fall off a cliff and gets held hostage for two days along with two of his best men. Dr. Siri and Mme Daeng are off up country to follow a convoluted trail left in a personal journal written half in Japanese and half in Lao. Along the way they come to find out that it is about a Japanese Army pilot during and after WW2 and that it is actually allegorical in nature and reveals the world of Japanese malevolent spirits and devils. This has been a great series and I am sorry to see it end. I bought the audio and Clive Chafer has been the very adaptable narrator throughout.

About the author

Colin Cotterill is an author and cartoonist. He was born in London in 1952, and trained as a Physical Education teacher, before setting off on a world tour that hasn't ended yet. Along the way, he has held various teaching positions in Israel, Australia, the U. S., Japan, and Southeast Asia. He would eventually become involved in child protection, and it was his work with trafficked children that motivated him to write his first novel, The Night Bastard. The reaction was so positive that he decided to take time off and write full-time. Two of his subsequent novels are child-protection based: Evil in the Land Without, and Pool and its role in Asian Communism. Cotterill may be best known as the author of the Dr. Siri Paiboun series, set in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. Titles in the series include: Six and a Half Deadly Sins, the Woman Who Wouldn't Die, Love Songs from a Shallow Grave, The Merry Misogynist, Thirty-Three Teeth and The Coroner's Lunch. He also pens the Jim Jurree series, set in southern Thailand. Titles in this series include: The Axe Factor, Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach and Killed at the Whim of a Hat.