Audiobook Review: Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill

Killed at the Whim of a Hat
by Colin Cotterill (Compact Disc Cotterill)

During the period while the libraries have been closed to the public, I’ve been trying to sample some audiobooks in my car’s CD player on the ways to and from work — particularly authors I’ve not tried before. One of those was British author Colin Cotterill. Cotterill had already established himself with 8 novels in the Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series (since continued to 15), when Killed at the Whim of a Hat came out in 2011. The series is anchored by a mid-30s female Thai crime reporter, Jimm Juree, who finds her life in chaos when her mother, the head of her household, uproots the entire family from the big city in the north of Thailand and settles them down in a south Thailand coastal village, operating a run-down tourist hotel. Desperate to keep herself involved in crime reporting, Jimm jumps (actually rides her bicycle) at the chance to investigate when an old VW van is discovered buried in a farmer’s field — and has been for several decades — with a pair of dead hippies’ bodies in it. While investigating that, a modern day murder occurs at a nearby monastery — a visiting Abbot (essentially an “internal affairs” investigator for the Buddhist church) is killed. When Jimm attempts to investigate that as well, she befriends a chief suspect and sets out to prove a friendly nun could not have committed the murder.

The plot is very complex and twisty, but it is primarily the characters that drive this novel. Particularly the witty, sarcastic and world-weary Jimm — in her 30s and without much prospect of finding a suitable husband (much to her mother’s dismay). Jimm has a shy bodybuilding brother Arny, a transgendered brother (now sister) Sissi, whose computer hacking skills come in handy, plus Grandpa Jah (a retired by-the-books cop, whose laconic attitudes belie serious investigative skills). And there’s her seemingly-dotty mother, Mrai, who Jimm fears is becoming senile, but who comes up with the most thoughtful observations when least expected. In this entry volume in the series, Jimm befriends several of the local police officers, particularly the flamboyantly gay Lt. Chompu, who’s perhaps the book’s most memorable character. I can’t wait to see what additional stories there are with Jimm Juree.

The audiobook narration by Kim Mai Guest really brought this story to life, with its exotic setting and colorful characters. Not being a Thai speaker, I kind of wished I had a printed character sheet to track who was who, as the names were all very hard to follow. But it was still fun to listen to.

Cotterill has had two more Jimm Juree novels published that were set after Killed at the Whim of a Hat, plus a prequel novel, set before the family uprooted from their previous lives. There have also been a dozen or so individual short stories published digitally, featuring Jimm and family. I’m sorry more novels don’t appear to be forthcoming.

[ official Killed at the Whim of a Hat page on the official Colin Cotterill web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!