I have always enjoyed Colin Cotterill’s books. He writes
in such a way as to drag the reader into the plot, and makes the reader
think of what is coming next, and how to circumvent the future problems,
lurking on the next page!
The Axe Factor (ISBN 978-1-78087-698-6, Quercus Editions UK, 2013) features
once more his quasi investigative journalist/PI Jimm Juree, the book being
“her” story, told by “her” with the deprecating style of humor that makes
Jimm so human and believable.
It is a detective novel, with plenty to keep Miss Jimm
occupied, including finding a missing doctor, a missing wife, a missing
father and a missing husband. And the same time working as an unpaid cook in
the family holiday resort.
Jimm also makes some pocket money correcting the English that someone has
attempted to translate from Thai language, and the header for each chapter
has some examples of these, such as “Ladies are requested not to have
children in the bar,” and “Please leave your values at the front desk,” and
again “It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a
man.”
To assist the ‘reality’ of the situations experienced by Jimm Juree, author
Cotterill knows when to introduce such factual items as the Chiang Mai Mail
which gets a mention with an editorial notice board where anyone can leave
messages.
Cotterill is a long time ex-pat in Thailand and has had his eyes open.
Describing the train travel to the South of Thailand where nobody arrives at
the station on time - because the trains are always late. A five hour delay
was a good day. The odd one that is on time leaves empty. “Bad scheduling
made economic sense.” He “had hinted that (the policeman) might even be
incorruptible, which was a bit like saying dolphins don’t necessarily need
water.” (As I have mentioned before, we have the finest police force that
money can buy!)
The book certainly gallops along at a brisk pace, while the reader will find
him or herself keeping up the pace, to find what is happening next, to the
sound of pages turning.
Jimm has a large family with a katoey sister who is an IT expert, a brother
who is somewhat soft, a mother in early stage Alzheimer’s Disease, a strange
father and an even stranger grandfather. However, she puts up with them all
because, in the Thai way, they are “family” and must be protected.
Added in to the plot is an all-pervading Big Business which Jimm uncovers
and dissects out and sees just what “sponsorship” can do to the ethics of
professionals.
Writers are at the mercy of the distributors, and while this was a good
read, in the old fashioned sense, to be on Bookazine shelves at B. 685 is
pricing Cotterill out of the marketplace. With many international fiction
writers having their books on the same shelves for B. 450, it takes a
confirmed Cotterill fan to sport the extra B. 235. I did enjoy the book, and
I am sure lovers of who-dunnits will revel in The Axe Factor.
