Killed at the Whim of a Hat, Colin Cotterill

I lost count of the times I rolled over, laughing out loud, reading this book, a murder mystery set in modern day Thailand, and the first of Cotterill's "Jimm Juree" series. There are brilliant secondary characters, like Lieutenant Chompu, but the real star is Jimm as a narrator, who brings wit and irony to her backwater surroundings.

I'm in the middle of reading my way through Cotterill's earlier "Dr. Siri" series, set in the 1970s in Laos. The characters are equally engaging, although the tone is more serious. Cotterill has an appreciation for the unusual, the eccentric, the elderly. the non-conformists, which gives all his books sweetness and depth.