Anarchy and old dogs

the long version

"Dr. Siri Paiboun, reluctant national coroner of Laos, must discover the identity of a corpse that has been delivered to the morgue in Vientiane. The victim, who was run down in front of the Post Office by a logging truck, turns out to be a retired dentist. He was blind, yet he had come into town on the bus to pick up a letter written in invisible ink which is found in his jacket pocket. Dr. Siri is puzzled by the letter, which seems to be in code as well. The solution to the conundrum will have far reaching implications, involving the seventy-three-year-old doctor with murder and political conspiracy"--Page 2 of cover.