Ever since Jimm Juri was forced to move with her family to a rural village on the coast of southern Thailand, she has lost her career as a journalist. In Chiang Mai, she covered serious stories and major crimes. But here in Maprao, Jimm has to proofread assignments for the local online magazine Chumphon Gazette. This time they send her to interview a local Farang (European) writer, Conrad Coralbank, who writes award-winning crime novels. At the same time, several local women left the city without telling anyone, leaving their belongings behind. Among them are a local doctor, Dr. Sumlak, who never returned from the conference, and the Thai wife of the aforementioned Konrad Coralbank. It all looks a bit suspicious, especially to Jim’s grandfather, a former policeman who notices Coralbank’s interest in Jim with a very yellow eye.
With Jim Jury’s books, you will learn how a westernized Thai city girl gets used to life outside the city. You will learn about the political atmosphere in Thailand. You will learn how poor people survive without real help from the government. You’ll also learn how the family, oddly enough, consists of a mother with dementia, a retired traffic cop grandfather who rarely speaks, a twenty-something bodybuilder son who is in love with a female bodybuilder in her fifties, and a daughter who still yearning to be a big city crime reporter – live together, argue with each other and (most importantly) love each other. And I haven’t even mentioned the sister, the transsexual, former beauty queen and former computer hacker who refused to move out of town. As I read each Jim Jury novel, I wonder if such a dysfunctional family can love and support each other, why do so many “normal” families have such problems?
With family members like that, you know Cotterill is playing it for laughs, and there are plenty of those. One of Jim’s part-time jobs is as a translator for anyone who wants their signs accurately translated from Thai to English. Every chapter heading is an example of a poorly translated sign, and they alone are worth the price of admission. Also, there is Jim’s ongoing correspondence with Clint Eastwood. She is determined to sell him the script and I love watching her try to make her dream come true.
In The Ax Factor, Cotterill is menacing with two things: a thinly disguised version of himself as Conrad Coralbank, and pages from a serial killer’s diary that are truly frightening. No laughs when it comes to these pages, because Cotterill is also very good at scary. As Jimm falls deeper under Coralbank’s spell and her grandfather grows increasingly suspicious, these diary pages are enough to make readers truly fear for Jimm’s life, a life we get to know more about in this book, particularly her insecurities .
The Ax Factor is the perfect combination of chills and laughs, and one of the best examples of misdirection I’ve ever read. It also ends on a nice little cliffhanger. At first glance, all of Cotterill’s books seem light and fresh, but don’t be fooled; they also have real depth. I made a habit of never missing one.