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Nov 29, 2016Roundcat rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
David Casarett is a doctor, who has written nonfiction, and spends quite a bit of time in Thailand. This background has enabled him to write a novel with characters that remind the reader strongly of the Ladies Number One Detective Agency mysteries by Alexander McCall Smith. Ladarat Patalung, Nurse Ethicist who has studied her specialty in Chicago, is asked by Wiriya Mookja, a Royal Police detective, to use her contacts in the Sriphat Hospital of Chiang Mai to help him determine whether there is a serial killer on the loose or if the woman who brought her dead husband to the emergency room is just unlucky in her choice of husbands. Ladarat and her assistant, Sisithorn, who seems to have an unusual gift for understanding the needs and emotions of others, manage an upcoming audit of the hospital, an American couple who were involved in an accident with an elephant, and a mysterious man in the ICU visitor’s room, as well as detective Mookja’s request, with grace and calm, basing her decisions on what is truly important. The writer’s gift for immersing the reader in the culture of Thailand is truly remarkable. I am looking forward to the next in the series.