The Missing Guests of the Magic Grove Hotel: An Ethical Chiang Mai Detective Agency Novel

Fans of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series will feel at home with Casarett’s stellar sequel to 2016’s Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness. Ladarat Patalung serves as the nurse ethicist for Chiang Mai University’s Sriphat Hospital in northern Thailand. Her duties include reviewing the circumstances of deceased patients to assess whether they had “good deaths.” She has the ability to see what others do not, as well as a deep reserve of empathy to rival that of Smith’s Mma Ramotswe, qualities that come in handy when Wiriya Mookjai, her detective friend in the Chiang Mai Royal Police, asks her to help look into the disappearance of at least eight tourists, all connected to a hotel known as the Magic Grove. Ladarat visits the Magic Grove, where the reaction of the foreign proprietor to her inquiries about the most recent missing guest only fuels her suspicions that something untoward has been going on. A refreshingly admirable lead, Ladarat feels an ethical imperative to put aside her own needs to comfort those she sees in distress. Readers will hope to see a lot more of her. Agent: Chris Bucci, McDermid Agency. (Dec.)