Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness by David Casarett

Ladarat Patalung is a nurse ethicist.  She checks to see if everyone is doing all that they need to do for the patients.  It's a bit like being an auditor.  She pays attention to treatments, makes sure the patient's emotions are taken into consideration and she watches for discrepancies.  She never expect to be asked to do detective work...

Redhook and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published September 13th.

This story was set in Thailand and that was a real treat for me.  I enjoyed reading about the differences between Americans and Asians.  The culture there is much different from how I was brought up and their food sounded dreadful to me, but the main character really enjoyed it.  I can imagine what she would think of the food I cook!

Ladarat begins by looking into a woman who brought her dead husband to the hospital in the middle of night to get a death certificate.  It seems someone there had heard of her before and the situation was the same.  As the detective and Ladarat visit, they decide if it wasn't revenge, it must be the insurance the woman is interested in.  The detective points out she might just be a serial killer but since her victims all have the same name, you wonder.

As she is trying to find out more about that case, she finds that there is an odd man in the visitor's waiting room that is not the usual type.  He's a hillman, he speaks to no one, and when questioned he can't say who he is waiting for.  But he's waiting and won't leave.  In time, she finds out why.

Alexander McCall Smith writes about Africa.  Mr. Casarett does a comparable job in his story about Thailand.  The people go about things in a round about way so they don't embarrass anyone or lose face.  They are deliberate, polite and painstaking.  And they will continue until the job is done.

This was a wonderful introduction to this country and to the characters in this book.  Both Ladarat and her assistant seem to have a romantic interest before the end of the story.  I can't wait to read about her next adventure and see how her story continues.  I like her as a character.