All is not as it seems when Father Ananda is summoned by the Buddhist authorities in Bangkok to investigate an odd case of suspected suicide in a rural temple in Sara Buri. A young nun's gruesome death in a crocodile pit at the temple's Buddhist theme park sets off an inexplicable chain of events that places Ananda and his novice Jak in grave danger. Determined to expose the secrets hidden in this famous monastic community, Ananda fights powerful vested interests in this second episode of the Father Ananda mystery series.

Nick Wilgus is a writer and senior subeditor for the “Outlook” section of the Bangkok Post. He is the author of Bilal's Bread and the forthcoming Adventures of the Birdshit Foreigner, both from Alyson Publications in the US under the pen name of Sulayman X. He has lived in Bangkok for more than a decade.

Praise for the first volume in the Father Ananda series, Mindfulness and Murder:

“A gripping read peppered with fascinating insights into the day to day life of a Buddhist monk, Nick Wilgus's Mindfulness and Murder puts a new spin on an old genre.”—Cameron Cooper, Untamed Travel Magazine

“Wilgus, a 10-year resident of the Realm and Bangkok Post staffer, has a good fix on temple boys, the precepts of Buddhism, the jaundiced eye with which the populace regards the constabulary.”—Bernard Trink, Bangkok Post

Book Review

In Thailand, Father Ananda, first presented in Mindfulness and Murder, is sent off ot the country to check what's going on at a monastery temple boasting a theme park, the Garden of Hell by Nick Wilgus (Silkworm, 191pp, $25.95) A nun with a disinclination to accept women's secondary role in Buddhist practice appears to have committed suicide by jumping into the crocodile pool. A little at a time we glean that the management of the temple, and the activities of its monks, may be influenced by organized crime syndicates Could they be importing children from Cambodian refugee camps and selling them to others for labour and/or sexual pleasure? Elegant, informative prose ornamented with profound observations: Failure is the faithful companion of the sage, No other mentor is as wise and true." (The Sage's Tao Te Ching: A New Interpretation)

THE AUSTRALIAN
Edition 5- Qld Review Dec 09, 2006,Page 014
Crime file
By Robin Wallace-Crabbe
Column: Crime File
Books