500 Words
From...is a series of guest posts from Asia-based, locally-published authors,
in which they talk about their latest books. Here Nick Wilgus, who is now based
in the USA, but who lived and worked in Asia for many years, discusses The Curious Corpse, the latest title in
his Father Ananda murder-mystery
series, published by Hong Kong-based Crime Wave Press.
On the wrong
side of 50, Father Ananda is now a senior Buddhist monk at the Wat Mahanet
Monastery in Bangkok, but before opting for monastic life he had been a police
officer for more than twenty years.
The three
earlier titles in the series are Mindfulness
and Murder, Sister Suicide and Killer Karma. The books have been
translated into French, German, Spanish and Italian. A movie based on Mindfulness and Murder was released in
2011 by DeWarenne Pictures in Bangkok, and nominated for Best Screenplay by the
Thailand National Films Awards, 2012.
So, over to Nick…
“The Curious Corpse finds
Father Ananda matching wits with the Russian mafia. It begins with the
discovery of a murdered Russian woman's body on the grounds of Ananda's temple.
But things are not always what they seem and Ananda has a very hard time
getting to the bottom of things.
I've
always felt that the Father Ananda books weren't just about Ananda, but the
team of Ananda and his much younger sidekick, Jak. They are the two main
characters in each of the books. They are each wounded in their own ways.
They're a team, and they're a good team, but in The Curious Corpse, we see Jak beginning to grow up and coming to
terms with the fact that life has dealt him a rather harsh hand. He is also
experiencing some teenage rebellion. They have an interesting relationship that
grows and develops with each book.
The Curious Corpse also touches on the fact that
Buddhist monks sometimes get up to some very unholy business. Some of the plot
elements in the book were actually based on newspaper stories and articles
about monks caught misbehaving.”
Details:
Books in the Father Ananda series are available in eBook and paperback, priced
in local currencies. Crime Wave Press, will shortly be bringing out an omnibus
edition of the first three titles.
