The Thai Amulet

Lara McClintoch (of Canada) is making another trip to Thailand, and her friend Natalie convinces her to try to locate her missing husband William, who is an American citizen, after receiving a package with broken amulets . Even the American embassy is unaware that William is missing. It is apparent that the last time anyone saw him was at a holiday celebration. Lara's niece Jennifer is in Thailand, visiting her boyfriend's family. When Lara arrives, she is surprised by their obvious wealth. There is a 16th century narrative that opens each chapter. While the events parallel the current ones in some ways, I found the 16th century less interesting and probably unnecessary for most of the writer's audience, except for adding literary value show more to the work. I did enjoy the manner in which Lara unraveled the true story. It's sad that more deaths had to occur to get to that point. While I enjoyed this installment, I prefer Hamilton's archaeological plots. show less

More like 2 and 1/2 stars. The mystery is telegraphed in advance through the flashbacks. The 1600's century story is a complete parallel to the modern tale of deceit, death, murder and love lost. This isn't the best of Lyn Hamilton's novel. She tries for moral ambiguity and ends up instead with a very black and white, strait forward, very common mystery. Which is too bad because the structure and plot were promising.

The Thai Amulet by Lyn Hamilton was a ok mystery. The setting was exotic and the story had some good twists. It was a fast read that would be good for a weekend read.

Didn't really like the first two books of this series but I stayed with it because of the archaeology plots and I found the series got better.

An entertaining mystery set in Thailand.