This fictional anthropologist tale delivers just enough action and exotic locales to keep readers interested. First-time novelist Berlinski names the protagonist after himself, but the similarities end there. Freelance writer Berlinski follows his girlfriend, school teacher Rachel, to Chiang Mai, intending to spend an easy, cheap year as an expatriate. That’s when he happens upon the story of Martiya van der Leun, an exuberant UC Berkeley PhD anthropology candidate who had lived among the Dyalo hill tribe, where spirits and superstitions rule the way of life.

At the beginning of this whodunit, both van der Leun and missionary David Walker, who also lived with the Dyalo, are dead – van der Leun commits suicide while serving a 50-year prison sentence for Walker’s murder. Berlinski becomes engrossed in finding out what happened to these Westerners; during his research, he learns of the uneasy presence of van der Leun, who wears the Dyalo women’s long, trailing skirts and brilliantly coloured tunics, and the appearance of missionary Walker, who brings teachings of Ye-su-tsi (Jesus). Long (and often tedious) conversations ensue, interspersed with crushing monsoon rains and an incomprehensible invocation of demons, but Berlinski manages a neat ending for the ill-fated characters.