Lone Cone Library

After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza, shopping, and beer, while her grandmother and new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.

Dr. Siri Paiboun, aged chief coroner of Laos, must investigate three mysteries. First, the government asks him to identify a pair of badly burned corpses. Second, he must determine what sort of creature is mauling Vientiene citizens. Finally, he must find out why people are inexplicably falling from the ministry building to their deaths.