Book Talk: Daniel Miller, ‘The Orphanage by the Lake’

About 10 or so pages into Daniel G. Miller’s, “The Orphanage by the Lake” (2024, 307 pages in paperback format), I set the book down in order to think. “Have I ever read a mystery/thriller that had a Korean American as the protagonist? And one who is a female private investigator, to boot?”

In this entertaining and agreeably twisty novel, Hazel Cho is a likeable and brilliant private detective. She’s 30 years old, single, has a Korean American roommate named Kenny, and a business that is about to go bankrupt unless something just short of miraculous comes her way. Enter Madeline Hemsley.

Mrs. Hemsley is a very wealthy socialite who is the godmother of Mia Thomas, a 12-year-old girl who ordinarily resides at St. Agnes, a private orphanage for children who have lost their parents or who are experiencing “family issues” and need special care. The “orphanage” does not seem to be like a state-run holding pen that is typically described in novels. It’s a project of philanthropy, funded by people of social standing equivalent to that of Mrs. Hemsley. But Mia has gone missing.