Novel set somewhere in SPAIN / BALEARICS
A story of Thailand both past and present – THAILAND
23rd September 2026
Mother Ghost Mango Seed by Natalie Gregory, a story or Thailand both past and present – THAILAND
Lin is half Thai, half English. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband and young son.
The three of them return to Bangkok to be with her dying mother and attend her funeral. Something unexplained and worrying happens at the funeral. James (the husband) heads back to Scotland – and Lin and their son stay on in Thailand. She needs to find out more about her mother’s past and heads North East to the family village.
She discovers that her mother in 1976 was a student activist demonstrating against the new King and the military regime. Something that has never been mentioned. A demonstration in Bangkok had turned ugly and many had been killed or wounded, Lin’s mother’s sister (Lins’s aunt) had been among the wounded).
The story is dual timeline. About half of the book is set in the present day, and half in1976. The 1976 chapters trace the evolution and progress of the student demonstrations. The contemporary ones trace Lin’s delving into the past. There are parallels between the two time lines, it is demonstration time again in Bangkok in the contemporay chapters.
The detective story itself is fascinating. But equally the book itself is a device for Lin to explore Thai society (both in 1976 and the present day) and see how the mores and customs have changed – or, in some cases, not changed. Thailand is still a country steeped in corruption and military force – while claiming be a democracy.
The author, Natalie Gregory, is herself half Thai, half English. One suspects that Lin’s trip to probe her roots may well be something that Natalie has undertaken or is planning to do. For the reader the book takes one behind the facade of Thai tourism and into the ‘real’ Thailand – the underbelly of bustling Bangkok and the remote countryside where time has stood still.
A good, interesting, and well written book that has achieved critical acclaim.
Tony for the TripFiction Team
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