The Orphanage by the Lake

The Orphanage by the Lake (2024) is a psychological thriller by Daniel G. Miller. Private investigator Hazel Cho is down on her luck when the wealthy Madeline Hemsley walks into her Manhattan office and offers her $100,000 if Hazel can find Madeline’s goddaughter, who disappeared six months prior from an orphanage in upstate New York. Hazel reluctantly accepts the case and finds herself drawn into a web of lies and conspiracy that puts her life in danger. She realizes that people are not always who they seem to be. Daniel Miller is the bestselling author of The Tree of Knowledge supernatural mystery series. Miller’s sequel to The Orphanage by the Lake is forthcoming in 2025.

This guide uses the 2024 Houndstooth Books Kindle edition of The Orphanage by the Lake.

Content Warning: This source material and guide feature depictions or discussion of racism, rape, death by suicide, graphic violence, physical and emotional abuse, pedophilia, and murder.

Plot Summary

Private investigator Hazel Cho goes to her office in Manhattan to show her client Gene Strauss the results of her investigation into his wife. He refuses to believe the evidence Hazel has gathered that his wife is having an affair, and he becomes belligerent. At that moment, a tall blond woman walks into Hazel’s office. Gene leaves and the woman introduces herself as Madeline Hemsley. She wants Hazel to find her goddaughter, Mia Ross. She tells Hazel that her goddaughter, whose parents died in a car crash, went missing from her care home, Saint Agnes, in Lake George in upstate New York six months ago. The police and other private investigators looked into the disappearance, but they found nothing. Madeline tells Hazel that if she can find Mia by the end of the following week, she will pay $100,000. Hazel reluctantly accepts the case.

The next day, Hazel drives to Lake George in a car provided by Madeline. On the way, she is pulled over for speeding by a police officer who tells Hazel that many girls have gone missing from Saint Agnes over the years. She goes to Saint Agnes where she is met by the warm and welcoming Sonia Barreto, director of child services. Saint Agnes is a large Gothic building on the edge of Lake George. Hazel proceeds to interview the staff about Mia and her disappearance. She learns that Mia left Saint Agnes willingly and most likely by boat. Hazel is suspicious of the headmaster, Dr. Thomas Mackenzie; the music teacher, Mr. Goolsbee, who was giving Mia private lessons; and the security manager, Neil Painter. Before she leaves, Mia’s roommate Penny gives Hazel a photograph of Mia with a mysterious symbol on the back. Hazel searches online and discovers the symbol is a picture of Dionysus.

Hazel then goes to the police station to speak to the investigating officer, Bobby Riether. He confirms most of her findings, but he warns her that he was prevented from investigating further. He points out that many wealthy families are connected to Saint Agnes and have homes along the lake, and that it may be hard to learn more.

Hazel returns to her apartment, where her roommate and childhood friend Kenny Chun is making dinner. He is studying to be a New York City police officer. They discuss the case. They research online and find articles covering many girls who have gone missing from Saint Agnes over the years.

The next morning, Hazel meets with Madeline and reports what she has learned thus far. Madeline is skeptical that Dr. Mackenzie is involved in Mia’s disappearance because he is a dedicated headmaster who cares about the girls in his care. After Madeline leaves, Hazel calls Saint Agnes to arrange another interview with Dr. Mackenzie. Sonia Barreto tells her that Hazel will not be allowed back on Saint Agnes property, but that Sonia herself is available to meet with Hazel in the city that afternoon. At lunch, Sonia invites Hazel to attend a Saint Agnes fundraiser the following day so that she may try to interview staff and students there. Later that day, Hazel speaks with the cousin of another girl, Olive, who went missing from Saint Agnes. The cousin tells Hazel that Olive had told her she would be performing at the Dionysus Theater before she disappeared.

At the fundraiser, Hazel confronts Dr. Mackenzie about the other girls missing from Saint Agnes, but he refuses to answer her questions. Her suspicions of him only grow when she sees the headmaster being very friendly with the Lake George sheriff. While talking to one of the girls, Hazel trips and falls. She is caught by the incredibly handsome Andrew DuPont, who asks her out. Hazel agrees.

The next day, Hazel researches the Dionysus Theater and finds an address in lower Manhattan. She searches the location and finds a few drops of blood and a Dionysus Theater business card with a password-protected URL on it. As she walks back to her apartment from the theater, she is attacked by two men who hold a knife to her throat and warn her to stop investigating the Dionysus Theater.

Later, Andrew calls Hazel and invites her to dinner at his apartment. Over dinner, he tells her that he was raised by his father after his mother died by suicide. When Hazel thinks he is asleep, she searches his computer for evidence that he is connected to the Dionysus Theater and finds nothing.

The next morning, Hazel meets again with Madeline. Hazel presses Madeline about why she is so invested in finding Mia. Madeline breaks down and confesses that Mia is in fact her daughter, not her goddaughter. Madeline was pressured into giving Mia up by her parents because Mia’s father is Black and Madeline’s mother is a racist.

The following day, Hazel returns to Lake George. She meets with Bobby Riether and shares the progress of her investigation. Bobby tells Hazel that Madeline could have a motive to kill Mia because Madeline’s family had a trust fund for the girl that Madeline could inherit if Mia died. While she is in the police station, Hazel sees pictures of the two men who assaulted her in New York. She realizes they are police officers and flees the station.

Hazel goes to Dr. Mackenzie’s house and pressures him into telling her the truth. He admits to knowing that Madeline was Mia’s mother, but he is sincere in his care for the girls in his care. Hazel then goes to Saint Agnes to interrogate Mr. Goolsbee. When she arrives, the security manager Neil Painter tells Hazel that Mr. Goolsbee just died by suicide. Daunted, Hazel begins to leave town. She is followed by a police SUV she only just manages to lose.

Hazel returns to NYC. Kenny tells her he has discovered that Andrew DuPont’s father began donating money to Saint Agnes around the time the girls began to go missing. Hazel dismisses his concerns and goes on another date with Andrew. She shares with him her experience of being date-raped while in law school. She spends the night at his apartment. The next morning, over breakfast, Hazel tells Andrew she is looking for the Dionysus Theater. He tells her he knows of it and arranges for them to attend the following evening.

The next night, Hazel gets ready to go to the Theater with Andrew. Kenny is worried about her and tells her he will call the police if he does not hear from her in an hour. Andrew picks Hazel up and they go together to a warehouse. Hazel is shocked by what she sees there. A number of underaged girls flirt with men while Mia in a drug-induced daze sings for them. Andrew admits that he was the one who kidnapped Mia and ran the Dionysus Theater. He was only dating Hazel to find out how much she had learned in her investigation. When he realized she knew about the Dionysus Theater, he decided to kill her.

Andrew locks Hazel up in a dungeon room and prepares to rape her. Before he can, Sonia Baretto arrives. Hazel is shocked to realize Sonia was involved in the kidnapping and trafficking as well. Sonia tells Andrew he can rape Hazel but then he has to kill her. When she leaves, Hazel finds her switchblade and stabs Andrew in the neck, killing him. Sonia enters and begins torturing Hazel to find out who she told about what she learned. Suddenly, the police burst in and arrest Sonia and the others. They had been called by Kenny. The girls, including Mia, are released.

Two weeks later, Hazel and Kenny meet in Washington Square Park. Hazel has won Madeline’s award for solving the case by her deadline. Mia has gone to live with her mother, Madeline. Hazel agrees to take Kenny on as her assistant.