A Canadian interior designer in France’s romantic, castle-studded Dordogne region hunts for her twin sister, who disappeared twenty years previous without a trace while hunting for orchids. It’s a teensy bit predictable, but Wan’s careful attention to character development makes this mystery novel fairly chewy beach reading for those with a penchant for flowers, France, French food and/or wine, all of which get the slightly pretentious name-droppy treatment — which includes mentioning the names of dishes and other nouns in untranslated French for that head-scratching, wonder-if-it’s-oysters effect. If references to a Chinese American character as “Oriental” seem passé and un-PC, note that the author is Chinese-born herself.
Grade: B-
Melissa Says:
May 21st, 2008 at 6:48 amVisit Melissa
It is hard to come by books that involve utter chaos with good mystery. I just finished Landmark Status, and have been hooked on these types of books ever since. Thanks for the post!