Flower Net

It's always a pleasure when you come across something by one of your favorite authors which you haven't read yet.  That's the case with Lisa See's thriller Flower Net (#271), originally published in 1997.   In fact, I thought it was such a good thriller that my husband will finally be reading his first Lisa See novel!

Set in modern day Beijing and Los Angeles, the bodies of two young men are discovered thousands of miles apart.  One is the son of the American Ambassador to China, found frozen in a lake in a Beijing park.  The other is a "Red Prince", the son of a wealthy Chinese business man whose body turns up on a Chinese cargo ship left adrift in American territorial waters with hundreds of illegal immigrants aboard.  As Inspector Liu Hulan of the Ministry of Public Safety in Beijing investigates, her suspicions are aroused.   Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant District Attorney David Stark is busy pursuing the connection between the China Peony, her passengers who all claim not to know anything about the body, and the role of the Chinese triads in the whole affair.  A decision is made at the highest levels in the US and China to work jointly to solve the two cases that seem, by the manner of their deaths, to be related.  Are the triads truly involved, or are Inspector Liu and David Stark hunting for a vicious serial killer?  The action moves back and forth between Beijing and Los Angeles, and things aren't made any easier for Liu and Stark when they find themselves working together.  Again.

I didn't want  to put this book down once I started it, and I have to admit, I read it throughout the Oscar presentations.  I was glad, though, that I didn't read this book until after I had been to Beijing myself.  Although things have changed quite a bit in the fifteen years since Flower Net was first published, if you've ever been there yourself,  you'll recognize much of the background that Lisa See incorporates in her plot, especially if you've been fortunate enough to visit the old style Chinese homes in the hutong.  Even if you haven't, be prepared to set aside everything else while you try to stay one step ahead in this thriller.