Not since Nero Wolfe has a
passion for orchids been a big element of crime fiction
-- and even then, Wolfe's orchid collection, while a passionate
hobby, was not crucial to murder.
Guelph's Michelle Wan, however, is making a career out of
orchid-related crime with her series spinning around the
graceful plant, specifically as it appears in the Dordogne
region of France.
In her previous books -- Deadly Slipper and The Orchid Shroud
-- Wan sent Quebec interior decorator Mara Dunn to France
to try to trace her long-missing sister, an orchid enthusiast
who disappeared on a hiking holiday.
There, Mara hooked up with British botanist Julian Wood
to eventually learn her sister's fate, then stuck around
to start building a renovation career as well as a romance
with the solitary Julian.
Now in A Twist of Orchids, they're more or less living together,
but with some strains. Mara keeps wanting to talk about
"the relationship" and resents playing second
fiddle to orchids; Julian sometimes misses his solitude.
Such disagreements may be typical, but they're also potentially
fatal. Fortunately for both relationship and plot, other,
diverting matters are literally fatal.
A police undercover drug investigator is found dead in the
woods. Mara's elderly friend Amelie Gaillard plummets to
her death from a second-floor restaurant balcony. Amelie's
widower, who has Parkinson's disease, is tormented by a
late-night figure who could be a hallucination, but may
also be a real killer.
And when the Turkish immigrant parents of a troubled teen
ask Julian to help track down their missing son, the boy
is found dead of a drug overdose, leaving Julian distraught
for not saving him.
Julian, however, is also distraught that a researcher and
grower has hired Julian's rival to find an elusive, possibly
non-existent orchid in the region. If Julian doesn't find
this orchid-grail first, he fears it will be lost to the
greed and corruption of his competitors.
Local police, meanwhile, are trying to figure out who's
behind a series of break-ins in which valuable art objects
have been stolen from holiday homes.
And they're hoping to take down a major drug dealer.
Through accident, conscience, friendship or passion, Mara
and Julian find themselves involved in all the investigations
and crimes, which one way or another, it turns out, are
linked.
Readers who don't share Julian's dedication to orchids can
nevertheless empathize with it through whatever their own
obsessions may be.
Wan, for one, knows whereof she speaks.
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