A Twist of Orchids
A Death in Dordogne Mystery with Mara Dunn and Julian Wood
Michelle Wan
Doubleday (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-385-66484-2 (0385664842)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-66484-4 (9780385664844)
Publication Date: April 2008
List Price: $29.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Mara Dunn, an ex-pat Montrealer and interior designer,
with orchid-loving Brit, Juilian Wood, are back and are putting their
talents as amateur sleuths to the test. Their winter days in the French
countryside are immersed in fine food and ruggedly beautiful scenery.
But before long they find themselves surrounded by unscrupulous orchid
hunters, illegal drugs, and three mysterious deaths and counting ...
Mara and Julian have made a home together in France’s rustic
Dordogne. Their relationship is strained when their lives are thrown
off course by a series of horrifying events.
When their friend and neighbor, Amelie Gaillard, falls mysteriously to
her death she leaves behind an alienated daughter and a husband
battling Parkinson’s disease who is visited by an apparition.
Then a local Turkish couple’s son disappears and is soon found
dead of an overdose. How does his death tie-in with that of an
undercover narcotics agent? Add to the mix a burglar on the prowl and
eluding the police in their usually serene corner of the world.
Mara and Julian pull together the threads linking the spike in local
drug traffic, murder and burglary only to find their relationship
falling apart. They must now tackle a more personal conundrum: are they
really meant to be together? As events overtake them, they learn that
the choice may not be theirs to make.
Review:
Fortyish ex-Montrealer Mara Dunn loves interior design and one-off
antiques. Her recently acquired husband British expatriate, Julian
Wood, the orchidist and landscape gardener she met earlier while
investigating the disappearance of her twin sister, Bedie, is obsessed
with finding a rare Cypripedium incognitum.
But they both love each other, the French countryside of Dordogne,
their homes – her house in Ecoute-la-Pluie (Listen-to-the-Rain)
and his quiet-time refuge, a “poky little cottage” near the
village of Grissac - their dogs, his a mongrel named Bismuth, hers the
Pitbull sire of Bismuth named, Jazz - and French cuisine, including the
wines. They’ve also gained a reputation among friends, neighbours
and the local police as proficient amateur sleuths, and are now sorting
out the red herrings from the real fish responsible for the murders of
their 85-year old neighbour lady, Madame Gaillard, a 19-year-old
French-born Turkish drug peddler named Kazim Ismet, and an undercover
drug squad cop. Adding to their main menu challenge of murderous twists
is a series of burglaries by a felon with a flair for doggerel
vilifying the local police chief, a competition to acquire an
endangered species of orchid, a lesbian alliance, ghostly visitations,
and a plot to turn a pristine forest into an Americanized golf resort.
And while the action proceeds, the characters come alive and emotions
reign. The elderly Monsieur Gaillard’s fear is palpable when he
fights an apparition with a face that “is a tangle of colorless
hair trailing like dead vines over a large, black hole.” Young
Kazim’s terror is hair-raising when he is confronted by a cold
blooded killer. Mara’s frustrated with Julian when he refuses to
discuss their future; his discontent boils over when her cleaning lady
disturbs his routines. Mara worries that she’s “destined to
play second fiddle to a flower;” Julian’s distressed that
Kazim’s death was somehow his fault. Over orders of escargots,
plates of crayfish in tomato sauce and platters of aubergine fritters,
they and their friends at the Chez Nous Bistro rant about the influx of
drugs into the region. One friend claims there are, “too many
damned immigrants in France,” and another proclaims,
“Bigotry knows no home,” even as Kazim’s father raves
about the, “Thugs! Racist thugs!”, who have trashed the
family’s Turkish bakery. Then, there’s Madame
Gaillard’s estranged daughter who refuses to attend her
mother’s funeral because of some long ago grievance that could
affect her inheritance of the family farm and its potential development
by a company with connections world-wide and ties even closer to home.
Even the dogs, Bismuth and Jazz, develop identifiable personas as does
the mysterious burglar who taunts the police with left-behind pieces of
poetry and items of artwork not taken.
With its sensuous language and evocative imagery Wan’s story of
its twist of orchids and twists of fate has action galore and
sustenance aplenty to tickle the palates of even the most
discriminating of Francophobes and mystery lovers.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of A Twist of Orchids and to Random House Canada for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review
Copyright © 2008 — M. Wayne Cunningham
— All
Rights Reserved
Reprinted with Permission
Mysteries in this series ...
Deadly Slipper
Doubleday (Hardcover), July 2005
ISBN-10: 0-385-51457-3 (0385514573)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-51457-6 (9780385514576)
The Orchid Shroud
Doubleday (Hardcover), July 2006
ISBN-10: 0-385-51458-1 (0385514581)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-51458-3 (9780385514583)
A Twist of Orchids
Doubleday (Hardcover), April 2008
ISBN-10: 0-385-66484-2 (0385664842)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-66484-4 (9780385664844)
Omnimystery keywords for A Twist of Orchids ...
Location(s) referenced: France.