Flower Net - Hardcover

See, Lisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060175273 ISBN 13: 9780060175276

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1997

Synopsis

In the depths of a Beijing winter, during the waning days of Deng Xiaoping's reign, the U.S. ambassador's son is found dead - his body entombed in a frozen lake. Almost simultaneously, American officials find a ship adrift in the storm-churned waters off Southern California. No one is surprised to find the fetid hold crammed with hundreds of undocumented Chinese immigrants - the latest cargo in the Chinese mafia's burgeoning smuggling trade. What does surprise Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark is his discovery that among the hapless refugees lies the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China's political elite.
The Chinese and American governments suspect that the deaths are connected, and in an unprecedented move they join forces to solve this cross-cultural crime. Stark heads for Beijing to team up with police detective Liu Hulan, whose unorthodox methods are tolerated only because of her spectacular investigative abilities. Their investigation carries them (and the reader) into virtually every corner of today's China - from its glitzy karaoke bars, where the nation's new elite cuts deals, to the labyrinthine hutongs, where ordinary Beijingers have lived and died for centuries.
Stark and Liu's search leads them from the Chinese capital to Los Angeles's thriving Asian community and turns up a bloodthirsty murderer at the very apex of China's power structure. Their work together also ignites their passion for each other - a passion forbidden by their respective governments and one that plays right into the hands of a serial killer.

About this title

About the Author

Lise See's first book was On Gold Mountain, a history/memoir of her Chinese-American family. A former West Coast correspondent for Publisher's Weekly,she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

Reviews

YA?The tranquil setting of a Chinese ice-skating pond is shattered when Wing Yun and his granddaughter discover the body of a young white man frozen in the ice. An ocean away, off the coast of Southern California, the body of a young Chinese man is found decomposing in the drinking water for a shipload of illegal immigrants. When it is found that both of the deceased have connections to a Chinese gang, the Rising Phoenix, Chinese Inspector Liu Hulan and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark are teamed to locate the killer. Liu and David, who had been linked romantically years before, realize their case is being run like the flower net used by Chinese fishermen who throw the mesh wide to trap everything within its reach. American and Chinese cultures are naturally juxtaposed as Liu and David move from one side of the Pacific to the other, offering a richness in background beyond the usual espionage tale. The writing is crisp and the story moves at a fast clip with flashbacks adding background fibers to the webbing. This top-quality novel will be enjoyed by teens who like romance, adventure, or just a great story.?Pam Spencer, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See's potent memoir, On Gold Mountain (1995), paid tribute to her Chinese ancestors as it signaled the writer's auspicious debut. Flower Net proclaims See's considerable talents as novelist, skillfully blending suspenseful storytelling, romantic intrigue, and stirring plot twists. Daughter of a venerable family, Liu Hulan holds an American law degree but now works in Beijing as a police inspector specializing in murder investigations. An assistant U.S. attorney living in L.A., Hulan's former lover, David Stark, discovers a bizarre corpse aboard a freighter loaded with illegal Chinese off the coast of California and believes the death to be connected to China's powerful underworld gangs. Almost inconceivably, the governments of the U.S. and China agree to work together after linking that death to a high-profile murder of the American ambassador's son in Beijing. Shocked to find themselves teamed up together, Hulan and Stark risk their lives in order to penetrate society's upper echelons, eventually coming to grips with a bewildering conspiracy. If dialogue is not one of See's strong points, a definite compensation is her ability to vividly render the turmoil of China's recent history and the paradoxes of contemporary life there. This formidable portrayal of China's culture and the country's harsh system of justice constitutes a striking backdrop for See's compelling tale. Alice Joyce

Following up her well-reviewed family history (On Gold Mountain, LJ 8/95), former Publishers Weekly West Coast correspondent See pens a fast-moving thriller set primarily in Beijing. After the son of the U.S. ambassador is found murdered in Beijing, and the son of a member of China's political elite is also discovered murdered on a boat filled with illegal aliens located off the California coast, Chinese policewoman Liu Hulan and American lawyer David Stark are assigned to work together to solve the crimes. (The two are no strangers, having been lovers when Liu interned at the California law firm where Stark was an associate.) As the investigation heats up, the perpetrator commits more gruesome murders. In unraveling the crimes, Liu and Stark find a deceitful pattern reaching into the highest levels of the Chinese and American governments. See offers readers many interesting insights into Chinese culture and recent history, but the writing is marked by cardboard characters, wooden dialog, and an unfortunate tendency to tell what's happening rather than showing it. Buy where On Gold Mountain was popular.
-?Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060175273
• ISBN 13: 9780060175276
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 333