In "Flower Net, " Lisa See gives us a China not often seen: An
extraordinary nation that is at once admirable and frightening.
Here the veil is ripped away from modern China--its venerable culture,
its teeming economy, its institutionalized cruelty--and the inextricable
link between China's fortunes and America's is underscored.
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 into virtually every corner of today's China, and leads them to Los
Angeles's thriving Asian community--where their search turns up a
bloodthirsty murderer at the 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.
An accomplishedstage actress, Elaina Davis performed in "Hamlet, " and
in "Richard II" and "Troilus & Cressida" for the New York Shakespeare
Festival. She was a principal character on television's "As The World
Turns, " and has appeared in the film "Contact."
