"Flower Net"

Although many readers are not aware of Lisa as a mystery writer, Flower Net was the first of her novels that I read.  This book was transformative for me, inspiring me to read everything that Lisa has written.

Here are my initial reactions to the novel, which I read in 2008.

Flower Net (1997) is the first of the Red Princess mysteries.  The other two novels in the series are The Interior (1999) and Dragon Bones (2003).

Flower Net introduces the reader to Liu Hulan, inspector in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and a Red Princess, and to David Stark, Assistant U.S. Attorney, who loves Hulan.  The novel moves quickly and involves the reader in the fascinating, complex world of Deng Xiaoping’s China – its history, culture, and role expectations as they change violently over a relatively short period of time.  It is a world filled with paranoia, because knowing who you can trust is often the key to staying alive.

The novel begins with the murders of two young men, one the son of the U.S. ambassador and the other the son of a prominent Chinese power player.  For reasons not clear to Hulan and David, the Chinese and American governments come to the unusual decision that both nations want the two to investigate the murders.  See also describes Vice Minister Liu and his frosty relationship with Hulan, his daughter.  It is only at the end of the book that the wide flower net brings up from the depths his painful past and the tragic toll it has taken on his life and that of his family.

The novel’s complex Dickensian plot gradually becomes clearer the further one reads.  Underneath the dangerous world of national politics and high stakes scheming and plotting is See’s concern with family – especially the relations between father and son, father and daughter.  Almost everything that happens in Flower Net can ultimately be traced back to these concerns.

Despite the beauty of the plot, it is Hulan who ties the whole novel together.  Even when she is silent, which she frequently is, she dominates almost every scene she is in.  See slowly reveals the complexity and painful internal conflicts which Hulan must deal with. In a vast dark world of violence, betrayal, and suspicion, she is a radiant star.