Nearly twenty years have passed since Mara Dunn’s sister Bedie, an orchid enthusiast, disappeared while on a hiking holiday in southwestern France. Mara remains determined to find out what happened—but her only real clue is a sequence of wild orchids, including a mysterious, previously unknown Lady’s Slipper, captured on a roll of film found in Bedie’s long-lost camera. With the help of Julian Wood, a reclusive English botanist, Mara begins her search . . . stumbling into decades’ worth of local secrets and putting herself in danger. Rich in lush descriptions of the Dordogne, and laden with savory details of French cooking, Deadly Slipper is rife with surprising twists and turns.

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the Dordogne region in southwestern France, Wan's debut, a French-flavored mystery with botanical window dressing, tracks the perilous search for a rare orchid and its long-missing hunter. Nineteen years after her identical twin sister, Bedie, disappeared on an orchid hunt in the Dordogne, interior decorator Mara Dunn (who relocated to the region) still can't let go. So when she discovers Bedie's camera—its roll of film intact—she approaches British orchidologist Julian Wood to help retrace her sister's last steps using the photographs of flowers. A picture of the exceedingly uncommon Lady's Slipper piques Julian's interest, and the pair are off, quarreling their way across the increasingly hazardous French countryside. The menacing locals aren't much help, including as they do the de Sauvignacs, an impoverished pair of elderly aristocrats and their sexy son, Alain, plus the Rochers, an incestuous mother-and-son pair who rob and abandon hitchhikers. Wan's careful botanical depictions and broad evocation of local flavor don't always balance the mechanical plotting and lack of suspense. Fans of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief will find this novel a little less literary. (July)
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From Booklist

Orchid fever rules this impressive debut novel. The desire to discover a new variety of orchid draws a young woman, Bedie Dunn, into the Dordogne region of southwestern France. She never returns from her expedition, however, and the case grows cold until her twin sister, nearly 20 years later, discovers the camera Bedie took with her, along with a number of photographs of wild orchids. The surviving twin seeks out an expert on orchids, who lives in the Dordogne. Smart move, both for atmosphere, character, and plot. Readers will gain a wealth of insiders' insights into orchids as the twin sister and reluctant -botanist-sleuth explore the rugged landscape of the Dordogne. The fact that the botanist is also a fevered orchid enthusiast heightens suspense throughout: Is he helping to find the missing sister, or setting up the surviving sister for his own gain? Not since Nero Wolfe has such a fragrant combination of orchid lore and suspense found its way into a mystery novel. Connie Fletcher
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