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When I first purchased Flower Net, the idea intrigued me because it reminded me of a book concept that I once had: a hard-bitten Public Security detective, chain-smoking, mid-fifties, looking toward retirement, investigates a murder that leads to a government-rocking scandal. Instead of a Truman-Capote-Goes-To-China main character, though, Lisa See (On Gold Mountain) creates Liu Hulan, the daughter of a high-ranking government official named for a revolutionary hero. In February, 1997, Liu is called to the scene of a grisly discovering: the body of a young foreign male is found frozen beneath the surface of Beihai Park’s man-made lake. The situation becomes more serious when the body is identified as the son of the American ambassador. At the same time, officials from the U.S. Justice Department seize a ship loaded with illegal Chinese immigrants when it drifts into American territorial waters off Los Angeles. During a search of the ship, investigator David Stark finds the decomposed corpse of an apparently wealthy Chinese man–later identified as the son of one of China’s top capitalists. As the Chinese and American sides learn of their mutual discoveries, Stark is invited to Beijing to assist. There, he meets Liu–his former lover from a Los Angeles law firm. As the pair struggle with long-buried feelings, they unravel a web of smuggling and murder that leads them higher and higher in both governments, until their discoveries make them the next targets for disposal. Despite many of its contrived circumstances, the story is intriguing. Stark is the consummate American, emotional at all times, a do-gooder out to break the back of triads in Los Angeles. Liu Hulan alternates between dutiful investigator and vulnerable lover. The relationship between the two is heart-wrenching as they waver between serving their countries and pining for each other. And if my interpretation of the ending is correct, I have no choice but to hate the author forever. Flower Net could be more easily forgiven its contrivances if it weren’t for the amateurish way Ms. See handles many of the story’s details. Anyone who has spent a reasonable time in Beijing knows that the hotel is referred to locally as the Great Wall Sheraton, not the Sheraton Great Wall, and that the outdoor market near the American Embassy is known as either Silk Alley or the Silk Market, but not Silk Road. These are simple things that show that the author just didn’t do her homework. Flower Net requires some significant suspension of disbelief. It is sufficiently thought-provoking to merit a casual read during a trans-Pacific flight or an afternoon by the Friendship Hotel pool. It also provokes the thought (and hope) that a more adept author will write a China crime novel that does a better job of folding the facts into the fiction.
Rating: 3 / 5

We are reading this book, Flower Net as our next read for our Book Club. I was interested in reading about China and thought a Chinese Mystery would be helpful, it was, but the love story was weak and I didn’t find the main characters at all interesting. I probably will not read any more in this series.
Rating: 3 / 5

the insight into modern China is fascinating to me, the romance a bit lame, but Liu Hulan is my new favorite detective!
Rating: 4 / 5