Deadly Slipper

This literary mystery about a woman's search for her long-missing sister takes readers to the ruggedly beautiful Dordogne region of France-and into the exotic world of orchid-hunting, where the discovery of a new species can be deadly. Almost twenty years have passed since Bedie Dunn, a wild-orchid enthusiast, vanished without a trace on a hiking holiday in southwestern France. The police long ago relegated the unsolved mystery to the cold-case files. But Mara Dunn, Bedie's twin, is haunted by her sister's disappearance. Was Bedie the victim of an accident? Or did she cross paths with the wrong person at just the wrong time? Mara has come to the Dordogne determined to find the answers. Mara gets the first break in her investigation when she unearths Bedie's camera on a chance visit to a local junk shop. The camera still contains a roll of film with pictures of the local landscape and the orchids that so enchanted Bedie. Convinced that the photographs document her sister's final path, Mara brings them to Julian Wood, an English expert on orchids who lives in the area, and makes a desperate request: Will he help her retrace Bedie's footsteps using the photographs as a guide? Julian has his own reasons for not wanting to undertake such an impossible task, but he is fired into action when he sees the last image-the tantalizing vision of a totally unknown Lady's Slipper Orchid. Finding a rare, undocumented species of orchid would bring him accolades from botanists around the world. The search, however, could lead to a far grimmer discovery: It is all too possible that the flower marks a secret grave dug two decades earlier. With beautifully rendered descriptions of the Dordognecountryside, culture, and people; a portrait of the dark side of orchid collecting reminiscent of Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief"; and a plot filled with surprising twists and turns, "Deadly Slipper" introduces a writer of extraordinary talent and breadth.