Books : Flower Net
Price: $13.82 Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780060994365
ISBN: 0060994363
Label: Harpercollins Publisher
Manufacturer: Harpercollins Publisher
Number Of Pages: 323
Publisher: Harpercollins Publisher
Sales Rank: 2503289
Studio: Harpercollins Publisher
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A Gorky Park for our time: A complex, suspenseful, beautifully written novel, set largely in Beijing, in which a Chinese cop and an American DA together uncover the conspiracy of Chinese gangs, government and big business that lies behind a series of high-profile murders. She rips the veil away from modern China its venerable culture, its teeming economy, its omnipotent mafia, its institutionalized cruelty as no other author ever has or ever could.
On a wintry day in Beijing, the U.S. Ambassador's son is found dead entombed in a frozen lake. Almost simultaneously, officials find a boat adrift in the storm-churned waters off Southern California. Nobody 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 U.S. District Attorney David Starke is his discovery that among the hapless refugees lies the corpse of a "Red Prince," the name given to a child of China's political elite. The Chinese and American governments both suspect that the deaths are linked and, in a first-of-its-kind move, they join forces to solve this cross-cultural crime. Stone heads for Beijing to team up with Liu Hulan, a police detective whose disdain for the Chinese system is tolerated only because she is a spectacular investigator. Their investigation carries them (and us) into virtually every corner of today's China from the glitzy karaoke bars where government leaders and mafia kingpins make their most unsavory deals, to Beijing's labyrinthine hutongs, where working-class Chinese have lived out their lives for centuries.
Here is China as readers have never seen it, a surpassingly strange nation at once admirable and frightening. Here too is an utterly original story more taut and timely than anything else on the fiction shelves today.
Amazon.com Review:
"Inspector Liu, do I need to remind you that China has customs and rituals for dealing with guests?" says a top Chinese official to one his police investigators early in Lisa See's tremendously powerful debut thriller. "Remember that all foreigners are potentially dangerous. Don't be tempted to say what you think. Don't show anger or irritation. Be humble and careful and gracious. Draw them in. Let them think they have a connection to you, that they owe you, that they should never cause you any embarrassment. This is how we have treated outsiders for centuries. This is how you will treat this foreigner as long as he is our guest." The fact that the official is her father and the foreigner in question is her former lover, an assistant U.S. attorney named David Stark, makes things much more complicated for Liu Hulan. Hulan is a former Red Princess, one of the privileged children of Chairman Mao's most trusted aides. When two young men (the son of the American ambassador to China and the son of an immensely powerful Chinese businessman with possible criminal connections) are murdered under similar circumstances, Hulan and Stark are cynically manipulated by their respective governments into a joint investigation that exposes the worst of both countries. The situation also gives See a chance to meld her impressive talent for writing fiction with the solid journalism skills that invigorated her family saga On Gold Mountain.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Lisa See never fails to enthrall readers within the first few pages. "The Flower Net" is no different. I did read this book (the second in a series) out of order. The first book in the series is "The Outsider". Although I would recommend reading "The Outsider" first, I had no trouble 'catching up', thanks to Lisa See's excellent summaries. Her narration brings readers up to speed with the characters' lives in a way that doesn't seem rushed or insulting.
This novel takes place between Los Angeles and China, and is a fast paced, action packed crime drama. I had read "Peony in Love" and "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" before picking up this earlier novel, and was surprised on two counts: I hadn't expected a crime thriller from a writer of See's powerful capture of the feminine character, but also because I generally don't enjoy crime dramas. "Flower Net", however, had me hooked. It was an excellent and entertaining read.
Even if you do not enjoy crime novels, but do enjoy books set in Asia, this is a great novel to read.
Rating: -
This novel is excellent! It well plotted, well researched and well written. Ms. See obviously knows her subject matter in ways that few other people do. She knows how to string plots and information in a seamless fashion that keeps the reader engaged throughout the story.
Rating: -
I find her series with the new character very exciting and a read which pulls me in and wanting the series to go on forever. I also am fascinated and intrigued by how Lisa pulls in current general events between china and the US into eyeopening suspense
Rating:  -
It took me FOREVER to get into Lisa See's book "Flower Net". It seems like the book just sat on my nightstand for 3 weeks with the bookmark protruding from the creases of Chapter One. And then when I actually made an effort to read the book, it was finished in a day.
Lisa See has succeeded in creating a unique and gripping thriller. When the son of a American Ambassador and the son of one of Beijing's political elite both turn up dead under mysterious circumstances, U.S. Attorney David Stark is reunited with an old flame, Liu Hulan, to solve the case. Following leads, the case unravels a trail of clues from China to the United States, leaving David and Hulan to find the connection.
Lisa See has developed a very intriguing read, especially to people interested in Chinese culture. I did struggle in a few parts, making me wish that I had more solid knowledge of Chinese History. It was a relief for me at the end of "Flower Net" when I discovered that most of my confusion (in reference to historical facts) had been resolved. I found See's inclusion of Chinese Herbal Medicine to be especially interesting. I do agree with some of the reviewers that some of the plot twists seemed very forced or convenient (and yet somehow you could still see them coming a mile away).
My least favorite part about this book are the characters. It seemes to me that the background characters in "Flower Net" were more interesting and appealing than David Stark ... Read More
Rating:  -
Those who read mysteries by the dozen can get pretty bored with the same old settings, stereotypical investigators and cookie-cutter crooks. The main virtue of "The Flower Net" is a nice change of pace on all three counts. Despite the opening of China, it's still a pretty rare setting for fiction, mystery fiction in particular. Likewise, the featuring of a female Chinese investigator was refreshing in concept. Even better is that she's a nicely complicated yet empathetic protagonist. Her American counterpart, David, isn't nearly as interesting. While the villians aren't surprising in the long haul, they aren't just the usual Triad types either.
If the book has a weakness, it's the revived romance between Liu and David. It seemed irrelevant to be crime solving and not very interesting.
This review is based on the six-hour abridged tape version. I found that the plot followed pretty well. The narrator, an American-Chinese woman was a mixed blessing. Certainly there were aspects of the story where her underlying speach patterns were perfect but sometimes her tone was a bit awkward.
Bottom-line: A nice change of pace from mysteries set in the US or England. Not great literature but I learned some new things and like Liu enough to want to read a sequel.
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