Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in the Dordogne - Paperback

by Michelle Wan (Author)

A reclusive English botanist helps a woman search for the truth about her missing orchid enthusiast sister in southwestern France in this "moody and elegant suspense story" (The Washington Post Book World).

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.

Front Jacket

The first in a new mystery series that has it all -- a tragic puzzle, fabulous French food, and a peek into the fascinating world of wild orchids.
In 1984, a young Canadian woman vanished while on a hiking holiday in the Dordogne region of France. Was Bedie Dunn the victim of an accident? Or could she have been murdered? Haunted for years by the disappearance of her twin sister, Mara Dunn has moved to France to try to answer these questions.
Mara's amateur investigations finally begin to show progress when she discovers a camera she is convinced belonged to Bedie in a second-hand store. In it is an old roll of film, whose exposures turn out to be mostly of wild terrestial orchids. Mara turns to Julian Wood, an expatriate English orchidologist, for help with the impossible: can they use two-decade-old photos of flowers to trace Bedie's last route, and find the end of her journey? Julian is reluctant to get drawn into this seemingly hopeless quest, but the last exposure on the film is irresistible to him -- an unknown species of Lady's Slipper Orchid. If discovered, it might be the key to botanical fame -- or it could be the marker to a shallow grave.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

MICHELLE WAN was born in Kunming, China, grew up in the United States, and has lived in India, England, France, and Brazil. She and her husband, a tropical horticulturalist, visit the Dordogne annually to photograph and chart wild orchids. They live in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.