The Orchid Shroud

Interior decorator Mara Dunn and orchidologist Julian Wood team up again to solve two murders in Michelle Wan's charming new botanical mystery.Mara is renovating the manor house of the wealthy Christophe de Bonfond when she discovers the body of a murdered infant. The body, concealed for more than a century, brings to light unexpected and critical information on an elusive Lady's Slipper orchid that Julian avidly seeks. Christophe hires genealogist Jean-Claude Fournier to exonerate his ancestors, only to have the expert unleash even more terrifying suspicions. When violent death strikes in the present day, Mara and Julian begin an investigation of their own that leads them to uncover a trail of murder spanning many decades.

Michelle Wan was born in Kunming, China, in the middle of an air raid. Her early years were spent in India, and she has subsequently lived in the USA, England, Paris, Harare, and Rio de Janeiro. Her passions include French food, Brazilian novellas, walking, and orchids. She and her husband, a botanist, visit the Dordogne annually to photograph and chart wild orchids. She speaks English, Portuguese, and French. She is a great-grand niece of Sun Yat-Sen. Her first Dordogne mystery, Deadly Slipper, which introduced Mara Dunn and Julian Wood, was published in 2005.