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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
“Lisa See begins to do for Beijing what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for turn-of-the-century London or Dashiell Hammett did for 1920s San Francisco: She discerns the hidden city lurking beneath the public facade.”
–The Washington Post Book World

In the depths of a Beijing winter, during the waning days of Deng Xiaoping’s reign, the U.S. ambassador’s son is found dead–his body entombed in a frozen lake. Around the same time, aboard a ship adrift off the coast of Southern California, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark makes a startling discovery: the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China’s political elite.

The Chinese and American governments suspect that the deaths are connected and, in an unprecedented move, they join forces to see justice done. In Beijing, David teams up with the unorthodox police detective Liu Hulan. In an investigation that brings them to every corner of China and sparks an intense attraction between the two, David and Hulan discover a web linking human trafficking to the drug trade to governmental treachery–a web reaching from the Forbidden City to the heart of Los Angeles and, like the wide flower net used by Chinese fishermen, threatening to ensnare all within its reach.

“A graceful rendering of two different and complex cultures, within a highly intricate plot . . . The starkly beautiful landscapes of Beijing and its surrounding countryside are depicted with a lyrical precision.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Murder and intrigue splash across the canvas of modern Chinese life. . . . A vivid portrait of a vast Communist nation in the painful throes of a sea change.”
–People

“Fascinating . . . that rare thriller that enlightens as well as it entertains.”
–San Diego Union-Tribune

A Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Love Story Weak July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

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.

5 out of 5 stars

Murder and mystery in China May 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It's not often that a novel gives the reader an insight into a secretive foreign country, but this excellent book actually does that for China. In addition to the murders and the mysteries, there is a running font of information about life in China around 1996 or so. It is very instructive to a Westerner to learn how everyday life is regimented to an almost unreal degree, down to even folks whe can come into your home and check your refrigerator! The writing is first-rate, and the plot moves along quite well. The mystery remains so almost until the end, and it leaves the reader wanting more. Fortunately, the author has written two subsequent books in this series, and I look forward very much to reading them!

4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating Chinese Intrigue April 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The sights, sounds and smells of modern day China leap from each page of this complex mystery. Assistant US Attorney, David Stark is reunited with his former lover, Liu Hulan of the Chinese Ministry of Public Safety as they unravel a mystery involving gangs and the illegal shipment of medicinal products made from endangered specieis, into the US. The resolution reaches to the highest levels of both governments involving six murders along the way.

Liu Hulan had been educated in the US, received a law degree there and was working in a top notch law firm in Los Angeles when she became involved with Stark. She mysteriously leaves him and returns to China only to be unexpectedly reunited with him many years later in this novel. The resolution of this fine mystery also unravels Hulan's complex personal and family history spanning China from Mao's Revolution, the Cultural Revolution to the modern day.

4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating View Of Chinese Culture April 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a difficult book to review. If I could rate the portions set in China, I'd hastily give the novel a five star rating. On the other hand, I'd have to give three stars to the sections set in America. See's descriptive flare, which I've enjoyed immensely in her other fiction works, sparkles when the characters are in China - as do her Chinese characters. I especially liked the doctor of herbal medicine. Some of the U.S. law enforcement agents are a bit flat and the relationship between Hulan and David doesn't always feel genuine. Still, the details about the Cultural Revolution are marvelous as well as educational and the crime in this novel is certainly unique. It's worth the read and I have faith that this duo will continue to develop as the series progresses.

4 out of 5 stars

Over looked mysteries October 30, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

A good re start of a decent first novel as this book was first out in 1998 in mass paper edition.
They put a better cover on this and reissued the books as series has gained a following, so if you wonder what it is like to live in China, ok as a member of the privileged class this is a good read.

I had picked up the third novel Dragon Bones and did not know it was the third as I lked what I read, I ordered the first two books to read series in order the series is best tracked as the Red Princess Mysteries.

I read a lot of books and I always like the mystery novel's like Tony Hillerman with a bit of the exotic and different setting. I also want them to be without too much stereotypical cookie-cutter characters and settings, well The "Flower Net" is set in China, with a female Chinese investigator of the Ministry of Public Safety, the main weakness is her foil an American US Attorney who isn't nearly as interesting as she and her family, in fact his part is about the weakest in the book.

Lee also sets up a romance between Liu and David the main characters who have a past and a lame one at that! It is just not very interesting at all, the bad guys are a bit different as the motives are not the normal ones and it is well worth a read.

I think Lee was unsure here and hope her other book show us more about China and MPS and Lui than waste time on a romance story.

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