In Wan's diverting third Dordogne mystery (after 2007's The Orchid Shroud
), unlikely couple Julian Wood and Mara Dunn—he's an English orchid expert, she's a French-Canadian interior designer—must sort out some relationship issues as well as the consequences of some local murder and mayhem. One market day in Ecoute-la-Pluie, a belligerent youth's assault on a Turkish vendor, who had the audacity to impugn a passing pig farmer's manhood, leads to general commotion in the town square. As the gendarmes race in, Amélie Gaillard, an elderly neighbor of Julian and Mara's, dies in a flying fall down the stairs of the Two Sisters restaurant. Meanwhile, the body of an unidentified male with needle marks in his arm turns up near the Temple of Vesunna, the apparent victim of a gangland killing. A Turkish love potion, thefts by a rhyming burglar, and a hunt for a hitherto unknown orchid all figure in a winning tale that will appeal in particular to Francophiles. (Apr.)
