The Orchid Shroud

Following Michelle Wan’s masterful debut Deadly Slipper, The Orchid Shroud takes readers back to the ruggedly beautiful Dordogne region of France, to a tantalizing world of wild orchids . . . and the discovery of a chilling murder.Business is booming for Julian and Mara. She has been contracted by Julian’s old friend, Christophe de Bonfond, to restore his sixteenth-century manor house, her biggest commission yet. Julian has been engaged by Christophe’s cousin, Antoine, to landscape the new sales pavilion of his prestigious Coteaux de Bonfond Winery.Things take a horrifying twist when Mara’s workmen find a mummified baby in the manor house wall. Forensic analysis shows that the infant, nicknamed Baby Blue after the blue silk shawl it was wrapped in, was smothered and that the crime took place over a hundred years ago.Julian and Mara are increasingly drawn into the web of this old crime. Julian, always searching for his mystery orchid, discovers that the infant’s shawl is embroidered with a botanically accurate depiction of the very flower he has been seeking, while Mara finds herself a suspect in a more recent murder, one that seems to be linked not only to the dead infant but to the terrifying spectre of a modern-day werewolf.As sinister revelations threaten to pull Mara and Julian apart, The Orchid Shroud will draw readers into the legends and superstitions of the Dordogne, the competitive business of the French wine industry, and the breathtaking world of wild orchids. All served with a dollop of superb Dordognais cookery.From the Hardcover edition.