Book Title: The Orchid Shroud: A Novel of Death in the DordogneAuthor: Michelle WanPublisher: Doubleday (division of Random House)Publication date: 2006Review date: 2011Stars: 3.5(1-didn’t like it; 2-it was ok; 3-liked it; 4-really liked it; 5-it was amazing)Interior designer, Mara Dunn, is renovating the manor house of Christophe de Bonfond, a wealthy and socially prominent resident of the Sigoulane Valley in France, when her workers discover the body of a baby wrapped in a blue shroud. Authorities believe the body has been concealed for more than a century, and the news of the discovery causes a stir in the valley. This occurs at a terrible time for Christophe who is about to publish a book on his family name and its illustrious history. Christophe hires genealogist Jean-Claude Fournier to exonerate the de Bonfond family name, but Jean-Claude uncovers suspicions about the family history instead. Mara and her boyfriend, orchidologist Julian Wood, pursue the truth behind the baby’s death—Mara to resolve the story of the child’s death and Julian to acquire an elusive and mysterious orchid that also happens to be embroidered on the child’s shroud. Christophe’s disappearance and a subsequent grisly death heighten the stakes as Mara is fingered for murder.The book is quite fun to read. Wan weaves an intricate and sophisticated story that is populated with interesting characters. The reader is taken on a murder mystery that involves multiple victims in different eras of time. Complicating the mystery of the deaths are the stories that the locals tell of werewolves. These werewolves are blamed by the villagers for the deaths of many people over the years. The stories are dismissed by the main characters as mythology, but the effect of their telling lingers in the background and creates an additional layer of suspense for the reader. Mara pursues the origins of these stories and finds herself becoming more and more wrapped up in Christophe’s life history as she tries to clear her name of murder. Wan intersperses the present-day narrative with chapters that narrate segments of the de Bonfond family’s past through the eyes of Henriette de Bonfond, née Bertillon. The storyline is tied together with details of the characters’ relational ambiguities, jealousies, distrust, friendships, and loyalties.The main character is Mara Dunn, a Canadian interior designer. She has been introduced to Christophe de Bonfond by her boyfriend, Julian Wood, who is good friends with him. Mara has a successful career but is willing to do almost anything to keep the de Bonfond project, which would take her to the next level in her career. She and Julian have a lukewarm relationship—she wants more commitment from him but is unable to express it while Julian is content with their informal arrangement and shies away from commitment. Julian is an orchidologist who believes himself to be in competition with fellow orchidologist Géraud Laval, whose methods he detests with a passion. Julian is obsessive about his work and so acutely focused on obtaining the mysterious orchid, which he has named Cypripedium incognitum, that he is unable to pursue Mara in a meaningful way. Christophe de Bonfond, though he does not get as much “screen time” as do Mara and Julian, is truly a third main character. When he and his activities are not present in the narrative, the other characters are talking about him, talking about his family, researching his family story or estate, or connected to each other because of him. I found him to be a quirky, neurotic, and somewhat silly character. Mara considers him to be immature in many respects. Surrounding characters are well-fleshed out and are notable for quirky characters or other distinctive personality traits. One of my favorites is Patsy Reicher, Mara’s best friend. We actually never meet her except in her e-mails with Mara. Patsy is the one who provides stability for Mara, and the reader, in the midst of the chaos in the valley, supporting her as a friend should and helping her to remain calm and practical in her choices.Michelle Wan does a wonderful job of storytelling. She has a distinctive voice and is able to vividly populate the reader’s mind with images of the characters and the locations in which they are interacting. She interweaves French with English with such smooth transitions that, although no definitions are given for the French, the reader is able to discern the meanings based on the context. She is able both to put the reader in a serious mindset during dangerous or thrilling moments as well as to create humorous moments with lighthearted banter in the friendly conversations and gossip between friends. Throughout all this, she maintains a sophistication in her language and in the characters that nicely underscores the high society that Mara, Julian, and others inhabit in this story.The Orchid Shroud explores doubts about what is believable and what is not, what is natural and what is engineered, and who is trustworthy and who is not. It also explores the effects of wealth and social status on how people choose to interact with others as well as the moral choices they make.This story has no obvious spiritual layer in it and is absent any moral law that is higher than the one that humans set for themselves, such as not committing murder. The characters are free to interact carnally without repercussion. The language used throughout is inoffensive.Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable read. It was great fun, as a non-French speaker, to have French words thrown my way for me to decipher via context. Speculation of werewolves and a rare orchid also kept the pages open for me. And I enjoyed peeking into the world of high society in the French Dordogne and the hunt for Cypripedium incognitum. I recommend this to those who want a fun yet sophisticated read. I would caution against adolescents or younger from reading this due to the illicit interactions that take place and romance that is sexual in nature. Unfortunately, the story did not receive 4 stars because of the recurrent carnal scenarios.
I don't give up on many books, but I just thought this was not worth pursuing. This book was on a "to share" shelf in my neighborhood and I was looking for something to read. . . often, it is a great way to stumble on a new author , or a genre you wouldn't select on your own. Not this time.The concept was fine: a mystery set in The Dordogne with a horticutural twist. But, I just found the writing, the characters and the plot lacking. To call this a "literary mystery" (as the publisher did) is far, far too generous. Let's just say I'll pass on this series and leave it at that.
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Why five stars ? Because, it's so well written, exciting reading from first to last page, funny at times, gruesome at times , case histories of lycanthropy running in the family since 18th century, love story, half eaten corpses, a baby hidden in a wall, and fascinating facts about orchids. Even an occasional ghost !As to be expected,the author herself is a fascinating person, Chinese born, raised in the States, travelled all over with her husband who's a tropical horticulturist. The story takes place in Dordogne, France.
—Marga Vr
One thing I definitely learned from this book is that one should not undertake the reading of a novel with a boring, poorly-written first three chapters while on pain medication. I was having the book read to me, and I couldn't keep myself awake amidst the descriptions of old architectural terms and silly descriptions of the recurrant characters.That being said, when I got about a hundred pages in, the book began to occupy the space of what I guess is a "page-turner". It's not fantastic, but it made me interested, until the sort of dumb twist-ending, which made me wish I had stopped about twenty pages earlier.A large part of what I found bad about this book is that it's a sequel, and therefore assumes I care about the characters when I do not. Maybe I would, had I read the first book, but I have my doubts.
—Chris
