From the teeming streets of Beijing to the mean streets of Los Angeles to a Chinese village that seems almost lost in time, Chinese police detective Liu Hulan goes undercover in an enthralling sequel to the bestselling "Flower Net." Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

As in her debut novel, Flower Net, the strength of See's work here is in her detailed and intimate knowledge of contemporary China, its mores, its peculiar mixture of the traditional and the contemporary, and its often bedeviled relationships with the U.S. Here again are American lawyer David Stark and his Chinese lover, police investigator Liu Hulan; they become involved in the issue of working conditions among women in an American-owned toy factory in rural China--a highly promising and original notion. Stark's law firm wants him to supervise the buyout of the American entrepreneur who launched the toy company, while Liu is called in by the mother of a factory worker who seems to have committed suicide. What actually happened to her, and why? It seems inevitable that the lovers will be pulled in different directions by their opposing interests, and soon Liu has introduced herself into the factory as a worker, while Stark's deal, important to his career, begins to unravel. So far, so good; but as the action becomes increasingly violent, with another girl's sudden death at the factory, gunplay, a deathly sick Liu struggling to survive, and a climactic fire that takes hundreds of lives (a calamity treated almost as an afterthought), it becomes apparent that See has plotting problems. Many story threads seem to disappear, the action scenes are stagy and unconvincing, and the David-Liu relationship never seems to generate much real warmth. A pity, because until the melodrama takes over, much here is original and fresh, an absorbing look at an unfamiliar world. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. 6-city author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Female police detective Liu Hulan travels from Beijing to Da Shui to aid an old friend, Ling Suchee, whose daughter has died. Suchee believes her daughter, who worked at an American toy factory, was murdered. As Hulan goes undercover in the factory, she soon learns how women there are treated like slaves--and possibly murdered. In a strange coincidence, Hulan's American boyfriend, attorney David Stark, comes to China to help negotiate the sale of the toy factory to a huge conglomerate. How Hulan, David, and Suchee join forces is exciting and interesting, but the novel does, at times, seem long and wordy, due to the digressions of an annoying omniscient narrator. What ultimately redeems this thriller is the unflinching portrait it paints of modern-day China. (Reviewed September 15, 1999)0060192615Jenny McLarin From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.