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Search - The Jasmine Trade (Eve Diamond, Bk 1)
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Book Description:
Everything was set. Seventeen-year-old Marina Lu had even ordered custom-made gowns for the ten bridesmaids who, in several months' time, would have preceded her down the aisle at her storybook wedding.
There isn't going to be a wedding. Marina lies dead, alone in her shiny status car in a suburban shopping center parking lot, her two-carat diamond engagement ring refracting another abruptly shattered Los Angeles dream. Was her death merely a carjacking gone bad? Or is there more to the story?
Marina's murder chillingly introduces Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond to a subculture of "parachute kids," the rich Asian teens who are left to their own devices in California while their parents live and work in Hong Kong. Seeking American education and political stability for their children, the affluent parents often leave only an elderly housekeeper in charge of their vulnerable offspring.
What was Marina's story? Why was she, at such a young age, marrying twenty-four-year-old Michael Ho? Why is Marina's father, banker Reginald Lu, so reluctant to provide information? As Eve delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Marina's life and death, she stumbles upon a troubled world of unmoored youth and parental neglect.
But Marina, in many ways, would seem to have been among the fortunate. She had money and her parents had power. Eve soon discovers a dramatically more tragic subculture, where destitute young Asian immigrants live in virtual sexual slavery. The story of May-li and her journey from a poor farming home in Fujian, China, to a brothel in Los Angeles is one that Eve will fight to tell and will never forget.
A moving, noir-accented crime novel that opens a rare window to an intriguing subject, The Jasmine Trade is a passionate and polished debut from an exciting new author.
There isn't going to be a wedding. Marina lies dead, alone in her shiny status car in a suburban shopping center parking lot, her two-carat diamond engagement ring refracting another abruptly shattered Los Angeles dream. Was her death merely a carjacking gone bad? Or is there more to the story?
Marina's murder chillingly introduces Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond to a subculture of "parachute kids," the rich Asian teens who are left to their own devices in California while their parents live and work in Hong Kong. Seeking American education and political stability for their children, the affluent parents often leave only an elderly housekeeper in charge of their vulnerable offspring.
What was Marina's story? Why was she, at such a young age, marrying twenty-four-year-old Michael Ho? Why is Marina's father, banker Reginald Lu, so reluctant to provide information? As Eve delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Marina's life and death, she stumbles upon a troubled world of unmoored youth and parental neglect.
But Marina, in many ways, would seem to have been among the fortunate. She had money and her parents had power. Eve soon discovers a dramatically more tragic subculture, where destitute young Asian immigrants live in virtual sexual slavery. The story of May-li and her journey from a poor farming home in Fujian, China, to a brothel in Los Angeles is one that Eve will fight to tell and will never forget.
A moving, noir-accented crime novel that opens a rare window to an intriguing subject, The Jasmine Trade is a passionate and polished debut from an exciting new author.
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Top Member Reviews
Maura S. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Journalist Eve Diamond knows the problems of contemporary teens, having reported on them for the Los Angeles Times. But when she follows up on a story about 17-year-old Marina Chang, found murdered in her car, she runs across a term she's never heard before: "parachute kids." With a little digging and some help from a good-looking social worker, she learns about a disturbing teen subculture: rich Asian immigrant kids who are living virtually on their own while their parents remain in China or elsewhere to run the family business. Of course, it's too late to save Marina, but Eve is determined to do her best to save another "parachute kid" at risk.
Sharron A. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
This book got off to a slow and somewhat disorganized start. Since it's the first in a mystery series that had been recommended to me, I persevered, fairly certain I wouldn't read beyond the first book. A little past halfway through the book, I realized I'd begun to care about a few characters, wanted some secretive relationships to be resolved, suspected a couple of good guys, etc. In other words I was hooked. It got better and better to the end, and now I'm looking for the next book in the Eve Diamond series.
Rate These Member Reviews
Elizabeth R. (This book is suspenseful not because of the action (although there is plenty of that), but because Hamilton invents believable characters that you will come to care about. The protagonist is a smart reporter who, in the process of investigating a murder, comes across a prostitution ring run by Asian gangs. The author handles what could be a sensational topic with sensitivity. This book reminded me of George Peleconas' work because it paints such a believable picture of a city's dark side, in this case LA. Can't wait to read the next installment in this series.
The victim is found dead in a chic shopping center parking lot, her two-carat engagement ring still on her finger. To the cops, it's a routine carjacking gone bad. But L.A. Times reporter Eve Diamond thinks there's more to the story.
Searching for the truth plunges Eve into the darkest shadows of L.A., where young women are forced into vitual sexual slavery, and money can buy the most brutal pleasures...
But someone wants to keep these dirty little secrets from being revealed. Someone with more power than Eve knows. Someone who has killed once and will kill again...
From back of book:
The victim is found dead in a chic shopping center parking lot, her two-carat engagement ring still on her finger. To the cops, it's a routine carjacking gone bad. But L. A. Times reporter Eve Diamond thinks there's more to the story.
Searching for the truth plunges Eve into the darkest shadows of L. A. where young women are forced into virtual sexual slavery, and money can buy the most brutal plesures....
But someone wants to keep these dirty little secrets from being revealed. Someone with more power than Eve knows. Someone who has killed once and will kill again.
Gina B. from NEW YORK, NY wrote on 3/5/2006...Hamiliton covers the phenomenon of 'parachute kids' in Southern California when she investigates the apparent carjacking and murder of a teen girl in LA's San Gabriel Valley.
Hamilton writes gritty, well-written novels; read anything she's written