A highly unusual debut mystery, full of the local color and cuisine of the Dordogne region in France, that features a 19-year-old murder and the discovery of a mysterious orchid. FIRST TIME IN PAPERBACK. A reclusive English botanist helps a woman search for the truth about her missing orchid enthusiast sister in southwestern France in this "moody and elegant suspense story" (The Washington Post Book World). Nearly twenty years have passed since Mara Dunn's sister Bedie, an orchid enthusiast, disappeared while on a hiking holiday in southwestern France. Mara remains determined to find out what happened-but her only real clue is a sequence of wild orchids, including a mysterious, previously unknown Lady's Slipper, captured on a roll of film found in Bedie's long-lost camera. With the help of Julian Wood, a reclusive English botanist, Mara begins her search...stumbling into decades' worth of local secrets and putting herself in danger. Rich in lush descriptions of the Dordogne, and laden with savory details of French cooking, Deadly Slipper is rife with surprising twists and turns.