Novel set in USA, VIETNAM and JAPAN
A horticultural mystery set in Paris
3rd August 2019
The Forgetting Flower by Karen Hugg, a horticultural mystery set in Paris.
A plant – Violet Smoke – with an extraordinary aroma, a single bloom that can cause intoxication in humans. Is it a blessing or a curse?
Renia has moved to Paris from Kraków to manage a specialist flower shop, Le Sanctuaire and the book opens as she discovers the body of Alain, who lives nearby and who was a personal friend and one of the flower shop’s major clients. There is mystery over the manner of his death and Renia is most concerned that she might be implicated – she is hiding a secret! She keeps securely stored the only known example of Violet Smoke, a plant with opioid qualities, whose flowers (and their fragrance) can knock anyone in their proximity for six… and beyond.
There are flashbacks to her life in Kraków, where her twin sister, Estera, still lives. The latter got involved with serial abuser Zbiggy who has now, it seems, followed Renia to Paris. He accosts her there because she has something he wants. That something is the Violet Smoke plant. Renia has the plant well hidden behind a false wall, she tends it regularly but needs a mask to protect herself when she is plucking the flowers.
It is a plant that is in no directory and she engages an expert to try and identify its genus and provenance. Of course an unknown plant like this is presumed to be a great addition to the pharmaceutical industry’s resources; but it is also of interest to the unscrupulous members of the criminal underworld who can make a fast buck out of a powerful drug. And Zbiggy is after the flowers to sell on to a variety of thugs.
This is certainly an interesting premise and the author is clearly a connoisseur of the plant and flower world and she clearly delights in writing about the wonders of horticulture. The progression of the narrative could sometimes feel a little stilted, and the dovetailing of the stories between present day Paris and recollections of Kraków could on occasion be a little confusing – changes in location happened almost from one sentence to the next, which I found discombobulating. Those points aside, however, I enjoyed reading the book and setting was good, it felt very Parisian.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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