Books like The Flower Net by Lisa See

During the winter of Deng Xiaoping's final years, the son of the U.S. ambassador to China is found drowned in a frozen lake. Almost simultaneously, a California coast guard vessel, rich with undocumented Chinese migrants, is discovered drifting across the Pacific. Among the refugees is the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China's political elite. The U.S. and Chinese governments suspect a connection and, for the first time, collaborate to solve the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark flies to Beijing, where he partners with the unorthodox detective Liu Hulan, whose investigative skills earn her a high‑profile exemption. Their joint inquiry takes them across Beijing’s elite karaoke bars, labyrinthine hutongs, and eventually into Los Angeles’s thriving Asian community, tracing a path that culminates in a murder at the apex of China’s power structure.

First publish date: 1997