A curious lack of corpses. A slew of snobbish suspects. Can this sightless amateur sleuth pinpoint a killer?
Dallas, TX, 1930. Daiyu Wu refuses to be disadvantaged by her blindness. Navigating the world with help from her faithful companions, the young Chinese adventuress celebrates life with a strong thirst for knowledge. So when she smells burned garlic in a customer’s garment, the clever laundress runs an experiment that reveals the dress was doused in arsenic.
Determined to provide the unaware authorities with a clue in the murder case, Daiyu vows to chase down the garment’s mysterious origins even though there have been no reports of a body. But as the links lead the immigrant girl higher into Texas’s social echelons, she clashes with bigotry, short-sightedness, and a web of lies hamstringing her ability to investigate.
Can she find fresh evidence before she’s hung out to dry?
Black Jade is the playful first book in the Daiyu Wu Mysteries historical cozy series. If you like witty heroines, clever twists, and feisty canines, then you’ll love Gloria Oliver’s period puzzle.
Grab Black Jade to pit instinct against old money today!
For lovers of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Excerpt
The Adolphus Hotel was located on Commerce Street in downtown Dallas. Built in 1912 at twenty-two stories, it was the tallest building in the city until 1922. It was designed specifically to be the grandest hotel in Dallas, and was constructed in the Beaux-Arts style. This gave the hotel an appearance that was a mixture of Imperial Rome, Italian Renaissance, and French Baroque. Red and trimmed in white, it became ever more impressive the closer we approached. Cherubs, shields, faces, columns, and armament façades were sculpted near rounded window frames. White iron rod screens gave a bit of color to the hotel windows.
The entrance was extravagant, featuring columns and polished marble, while dark wood paneling covered the vast guest reception area. The check-in desk was inviting and fully manned, the back wall filled with rows of golden hooks on which hung the brass keys for the rooms. Several young porters in smart uniforms and pillbox hats stood ready to render assistance at a moment's notice.
Dai held Prince in her arms as I guided her forward with a light touch at her elbow. The front desk manager spied us crossing the lavishly carpeted room and came out from behind the check-in area to intercept us.
It surprised me when the pencil-mustached manager made eye contact with me rather than Dai. Her glasses were in place, so there was no way for him to realize she was blind—at least not yet.
"I'm very sorry, but you can't bring that in here."
Dai held Prince higher, and he raised his front paws to show he was all about obeying the rules. "I assure you, Prince is a well-behaved canine."
The manager ignored Dai completely and continued to look and talk only to me. "Sir, I wasn't talking about the dog."
Heat rushed up my neck and into my face as the meaning of his words crystalized in my brain.
"We can make arrangements, sir, if we must. But not here, not in public. We have a reputation to maintain and the sensibilities of our guests to consider. If you depart then come round the back, I will see what can be done."
Dai was blind, not deaf! How dare he say such things in front of her? Who was he to make such judgments? My hands curled into fists, my rage building by the second. His expectant and solicitous expression only made it burn hotter. I would show this cur what I thought of his misguided opinions!
"Jacques, don't." Dai grabbed my sleeve. "It's all right."
It wasn't all right. It was far from all right. I shook where I stood. It would be worth a night in jail to show this bastard some proper manners.
"Alphonse, my good man!"
A gentleman in his mid-twenties came toward us, trying to catch the front desk manager's eye. Clean-shaven with slicked-back sandy blond hair, he wore a black suit with thin gold stripes, a gold vest with black stripes, a black shirt and gold tie. With a knowing look in his blue eyes, he flashed a brilliant, pearly-white smile. I felt an instant and irrational dislike for him.
"So glad I caught you. I meant to let you know I was expecting a special guest today." His gaze roamed Dai's length and breadth, then focused solely on Alphonse. He lowered his voice to a bare whisper. "This is the daughter of Dr. C. C. Wu, the minister of China's legation in Washington, D.C."
Alphonse's face paled, and he darted a glance in Dai's direction.
"She's here incognito, you see—no limousines or fanfare. My father is very keen to get mineral rights in China. He invited the minister and his family to visit, to show them our famous Texas hospitality. I'm sure you wouldn't want to put the kibosh on Father's plans, now, would you?"
By this point, Alphonse was looking a little green. "No. Of course not, Mr. Pierce. I'm very sorry. If I'd known—"
Before I could think about what I was doing, I took a menacing step forward. "He's not the one you should apologize to."
The manager almost tripped in his haste to step back from my aggressively looming presence. "Yes, yes, of course." He half-turned and looked at Dai directly for the first time. "I'm very sorry, madam. Please forgive me for any offense I might have caused. Let me know if there's anything we can do to make your visit more agreeable." He swallowed hard. "Welcome to the Adolphus Hotel."
He bowed low, his entire posture stiff and awkward.
Our 'savior' chuckled softly to himself as the manager scampered away to the safety of the front desk. "I shouldn't say so, but that was a total gas." He flashed Dai a big devilish grin. "Alphonse gets a little too full of himself on occasion."
I was sure Alphonse wasn't the only one.
Professional Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Set in 1930 Dallas, this impressive series launch from Oliver (Alien Redemption) introduces a one-of-a-kind lead. Despite being blind and living in a community infected with anti-Asian prejudice, Chinese immigrant Daiyu Wu has built a life for herself by operating her family’s business, White Laundry, aided by her friend and caretaker, Jacques Haskin. Her superior olfactory senses prove essential to solving a crime when she smells something unusual on a gossamer ball gown left hanging on the front door of the laundry, with a dollar and a blank ticket stamped paid pinned to the garment. Daiyu’s suspicions that she’s detected the odor of arsenic on the dress are confirmed when Jacques helps her to perform a forensic test for detecting arsenic. The laundress concludes that someone was murdered by wearing the toxic gown and sets out on a quest to identify the victim and her killer. Aided by Jacques, Daiyu cracks the case, despite risking her liberty when she’s accused of being in the country illegally. The playful banter between Wu and Haskin moves the plot along. Historical mystery fans will look forward to the sequel. (Self-published)
An absolutely marvelous historical mystery
The last thing you'd expect in a mystery set in 1930's Dallas is a blind Chinese female detective, but Gloria Oliver deftly makes Miss Daiyu Wu the equal of Holmes, Poirot, and Dupin. When Dai's sensitive nose picks out the odor of arsenic on a poisoned dress in her family's laundry, she and her faithful sidekick Jacques set out to find the source of the poison (and a potential corpse), and wind up involved in a deadly family struggle. Oliver's writing is incredibly engaging and her handling of the mystery is clever and will keep you guessing until the end. - Author Melanie Fletcher
Jerry Lowenstein, an octogenarian and a nice guy, has written a fantastic mystery/ suspense novel that takes place just after WW2 on and near Bikini Atoll. He actually witnessed an atomic bomb test. Can you imagine that?
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