BLACK JADE

A savvy young woman solves a murder in 1930s Dallas in Oliver’s mystery series starter.

One day, Chinese immigrant laundry worker Daiyu “Dai” Wu smells the aroma of burned garlic coming from a gown at her family’s laundry. She’s sightless, but her acute olfactory sense leads her to believe that the gown has arsenic in it, and she soon runs a test that confirms it. Dai’s companion, handyman and driver Jacques Haskin (who narrates the book), accompanies her to see medical examiner Aiden Campbell to find out if someone recently died of arsenic poisoning, on a hunch that the beautiful green gown was sent to the laundry to destroy evidence. The doctor doesn’t know of any recent deaths, but Dai finds an obituary that fits the facts: a Laura Cooper who was thought to have died of natural causes. Dai and Jacques work together to track down the deceased’s fiance, which pulls them into a whirlwind of high society. When Aiden confirms that the amount of arsenic in the gown was too high to have come from an arsenic-based dye, Dai is convinced they need to solve a murder. They befriend Truman Pierce, a friend of the deceased Laura’s and the British aristocrat to whom she was betrothed. Truman is charming but untrustworthy; Jacques repeatedly calls him a “popinjay” and seems jealous, although the relationship between Jacques and Dai is more like siblings. Oliver gives Dai and Jacques a Holmes-Watson dynamic, with Dai acting as the skilled detective and Jacques offering support as they put together clues. They continually encounter anti-Chinese prejudice, which effectively adds another set of impediments to their investigation. Some of the dialogue feels stilted: “But as my intelligence is rather technical, I wished to share my findings with whomever the justice goes to for such matters, so they can bring up the scientific evidence we accidentally came across.” However, the various characters, and particularly Dai, are often quite compelling. There are also several red herrings and misdirects that will keep readers on their toes.

An often intriguing historical mystery despite some awkward dialogue.