The jasmine trade - Denise Hamilton

Seventeen-year-old Marina Lu lies dead in her shiny status car in a suburban shopping centre car park, her two-carat diamond engagement ring refracting another shattered Los Angeles dream. Was her murder merely a carjacking gone bad, or is there more to the story? LA TIMES reporter Eve Diamond is determined to find out. Why was Marina, at such a young age, marrying twenty-four-year-old Michael Ho? Why is her father so reluctant to provide Eve with information about his daughter? And why would someone steal the dead girl's diary?

As Eve delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Marina's life and death, she stumbles upon the world of the 'parachute kids', the rich Asian teens who are left to their own devices in California while their parents live and work in Hong Kong. She also discovers an even more tragic subculture, where destitute young Asian immigrants live in virtual sexual slavery. As Eve unravels the haunting details and closes in on her scoop, she finds that someone is prepared to kill to keep the story hidden.

A moving, noir-accented crime novel that opens a rare window into an intriguing subject, THE JASMINE TRADE is a passionate and polished debut from an exciting new talent.