The Jasmine Trade (Eve Diamond Mystery, #1) by Denise Hamilton

The Jasmine Trade (Eve Diamond Mystery, #1) Reviews

• 
  Deborah

  This review involves more than one Denise Hamilton novel.
  I cannot say enough about the writing style of Denise Hamilton. She not only knows the streets of LA, she breathes life into them through her every written word. It's chilling to read her books. Denise has the skill of a fine surgeon, knowing just when and where to place the razor and how to cut to release that last shred of skin between our belief and disbelief. Her hand is quick and so adept we hardly know we've been "had" until it's over and we're shocked to see our heart in our hands. She is a master writer of this genre. I have a feeling Denise is a masterful writer of anything she chooses to put her mind to. I thinks she's spoiled me for reading anyone else in noir fiction, female or male.
  
  
  
  "The Jasmine Trade" is breathtaking. I was completely spellbound by the insider information and story surrounding a young girl killed outside a shop with her bridal dresses in her car! What starts out as a horrendous, but not that unusual these days, tale of a young girl's tragic murder, turned into a spider web of the macabre for me. Denise Hamilton unveiled layer after layer of LA's underside, teaching me things I had no idea existed; i.e., "parachute kids?" I'd never even heard this was happening in our country. And she shone a light into some dark dwellings both physical and psychological that left me shuttering.
  
  
  
  What I found most exciting about Ms Hamilton's writing in both the novels I read (and her short story "Midnight In Silicon Alley" in her L. A. Noir Collection) was her ability to use an ordinary pace, an simple staccato of words and sentences to lay out the most astounding and dark situations. A clip of interchange between characters that conveyed more than just the words themselves...It was like reading the movements of a cat studying it's prey before pouncing! Glorious and so unusual I wanted to clap and yell, "Yes!!" several times through the books. This kind of writing is intense and so freaking rare!
  
  
  
  Let me say a little bit about Eve Diamond, who is the journalist/investigative writer protagonist of "The Jasmine Trade." She is vulnerable, hard-core on the side of right, and devoted to her story. I'm a huge fan of this character. I loved everything about her. Hamilton hits just the right chords with her balance between a woman with the insecurities of a feminine sort, and a journalist looking for more than just the surface report in order to lift the scab off a deeper slash on the LA landscape. It's Denise's development of both these sides of her that makes Eve a remarkable character, but it's the use of Eve's vulnerabilities that makes the story itself just blast off the pages. She is unrelenting when looking for the truth behind a murder; but, bound up and driving that is the underlying concern for Asian children abandoned by their parents, for instance. Eve Diamond is a character I can happily read more about in Hamilton's other novels.
  
  
  
  What was new to me about these books among all the books I've read? The dark tone of "voice." The descriptions of the underbelly of the city and the surrounding scruff and side-beaches. The brilliance of too much light at night and used tinsel garishness by day, both literally and figuratively. The "invisible" people that stray and strand along the sidelines of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and LA. Concepts of evil hidden behind the flat, compliant faces of ordinary kids in designer label outfits- -apparently, no drugs applied. How swiftly calm, security and routine can be smashed in a smoky room, in an unknown section of town where you weren't aware that nobody speaks English, and you don't know how to get a ride home. The multi-cultural nature of a city that is a microcosom of our country and where we're headed.
  
  
  
  I've tried to convey to you how unusual and how brilliant a writer Denise Hamilton really is. "Damage Control" will send ice splints through your veins. "The Jasmine Trade" will change the way you look at Asian children and their parents for a while; at least it changed things for me. I haven't been able to put these books, and Ms Hamilton's short story out of my mind. I keep returning to parts of them long after I've read them. When studying fine arts and art history I learned that one of the tests of a masterpiece is that we can't stop looking at it. We find ourselves continually drawn back into the painting, finding more things of interest and wanting to look at it longer. There is much of this quality in Denise Hamilton's books. They just keep coming back to haunt you
• 
  StarMan

  About average for the genre. It was nice to read a murder/crime book from the viewpoint of a non-law enforcement officer. The plot focuses revolves around the alleged murder of a young woman in the Los Angeles Asian American community.
  
  The story was a decent debut for Eve Diamond, intrepid and often TSTL* newspaper reporter. The writing style was fine, but some of the plot developments and character actions were unrealistic.
  
  VERDICT: 2.7 stars, rounded to 3.0 for Goodreads.
  
  *TSTL = Too Stupid To Live, as in this character has a deathwish, or is an idiot who keeps unnecessarily putting themselves in mortal danger, and never seems to wise up.
• 
  Dan

  This book, written in 2001, is set in the new San Gabriel Valley "Chinatowns" of Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, and San Marino. It is a murder mystery set against the background of this burgeoning community.
  
  The murder mystery was interesting but it is the background that I read the book for. I have lived most of my life in the San Gabriel, including in Alhambra, and have seen this community spring up like a mushroom out of nowhere.
  
  I have been back to where I spent my very early years, just cruising by to observe, and see almost no trace of the white working class neighborhood that is was. It has nearly completely transformed into an American version of China. I've been to see where my grandmother lived the last couple decades of her life in Arcadia and the same thing has happened. Where there was a Lucky's, there is a 99 Ranch Market. Where there was the Horseshoe Bar, there is 幸运 Bar.
  
  I live 3 miles from where I grew up, and have been transformed along with the comunity. I have a Chinese attorney, Chinese accountant, Chinese (now Chinese American) wife, Chinese in-laws and a son of Chinese ancestry. I have been to an interior city in China 2 times in the last 6 years and will in all likelihood go back again next year.
  
  If you are from the San Gabriel, or live in the San Gabriel valley now, read this book. If you know nothing about this community, it will serve as your introduction to Chinese triads, "parachute kids," fung shui, and other new and fascinating things. if you are a part of this community already, you can read a good suspense thriller set right in stomping grounds.
• 
  Paul

  This is a good first novel by the Los Angeles based crime novelist. The characters are well drawn, the plot moves briskly and the ending has an interesting twist. At times the level of suspense sags a little but overall this is a good page-turner.
  
  The issue of 'parachute kids', foreign nationals left under loose guardianship in LA by wealthy parents working abroad, is explored in depth and adds another dimension to the novel. The plot is set in motion by the murder of one such person, the daughter of a wealthy banker who is shot in her car at a mall. The protagonist, Eve Diamond, is assigned to the story and discovers there is more going on than the apparent carjacking.
  
  Recommended, especially for vicarious travelers who will enjoy the LA backgrounding. Michael Connelly fans will enjoy Denise Hamilton's work.
• 
  Nolan

  Marina Lu is 17, has substantial money, a solid academic record, and she’s about to marry a 24-year-old bank executive. What more could a girl want? I suspect she wants to live; that would be nice. She had ordered and paid for the bridesmaid dresses, but no one will be using them. Marina is quite dead in her car all alone in the parking lot of a shopping mall. The cops write it off as a carjacking gone sour, but something about it doesn’t feel right to Eve Diamond, the Los Angeles Times reporter who drew the assignment to write about Lu’s death. As she digs into the case, she is introduced into the world of parachute kids—wealthy Asian kids whose parents live and work in Hong Kong and who put the kids in the care of an ineffectual aging housekeeper so they can live in the U.S. and get into its best colleges and universities. These kids have all the material things they need. Far-off Daddy is nothing more than a talking ATM to them. Their lives are confusing, insecure, and often rudderless. Marina was such a teenager.
  
  As Eve sets out to figure out who killed Marina Lu, she stumbles onto another group of Asian youth, this group not so lucky. You’ll read the graphic horror story of young May-Li, a teenage girl taken from her rural mainland China home and smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. Her lot is to serve as a whore. She will labor until AIDS claims her life, and Eve’s best efforts to save her are among the book’s most poignant moments.
  
  There are some explicit sexual descriptions here, and the profanity index moves the needle into the moderate range, so if playing doctor with a red-haired green-eyed reporter isn’t something you want to read about, you can skip this. The thing is, that haunting story graphically told about May-Li is worth whatever else you perceive as white noise or static. Indeed, the whole concept of parachute kids will rock your world if it is as naïve as mine.
  
• 
  Alice Neilson

  A 3 1/2 Stars. Reporter Eve Diamond, in researching a news article, uncovers the existence of parachute kids in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley. There are Asian high school students who are living in luxurious homes with only a housekeeper while their parents are in China/Hong Kong earning a living, doing business. These parents want an American education for their kids but don’t realize that they have become a part of a tragic subculture of gangs and sexual slavery.
  
  Marina was planning her wedding but is found dead in her luxury car. Through this event, Eve uncovers the subculture of Parachute Kids and some of the dangerous world they got involved in.
• 
  Frank

  Good thriller.
• 
  Heather

  I read this book in a weekend!
• 
  Maddy

  RATING: 3.75
  
  A "parachute kid" is the child who lives in a family mansion in California while his or her wealthy parents live and work in Hong Kong. It's hard to imagine that such a thing goes on, but Denise Hamilton portrays the lifestyles of these lost and lonely children in a touching way in her debut novel, THE JASMINE TRADE. Generally, an adult is hired to look after them and manage the practical aspects of their lives. They return from school to an empty home and have very little guidance or direction. Then there are the Asian kids who live with parents who expect them to follow the ways of the old culture. Ultimately, they rebel, often running away from home and ending up in deplorable situations.
  
  Marina Lu was a parachute kid until she was killed in a suburban shopping mall. She was only 17 years old but drove a Lexus and had a sparkling engagement ring on her hand. LA Times Reporter Eve Diamond begins to investigate the alleged carjacking but finds that there's a lot more to the picture than meets the eye. At the same time, she is handling her various other assignments for the paper. For one of them, she has to interview a youth counselor named Mark Furukawa. She finds that he is really attuned to the issues of Asian teenagers in the area and that she is really attuned to him.
  
  It's obvious that Hamilton is passionate about the subject matter of her book, but that passion sometimes leads her to lecture the reader about the plight of Asian youngsters in Los Angeles rather than revealing the situation through the narrative events. At times, it felt like Eve was manipulating people to get her story, such as Marina's brother and a sad young woman named May-Li who became even more of a victim than Marina had.
  
  The book pulled me along, but the agenda covered was overly broad. We've got rich teens in trouble, poor teens in trouble, gangsterism, prostitution, lost love, found love, murder for hire, blackmail and more. There were too many instances where Eve stumbled across information purely through luck, and there were also an overabundance of "female in jeopardy" threads. The ending was especially disappointing. I think Hamilton is a very talented writer who was overly ambitious in what she thought she could accomplish with this book. I did enjoy the book, most particularly its depiction of the Asian situation in California, but felt it would have benefited from a tighter focus.
  
  
  
• 
  Jennifer

  I liked this--a good solid mystery with a really interesting background story about "parachute kids" in L.A.. These are Asian kids whose parents buy houses in the best neighborhoods and send them to the best schools, but leave them largely unsupervised when the parents return to the home country (China, Hong Kong, etc.) to continue life and business as usual but leave the kids to get the best education. The result is that many of these kids fall in with the wrong crowd--interesting how some of them can simultaneously be straight-A students but moonlighting with Asian gangs as guards in suburban brothels to make lots of cash.
  
  This is a murder mystery and it goes deeper than that as it uncovers the layers of the L.A. parachute kid scene, which made it more interesting to me than your standard mystery. The writing was really great at times, the author does a great job of bringing the reader right into the neighborhoods she's describing and making them come alive.
  
  I especially liked how this largely took place in the San Gabriel Valley which is near and dear to my heart since I used to live there. The main character's office is even in Monrovia, where I used to live and I love so much.
  
  Quick read, nice summer mystery/beach read.
• 
  Foxy Grandma

  This book started out as your normal crime mystery story. But it quickly became a lot more. The subject became more about the parachute kids in the San Gabriel Valley who are sent to America for an education while their parents return to Hong Kong and Singapore to run their businesses. These children who have the best of everything and are privileged in every way but one, They have no warmth, no family, no connections here. They do have lot of pressure on them to maintain the highest level of grads as well as self-supervising themselves. They also have no street smarts, thus they get sucked into a world of peril with the Asian gangs, organized criminals, dirty cops, drugs, sex rings and other unsavory activities, including the “jasmine trade” where illegal Asians are brought into US and sold into prostitution.
  
  This book will keep you riveted to your seat. The characters are original and real, and the plot is compelling.
  
• 
  Ashley

  I like the writing style and personality of the narrator. She is an independent and determined chick with guts. Sure, she over-estimates her own judgement plenty of times, but it serves to make the story more believable. Also, I quite like her portrayal of Los Angeles. I haven't been there before, but I can really get a vivid sense of the ambiance.
  I like how the protagonist strikes out on her own to really get into a story that has never really been covered in the mainstream media: "parachute kids." The author of the book, Denise Hamilton, a former LA Times Journalist actually did a real story on the subject. Now that's a cool bit of info ^_^ !!
• 
  caitlin

  If you like Kinsey Milhone, Skip Langdon or Willa Jansen then you will like Eve Diamond. However, I hate it when a writer gets to the end of a mystery and has the summing up moment and gets it wrong! Hey - you wrote the book, get the facts right! The Jasmine Trade has that moment, and it spoiled an otherwise good mystery for me. Maybe you won't notice it. (except now you'll be looking for it).
• 
  Mark Baker

  A 17-year-old's death springboards reporter Eve Diamond into the culture of the parachute kids who come to America for an education. But who wanted to kill the teenage girl? The characters are great, however they are under served by a plot that wanders all over the place. I was done with it long before I reached the end.
  
  Read my full review at
  Carstairs Considers.
• 
  Tracy

  Read this for one of my book clubs and enjoyed it. Not something I would have picked -- one of the reasons I love book clubs! An LA noir story set in the San Gabriel Valley in the 1990s - describing the "parachute kids" phenomenon (wealthy Asian teens living unsupervised in San Marino mansions while their parents manage businesses on the other side of the Pacific) and the "jasmine trade" (smuggling girls out of Chinese provinces and forcing them into prostitution).
• 
  Ann Lynch

  I loved this book. Read it in 1 day. After living in Shanghai, I found myself looking at many young Chinese faces wondering where all these young people came from - about their stories and as I knew I would go home to the U.S. Someday, where were these people headed and what their futures would look like. So many of them would never have a life like mine. I pray for the young men and women in this story and hope God looks favorably on them.
• 
  Courtney

  This novel could have been half as long and less boring if the author wasn't as detailed as she was. It dragged on. I don't really need to be told everything in every 'scene' in the book. Just enough for me to get my mental picture and continue on with the story. I don't need to know how the wind feels or how wet the pavement was in excruciating detail.
• 
  Kat Dee

  To be honest, I am not sure why this book was so raved about. I found the writing to be very much telling instead of showing. At the end of the book, I feel like I have no connection with the main character Eve. Who is she really? I have no clue. The plot did hold my interest enough to take me to the end of the book but I don't think I will be reading any more in this series.
• 
  LJ

  THE JASMINE TRADE – G+
  Hamilton, Denise – 1st of Series
  The first novel by this LA Times journalist is a compelling look at the world of modern-day Asian/American teens, gangs and introduces us to parachute children. It’s very well done. I do look forward to reading her second book.
  
• 
  Bree

  I liked it...overall it was a good book. I thought I had it figured out and didn't...lots of twists. I didn't like the ending, it wrapped up a little bit too neatly with a whole "where are they now" type thing. But, I want to continue reading more of the series...
• 
  Kristie

  It took me a while to get into her style of writing, but once I did the story had me hooked. At times it seemed a bit far fetched, but overall it was a good read. I'd definitely try another Eve Diamond story.
• 
  Anita

  A 17 year old girl's murder chillingly introduces L.A. Times reporter Eve Diamond to a subculture of "parachute kids," the rich Asian teens who are left to their own devices in California while their parents live and work in Hong Kong. First in the series. Fascinating story and excellent writing.
• 
  Capri

  Detective Story set in LA