Penny Black

If you like elegant, exotic, and exuberant sleuths, meet Britain's Penny Wanawake . . .
Funny, free-spirited Penny, the knockout daughter of an African diplomat father and an aristocratic English mother, is dismayed to arrive in Big Sur from London and discover her vacation mate is missing. Penny's even more dismayed when Martha's body is found at LAX, clothed in a bright white orchid and multiple stab wounds. In a turnabout of the James Bond model, suave, sexy, smart-mouthed Penny descends upon Washington, DC, where, with the inevitable dashing male counterpart, and distracted by black orchid breeding, she pursues her quest for a remarkably black-hearted killer . . .