Brooks Mencher

The Woman Who Loved Sunflowers Brooks Mencher

At first, it seemed that quiet Jill Lynch was just doing what she could to help the countless orphans of war-torn Middle Eastern nations. For the last six years, she's knitted hats and socks to help them fend off their bitter winters, and she volunteers every Wednesday packing and shipping winter knits that have been donated from around the U. S. She loves children, belongs to a world peace group, donates to a church-based child immigrant support effort, and seems happily married. But one morning on her way to volunteer, Mrs. Lynch vanishes without a trace. The police are slow to respond, and the case bounces between three Bay Area police agencies before landing in the lap of SFPD's Detective William Chu. In his initial interview with Jill's overwrought husband, Randall Lynch, Chu finds puzzling incongruities in the life of the missing woman. He calls in textile forensics consultant Ruth M, known to police and the FBI as the Yarn Woman. With the help of reporter Nat Fisher and her driver, Mr. Kasparov, Ruth soon discovers dark forces brewing behind Jill's quiet suburban facade and incongruous disappearance - a tangled melange of secret lives and pseudo-lovers, Faustian pacts, rare medieval art, and corporate espionage. She wonders if Mrs. Lynch is a victim - or a calculating thief and assassin. Can Ruth thread the labyrinthine life of Jill Lynch quickly enough to find her still alive?