House of Eight Orchids - Softcover

In 1912, John Wade and his brother, William—children of the American consul—were kidnapped off the street in Chungking, China, and raised in the house of Eunuch Chang, the city’s master criminal. Twenty-five years later, John is the eunuch’s most valuable ward, a trained assassin and swindler, and William has become a talented forger. On the brink of World War II, China is in chaos. When William betrays Eunuch Chang and escapes to central China, a place of ferocious warlords and bandits, John begins a desperate search to save his brother, while Eunuch Chang hunts them both.

Called “a master storyteller” by Clive Cussler, James Thayer has written thirteen critically acclaimed novels, many of which have been optioned for films and translated into many languages. Born in Eugene, Oregon, and raised in the state of Washington, he is a graduate of Washington State University and the University of Chicago Law School. He is also the author of The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel. Thayer is a member of the Washington State Bar Association and International Thriller Writers, and he teaches fiction writing at the University of Washington extension school. He lives with his family in Seattle.