Foreign Seed

I have recently read a not yet available novel by Allison Alsup called Foreign Seed. It is a novel about an investigation into the disappearance of Frank Meyer. This is the man who brought from China the eponymous lemon that is very much fancied today. The novel is only indirectly about Meyer. It is more directly about American Vice-Consul Samuel Sokobin. It is Sokobin who investigates the disappearance. Along the way we learn about China in 1918 as the war in Europe is expanding, about the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the Department of Agriculture, and about life in the US Foreign Service.