Mummsie, I have never read "Christine" so I am reluctant to comment. It seems, however, from what other writers have said, to take the fact of her teen-age daughter's death to create fiction. Elizabeth had a troubled relationship with this daughter and packed her off to a very strict school in Germany. Not long after, the daughter died of pneumonia during WW1 in Germany. Elizabeth wrote "Christine" under a different name, in order to protect yet another daughter still in Germany. She created fictional letters from a daughter who died to a mother abroad. The purpose was to aid the Allied war effort with the book's negative view of Germany. Elizabeth, according to what I have read, was roundly criticized for this device as so many people believed the book to be non-fiction when it was published. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy story.

Well, M. M. Kaye was born and raised in India, but of English parents. Ngaio Marsh is from New Zealand, although her detective is British I found this when I googled "Japanese mystery writers": Another very well known and admired writer is Shizuko Natsuki who has gained an international reputation for her work. Many of her novels reflect Japanese family life. A number of her books have been translated and published in English including, Murder at Mount Fuji (Ballantine, N.Y., 1987) and The Obituary Arrives at Two O'clock ( Ballantine, N.Y., 1988). Miyake Miyabe is a younger, distaff writer whose novel, All She was Worth (Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1997) is a fascinating examination of a murder in a consumer-crazed society. The late Takagi Akimitsu was enormously popular for his mysteries focused on corruption in the business world - The Informer (Anthos Publishers, Queensland, Australia) and No patent on Murder (Playboy Press, 1977). He also wrote The Tattoo Murder Case (Soho press, N.Y., 1999) and Honeymoon to Nowhere (Soho press, N.Y., 1999), both rather grim and bloody tales. One of the more prolific writers is Masako Togawa who specializes in psycho-sexual suspense stories. A number of her books are available in English including Slow Fuse (Pantheon, N.Y., 1995); The Master Key (Simon Grove, N.Y., 1985); and The Lady Killer (Simon Grove, N.Y., 1986). Ms. Togawa is also a nightclub singer and entertainer. An example of a bloody and ghostly murder mystery that is well written and riveting can be found in the Togakushi Legend Murders (Charles Tuttle, Vt., 1994) by Yasuo Uchida.

Coincidentally I was just searching yesterday for an old book, one of those leave civilization and live in the back woods of Maine type memoires... Anyway, this might be it if it has a picture of the lab on the cover... Here is a link that might be useful: Lost &Found

another good source is the "What's the name of that book?" group on Goodreads. You will need to set up a Goodreads account and then you can post your description-last time I checked in, there were 800 some members of the group, so usually there's someone who can help you out! Goodreads is just fun, anyway. Here is a link that might be useful: goodreads homepage