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A review by lauraellis
Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara
4.0
3.5 stars. I rounded up because the writing is so good, but the hero's life seemed a bit grim, so that somewhat muted my enjoyment. (Tough grader here, plus my grading is a mix of personal enjoyment and writing, with sometimes one sometimes the other weighing more heavily in the grading.)
This is one of my favorite types of mysteries, one that opens a lens into a different place, time, or culture than my own. Mas Arai is a Kibei, an American of Japanese descent who was born in America, but then went back to Japan and was there during World War II (in Mas Arai's case, in Hiroshima), who is a gardener in LA and, naturally, solves murders that he finds himself enmeshed in (don't we all?). When an Okinawan-American acquaintance of his is murdered in the parking lot of the restaurant where a party is being held in the acquaintance's honor, Mas Arai is asked to help solve the murder by a friend to whom he owes a favor.
I am looking forward to finding the first two books in this series and getting better acquainted with Mas Arai and his world.
This is one of my favorite types of mysteries, one that opens a lens into a different place, time, or culture than my own. Mas Arai is a Kibei, an American of Japanese descent who was born in America, but then went back to Japan and was there during World War II (in Mas Arai's case, in Hiroshima), who is a gardener in LA and, naturally, solves murders that he finds himself enmeshed in (don't we all?). When an Okinawan-American acquaintance of his is murdered in the parking lot of the restaurant where a party is being held in the acquaintance's honor, Mas Arai is asked to help solve the murder by a friend to whom he owes a favor.
I am looking forward to finding the first two books in this series and getting better acquainted with Mas Arai and his world.