The Bride's Kimono (34 page)

Look for these riveting mysteries by
Sujata Massey,

starring Japanese-American sleuth
Rei Shimura.

The Salaryman’s Wife

Zen Attitude

The Flower Master

The Floating Girl

Rei Shimura is a 27-year-old English teacher living in one of Tokyo’s seediest neighborhoods. She doesn’t make much money, but she wouldn’t go back home to California even if she had a free ticket (which, thanks to her wealthy parents, she does). Her independence is threatened, however, when a getaway to an ancient castle town is marred by murder. Rei is the first to find the beautiful wife of a high-powered businessman dead in the snow. Taking charge, as usual, Rei searches for clues by crashing a funeral, posing as a bar-girl, and somehow ending up pursued by police and paparazzi alike. In the meantime, she manages to piece together a strange, ever-changing puzzle—one that is built on lies and held together by years of sex and deception.

“Sly, sexy and deftly done.”

People
magazine “Page-Turner of the Week”

With her own antiques business and live-in Scottish lawyer boyfriend, Rei Shimura finally has a life to be proud of in Tokyo. But when Rei over-pays for a beautiful chest of drawers, she’s in for the worst deal of her life. The con man who sold her the tansu is found dead, and like it or not, Rei’s opened a Pandora’s box of mystery, theft, and murder.

Only Rei sees the tansu as the key. It will take a quick wit, fast feet, and, above all, a Zen attitude for Rei to discover what a young monk, a judo star, and an ancient scroll have in common and why her own life hangs in the balance.

“A gifted storyteller.”

USA Today

Life in Japan for a single Californian woman with a fledging antiques business isn’t always fun, but when the flower arranging class Rei Shimura’s aunt cajoles her into taking turns into a stage for murder, Rei finds plenty of the excitement she’s been missing.

Surprisingly too many people have a reason for committing the crime—including her aunt. While struggling to adjust to the nuances of Japanese propriety, trying to keep her business afloat, and dealing with veiled messages left under her door, Rei sifts the bones of old skeletons to keep her family name clear—and her own life safe from an enemy with a mysterious agenda. If Rei doesn’t want to be crushed like fallen cherry blossoms, she’s going to have to walk a perilous line and uncover a killer with a dramatic flare for deadly arrangements.

“Sujata Massey is at her masterful best.”

Lisa Scottoline

Rei Shimura is finally beginning to feel as if Tokyo is home. Now a writer on art and antiques at the
Gaijin Times,
a comic-style magazine aimed at affluent young readers, Rei’s latest assignment is a piece on the history of comic book art. During a weekend of research and relaxation at her boyfriend Takeo’s beachside house, Rei stumbles upon the perfect subject: an exquisite modern comic that reveals the disturbing social milieu of pre-World War II Japan.

Rei’s story, though, evolves into something much darker. One of the comic’s young creators is found dead—a murder that soon takes the tenacious Rei deep into the heart of Japan’s youth underground. Immersed in the investigation, she finds herself floating through strip clubs, animation shops, and coffeehouses to get the true story—and save her own skin.

“Rei is one of the most complex female protagonists around…Another must-read.”

Booklist

Coming soon

Antiques dealer Rei Shimura is in San Francisco visiting her parents and researching a personal project tracing the story of 100 years of Japanese decorative arts through her own family’s experience. Her work is interrupted by the arrival of her boyfriend, lawyer Hugh Glendinning, who is involved in a class action lawsuit on behalf of aged Asian nationals forced to engage in slave labor for Japanese companies during World War II. These two projects suddenly intertwine when one of Hugh’s clients is murdered and Rei begins to uncover unsavory facts about her own family’s actions during the War. Rei unravels the truth and finds the killer, and at the same time learns all about family ties and loyalty and the universal desire to avoid blame.

My heartfelt gratitude goes out to the true cast of characters who helped me sew up
The Bride’s Kimono
! First, I’m deeply grateful to Claudia Brittenham, assistant curator of the Eastern Hemisphere Collections at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., who taught me so much about the history of kimono, as well as to her colleague Rachel Shabica, the museum’s assistant registrar. I am similarly thrilled to have had Joan Elisabeth Reid, chief registrar of the Walters Art Museum, teach me so much about the world of fine-art couriers.

I learned what it feels like to wear kimono from Shizumi Shigeto Manale, the dancer and kimono collector, and Norie Watanuki, a professional kimono dresser. My kimono knowledge was also expanded through the terrific book
Kimono: Fashioning Culture,
by Liza Dalby, and a Ph.D. thesis by Manami Suga.

Mr. Shimuzu of the Office of the Japanese Consul was extremely helpful in explaining matters relating to missing persons—thanks for letting me into the embassy, too! Also in Washington, I thank Phyllis Richman, the wonderful mystery author and retired food critic, for her restaurant tips. More gastronomic thank-yous to Evan Reynolds, chief concierge for the Hotel Sofitel, and Janet Staihar, who represents Café
Milano in Georgetown. For excellent explanations of police procedure, I’m grateful to Officer Julie Hersey in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Officer Chris Myers in Troy, New York.

As always, Mary Sugiyama, the retired executive director of the North America branch of the Sogetsu School of
ikebana,
provided key introductions and advice. Rei’s sound track of Japanese and American pop music was suggested by the pop-music critic J. D. Considine and by Kristin Weisman, the coolest college student in Baltimore.

I also thank Mari Miyake, Chris Belton, and Mark Schreiber for answering my questions about Japanese culture, and Susanne Trowbridge for continuing good advice and maintaining my author Web site. I thank Marcia Talley, Karen Diegmueller, John Mann, Janice McLane, Susan Shorr, Joshua Wolf, Rufus Juskus, Sandy Fleming, Meg Tipper, Anita Sherman, and Lalita Noronha, all great writers themselves, for coaxing the book along. And finally, to my family in New York—my agent, Ellen Geiger, and editor, Carolyn Marino—and the family at home—Tony and Pia Massey—I continue to feel blessed to have you in my life.

And to my readers here and abroad—don’t be strangers. You can drop me a line through my Web site, www.sujatamassey.com/sujata

Sujata Massey