It's the year 1784 and the shogun rules with an iron fist . . . except within the walled pleasure quarter of Yoshiwara. Inside the Great Gate, samurai law does not apply, and it's women who pull the strings. Magistrates bow to courtesans, prostitutes snub potentates, and those with the most power beg favor from those with the least. There is no greater spectacle in all the land. But beneath the surface runs a deadly current of greed, deception . . . and murder.Taka...

The dangers of wealth and beauty emerge from the shadows in the latest Only in Tokyo Mystery…English translator Yumi Hata often feels ill at ease in Tokyo’s traditional world, but she has never been seduced by its’ seedy underbelly––a place populated by beautiful, desperate men and women and the wealthy patrons that will pay anything to command their time. But fear for her friend Coco draws her into Club Nova, where Yumi is unprepared to face the temptations of pro...

In the wake of a deadly disaster, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Kenji Nakamura and English translator Yumi Hata suspect a killer has seized a perfect opportunity to commit the perfect crime.After an earthquake strikes Tokyo on the day of Yumi’s wedding, her marriage plans are reduced to rubble. But when the dust settles, it’s discovered that the reason the priest was late is because he was dead. Detective Kenji Nakamura is assigned to investigate, but although all cl...

For three hundred years, a stolen relic passes from one fortune-seeker to the next, indelibly altering the lives of those who possess it.In modern-day Tokyo, Robin Swann's life has sputtered to a stop. She's stuck in a dead-end job testing antiquities for an auction house, but her true love is poetry, not pottery. Her stalled dissertation sits on her laptop, unopened in months, and she has no one to confide in but her goldfish.On the other side of town, Nor...

First in an all-new series of mysteries that could happen only in Tokyo...Yumi Hata went to school in the U.S., but now—back in Tokyo, living with her parents and working as an English translator—she no longer fits in with the fiercely traditional Japanese. If not for her friend Rika, Yumi would feel completely isolated, so when Rika is found dead—suspected of jisatsu, taking part in a suicide pact—Yumi is devastated.Fortunately, the police investi...

Winner of the Agatha Award."Sujata Massey blasts her way into fiction with The Salaryman's Wife, a cross-cultural mystery of manners with a decidedly sexy edge."-- Janet EvanonichJapanese-American 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 parents, she does.)...

In this haunting, richly woven novel of modern life in Japan, the author of the acclaimed debut One for Sorrow explores the ties that bind humanity across the deepest divides. Here is a Murakamiesque jewel box of intertwined narratives in which the lives of several strangers are gently linked through love, loss, and fate.On a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet ...

Yakuza Moon is the shocking, yet intensely moving memoir of 37-yearold Shoko Tendo, who grew up the daughter of a yakuza boss. Tendo lived her life in luxury until the age of six, when her father was sent to prison, and her family fell into terrible debt. Bullied by classmates who called her "the yakuza girl," and terrorized at home by a father who became a drunken, violent monster after his release from prison, Tendo rebelled. A regular visitor to nightclubs at the age of 12, she...

Five years ago, Mike Smith was an unhappy man living all alone. Then he purchased a Daffodil. Far more than regular robots, his Daffodil Patience, changed his life in ways that he had never thought possible. Now it is the year 2037, and Mike and Patience have been married for five years. Retired and enjoying life, Mike thought that all his troubles were behind him, but it seems as though they are creeping up again. California Proposition 22 proposes to define a person as a biological entit...

The truth behind 9/11 is darker and more terrifying than anyone could imagine in this gripping supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson.On September 11, 2001, a man drifts in a boat off lower Manhattan as the towers burn. He removes a small box from his pocket and presses a button. As he waits for the south tower to collapse, he thinks: No one—absolutely no one—will guess the truth behind the who and why of this day.Years ...

New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson's By the Sword takes up the adventures of Repairman Jack directly after Bloodline.Jack is hired to find a legendary Japanese sword, a katana stolen from the Hiroshima Peace Museum and brought to New York City. Central characters include the members of a weird Japanese cult, a young Japanese businessman and his three Yakuza bodyguards, plus Hank Thompson, the Kicker cult leader from Bloo...

"One of the funniest peole ever to tap tap on a PC."PHILADELPHIA INQUIRERNot since George Bush's memorable dinner with the Japanese prime minister has the Land of the Rising Sun seen the likes of a goodwill ambassador like Dave Barry. Join him as he belts out oldies in a karaoke bar, marries a geriatric geisha girl, takes his first bath in public, bows to just about everyone, and explores culture shock in all its numerous humorous forms, including: Failing to Learn Japanese i...