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...

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...

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...

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...

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.)...

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...

When the body of Saga Atsushi, Japan’s preeminent connoisseur of ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), is pulled from the ocean off the coast of Tohoku, having apparently committed suicide, the shocked Japanese art world turns out to mourn his death. Among them is Ryohei, an up-and-coming young ukiyo-e scholar and research assistant to Saga’s colleague-turned-rival, Professor Nishijima. But a chance encounter with an old friend makes Ryohei wonder if there might be more to Saga’s death than meets th...

A darkly satirical tale of the generation and gender gaps in Japanese society, Ruy Murakami's Popular Hits of the Showa Era is a literary karaoke act combining manga and street culture It's a set-up like a video game: two rival gangs fight to death for the control of a Tokyo district. In one gang, six young losers committed only to drinking, voyeurism and karaoke singing, in the other six tough independent older women. From ambush to revenge, both groups are gradually decimated until the u...

A new crime–thriller full of suspense from Sujata Massey, the acclaimed author of The Bride's Kimono and The Floating Girl.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 Asia...

A graded reader for learners of English (EFL).Level 4 - B1/B2 Intermediate (2)Word count: 13,773This is the 2nd book in the Chi-obaa series. The first book is "Chi-obaa and Friends".Here are two more stories from Nakashige-cho.In the first story, a very important person asks Chi-obaa for help. He needs some information and he believes Chi-obaa is the best person to get it. She travels to Osaka and goes undercover in a bar in Osaka in search of the trut...