Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Salaryman's Wife

The Salaryman's Wife by Sujata Massey won the 1997 Agatha award for best first novel. By the end of the book I didn't care who did it. I didn't care about the victim of the crime or any of the characters except, perhaps, for the protagonist. I didn't care enough about her, though, to seek out any of the others in this series. This is just another mystery novel. OK, I guess, but not a stand-out for me.

from the back of the book:
Japanese-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.) 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.

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