Sujata Massey Books

When a devastating earthquake rocks Japan's northeast coast, a tsunami follows and Rei Shimura is swept into her most rugged adventure yet. The mystery begins with an SOS from Rei's friend, the antiques dealer Mr. Ishida, trapped among thousands of displaced and dead on the Tohoku Coast. Rei rushes to Tokyo, where she discovers Ishida Antiques may have been burglarized. Rei takes Mr. Ishida's abandoned dog, Hachiko, on a volunteer bus to the ravaged town of Sugihama. But Mr. Ishida's got more work for her, since he lost sight of his antiques apprentice Mayumi and is frantic with worry. He won't leave Sugihama without knowing the fate of the troubled 19-year-old girl from a famous lacquer-making family. Calling on disaster survivors and volunteers--as well as her knowledge of Japanese manners and history--Rei investigates the suspicious disappearance. From Tohoku's muddy shops and shelters to the buzzing bars and bathhouses of Tokyo, it's a suspenseful journey. But as Rei draws closer to the truth, she realizes that she's being stalked. What is following her--and can she survive the wave of danger she never saw coming? THE KIZUNA COAST is the latest novel in a sexy, smart and humorous mystery series that has won the Agatha and Macavity mystery awards and been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark prizes. It's bound to intrigue new readers and satisfy longtime Rei Shimura fans.

From an award-winning novelist, a stunning portrait of late Raj India—a sweeping saga and a love story set against a background of huge political and cultural upheaval.YOU ASK FOR MY NAME, THE REAL ONE, AND I CANNOT TELL. IT IS NOT FOR LACK OF EFFORT.In 1930, a great ocean wave blots out a Bengali village, leaving only one survivor, a young girl. As a maidservant in a British boarding school, Pom is renamed Sarah and discovers her gift for languages. Her private dreams almost die when she arrives in Kharagpur and is recruited into a secretive, decadent world. Eventually, she lands in Calcutta, renames herself Kamala, and creates a new life rich in books and friends. But although success and even love seem within reach, she remains trapped by what she is . . . and is not. As India struggles to throw off imperial rule, Kamala uses her hard-won skills—for secrecy, languages, and reading the unspoken gestures of those around her—to fight for her country’s freedom and her own happiness.

1920s Bombay. Perveen Mistry has just joined her father's law firm. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen is going through the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X, meaning she probably couldn't even read the document. The Farid widows live in full purdah, in strict seclusion, never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger

The highly anticipated follow-up to the critically acclaimed novel The Widows of Malabar Hill. India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. The state is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur’s two maharanis, the dowager queen and her daughter-in-law. The royal ladies are in a dispute over the education of the young crown prince, and a lawyer’s counsel is required. However, the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men. Just one person can help them: Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female lawyer. Perveen is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young prince’s future, but she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace’s deadly curse?

In 1922 Bombay, Perveen Mistry stands as the city’s only female lawyer amidst high child mortality and limited access to healthcare for women. At a fundraiser for a new women's hospital, she witnesses a fire accident involving the grandson of a wealthy businessman. Sunanda, the young ayah, bravely saves him but suffers severe burns. Later, Perveen discovers Sunanda has been wrongfully arrested based on dubious charges. Determined to help, she takes on Sunanda as a client and invites her to stay with her family, which is already fraught with tension due to her father’s concerns about their law firm’s involvement and her brother’s struggles with a newborn. Perveen is also dealing with her own challenges, including a forbidden romance with a former civil service officer. When the hospital’s chief donor dies unexpectedly, both Miriam Penkar, a Jewish-Indian obstetrician, and Sunanda become suspects. Perveen’s case escalates into a complex investigation, leading her through the bustling streets of Kalbadevi and Ghatkopar, and to the opulent Juhu Beach. As a second fire ignites, Perveen must uncover whether powerful forces are framing Sunanda to conceal a deeper crime, all while protecting her family and seeking justice.

November, 1921. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, is arriving in Bombay to begin a fourmonth tour. The Indian subcontinent is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn’t surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots. But she’s horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an eighteen-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince’s grand procession is passing by her college. Freny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an accident. Feeling guilty for failing to have helped Freny in life, Perveen steps forward to assist Freny’s family in the fraught dealings of the coroner’s inquest. When Freny’s death is ruled a murder, Perveen knows she can’t rest until she sees justice done. But Bombay is erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters attack anyone with perceived British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in danger?

Rei Shimura, a Japanese-American sleuth, takes a risky undercover job in a Tokyo department store linked to a D.C. agency. While enjoying a store discount, she navigates eavesdropping, a conference crash, and unwanted advances. When her cover is compromised, Rei must rely on her wits to escape a deadly situation.

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 Shimura sifts through 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, she's must walk a perilous line and uncover a killer with a dramatic flare for deadly arrangements.

Anticipating a successful interview with a hot new comic book artist, columnist Rei Shimura turns sleuth when the artist goes missing and the artist's best friend turns up dead, in a mystery that takes Shimura from the world of Tokyo strip bars to frenzied animation conventions.

2nd mystery featuring Japanese antiques dealer Rei Shimura. Follows the salaryman's wife.

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 Asian nationals forced to engage in slave labour 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 unsavoury facts about her own family's actions during the war. Rei unravels the truth, finds the killer, and at the same time learns about family ties and loyalty and the universal desire to avoid blame.

Set against the backdrop of Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, this eighth installment in Sujata Massey's acclaimed mystery series features the clever sleuth Rei Shimura. The narrative combines wit and suspense as Rei navigates a complex web of intrigue, showcasing her skills in solving mysteries while exploring cultural contrasts. The journey promises an engaging mix of humor and tension, appealing to fans of detective fiction.

A dazzling engagement ring and the promise of a fresh start in a new country bring antiques dealer and sometime-sleuth Rei Shimura to Washington, D.C. But while she tries to play catch-up with her beautiful, politically connected cousin, Kendall, and is commissioned to furnish a chic Japanese-fusion restaurant, things start to go haywire. First, Kendall vanishes from the restaurant's opening-night party, and then Rei is drafted to help Andrea, the restaurant's elegant, cagey hostess, investigate the disappearance of her own Japanese mother thirty years earlier.As the strands of these puzzles begin to come together, Rei finds that her relationship with her fiancé, Hugh, has changed from sizzle to burn. At the same time, she faces troubling questions about what it means to be a loving mother -- and whether her own independent streak will endanger the women to whom she has grown close.Rei must research the scary old days of the Vietnam War and delve into the secret history of an ambitious presidential candidate to piece together the mystery of the vanished women -- and also understand truths about herself, which may change her destiny.In The Pearl Diver, Sujata Massey delivers a multilayered, suspenseful story complete with the intrigue, romance, and rich Asian cultural background that her fans have come to relish.

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.

LA PREMIÈRE AVOCATE DE BOMBAY MÈNE L'ENQUÊTE Années 1920, Inde. Perveen Mistry vient de rejoindre le cabinet d'avocats de son père, devenant la toute première femme avocate en Inde, un statut qui ne manque pas de faire débat. Mais quand un meurtre est commis dans une riche maison musulmane pratiquant la purdah (séparation stricte des femmes et des hommes) elle est la seule à pouvoir mener l'enquête. En effet, les seules survivantes - et potentielles témoins du crime - sont les trois veuves du riche marchand, vivant recluses dans une partie de la maison interdite aux hommes. Seule Perveen peut comprendre ce qui s'est réellement passé à Malabar Hill... Une enquête passionnante, qui nous plonge au cœur de la société indienne du début du XXe siècle et de la place qu'y occupent les femmes.

LA PREMIÈRE AVOCATE DE BOMBAY MÈNE L'ENQUÊTE Années 1920, Inde. Perveen Mistry vient de rejoindre le cabinet d'avocats de son père, devenant la toute première femme avocate en Inde, un statut qui ne manque pas de faire débat. Mais quand un meurtre est commis dans une riche maison musulmane pratiquant la purdah (séparation stricte des femmes et des hommes) elle est la seule à pouvoir mener l'enquête. En effet, les seules survivantes - et potentielles témoins du crime - sont les trois veuves du riche marchand, vivant recluses dans une partie de la maison interdite aux hommes. Seule Perveen peut comprendre ce qui s'est réellement passé à Malabar Hill... Une enquête passionnante, qui nous plonge au cœur de la société indienne du début du XXe siècle et de la place qu'y occupent les femmes.

Rei Shimuras neuer Auftrag klingt verlockend: Als Mittlerin zwischen den Welten wird sie nach Washington fliegen und persönlich die große Japan-Ausstellung eröffnen – mit einem Vortrag über das Edelste an Kleidung, was die japanische Kultur zu bieten hat: den Kimono. An Bord ist ein kostbarer Brautkimono aus dem 19. Jahrhundert. Doch schon kurz nach der Ankunft ist das wertvolle Stück verschwunden. Und dann stirbt auch noch Reis Flugzeugbekanntschaft Hana … Mit Witz, Temperament und Sex-Appeal begegnet Amateuerdetektivin und Halbjapanerin Rei Shimura ihrem unvorhersehbarsten Fall.

Hawaii ist die Hölle – stellt Rei Shimura fest, die auf die paradiesische Insel zu einer Geburtstagsfeier ihres japanischen Familienclans eingeladen ist. Als nach dem Fest ein verheerendes Feuer ausbricht, scheint der Brandstifter aus Reis Verwandtschaft zu kommen. Aber auch ihr Herz steht in Flammen: Vor der Küste legt ihr ehemaliger Chef Michael mit einem Segelboot an. Verwirrt versucht die Hobbydetektivin ihre Gefühle zu ordnen und mit Michaels Hilfe Licht in die dunklen Familienangelegenheiten zu bringen – ein brandgefährliches Unterfangen!

Mladá učitelka angličtiny Rei Shimura doufala, že si v Shiroyamě, půvabném městečku v japonských horách, alespoň pár dní odpočne, a to, že se hned prvního večera seznámila se šarmantním Angličanem Hughem Glendinningem, považovala za dobré znamení. Brzy je však nalezena mrtvola manželky vlivného obchodníka Nakamury, navíc se zdá, že nikdo nemá zájem zapeklitý případ vyřešit. Také Glendinning ví zřejmě víc, než je ochoten prozradit... Postava Rei Shimury je kritikou často srovnávána s proslulou Miss Marplovou