Rei Shimura is struggling to build her antiques business in Tokyo when she gets a call from a Washington DC museum, asking her to act as courier to transport a set of priceless early 19th Century kimonos. Thus begins the adventure of a lifetime, involving stolen artifacts, a wacky tour group of Japanese women heading for US shopping malls, and a very dead body. Rei manages to reunite with her parents in California to uncover a story of long-dead lovers, to rekindle a tempestuous affair with the man who just might be her Mr Right, and - or course - to solve the crime. This is the fifth book in Massey's award-winning mystery series.
Sujata Banerjee Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany. She grew up mostly in the United States (California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota) and earned her BA from the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program. She then worked as a reporter at the Baltimore Evening Sun before marrying and moving to Japan. The area where she lived, an hour south of Tokyo, forms most of the settings of her Rei Shimura mysteries. The series featuring a young Asian-American woman sleuth has collected many mystery award nominations, including the Edgar and Anthony, and won the Agatha and Macavity awards. The ten Rei Shimura mysteries are published in 18 countries.
Sujata also has short stories published in several mystery anthologies, most recent of which are POLITICS NOIR and ONCE UPON A CRIME.
Sujata lives with her family in Minneapolis and is currently writing a new standalone novel with the working title THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY. It's a historical thriller that tells the story of India's struggle for independence through a young Bengali woman's point of view. It's the book she's been waiting to write all her life, as it combines her family background and her fascination with colonial life.
