Snakeskin Shamisen (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: hakujin man, lawn mower shop, Judge Parker, Detective Alo, Randy Yamashiro (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In youth-obsessed Los Angeles, maturity and reticence work in favor of the 70ish gardener Mas Arai, Hirahara's reluctant hero, as he gets drawn into his highly enjoyable third mystery (after 2005's Gasa-Gasa Girl). Mas leaves a party held for a friend at a Hawaiian restaurant early, but when the guest of honor turns up dead, Mas has to return to the restaurant to answer questions about anything suspicious he might have observed. A broken shamisen (a stringed instrument similar to a banjo) found at the crime scene, he realizes, indicates that the seeds of the murder were sown in Okinawa during WWII. As a Hiroshima survivor, Mas has his misgivings about examining the past too closely, but his strong sense of right and wrong propels him toward a just resolution. Hirahara's sharp ear for dialogue and keen sense of place mark this as a superior read, but it's her intimate view of the Japanese-American community and her wry portrait of the endearing Mas, with his fondness for gambling and Spam, that really make this series stand out. (May)
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Review

"Highly enjoyable.... Hirahara's sharp ear for dialogue and keen sense of place mark this as a superior read, but it's her intimate view of the Japanese-American community and her wry portrait of the endearing Mas, with his fondness for gambling and Spam, that really make this series stand out."—Publishers Weekly


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Delta (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385339615
• ISBN-13: 978-0385339612
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #507,199 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong investigative tale , May 6, 2006

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Hiroshima survivor gardener Mas Arai attends a gala honoring his friend attorney George "G.I." Hasuike at Mahalo Hawaiian restaurant in Torrance, California. Meanwhile the party's host Randy Yamashiro informs G.I. that he won $500K on a Spam slot machine during their recent trip to Vegas. Mas meets the fianc?e of G.I. Juanita Gushiken and finds her charming; on the other hand he immediate dislikes Randy. When Randy and G.I. almost come to blows, Mas decides to leave.

Not long afterward Juanita asks Mas for help as someone stabbed Randy to death; the prime suspect is G.I. who had plenty of motives, 500,000 of them. Mas hesitantly agrees to investigate, but though he says no to her, Juanita insists on joining him every step of the way. The only clue so far is a five-decade old battered SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN Okinawa musical instrument left near the corpse.

Mas' third wonderful appearance (see SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI and GASA-GASA GIRL) is a delightful look at a subculture today vs. the 1950s inside of a fine murder mystery with ties back to the happy days of the Eisenhower era. The reluctant hero is at his best as he makes inquiries and reflects back to just after WWII, but is also enhanced, often with humor, by the energetic female fireball Juanita. The whodunit is cleverly devised so that readers will enjoy a strong investigative tale while also obtaining appreciative insight into a subculture.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A winning protagonist . . . ., February 3, 2007

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is the third outing for Los Angeles gardener Mas Arai and Hirahara generally maintains her high standards in delineating the characters of both the people of the Japanese-American subculture and their city. One of Mas's friends has won a half-million dollar jackpot on a slot machine -- which Mas, an inveterate horse and card player, ordinarily considers a sucker bet -- and the celebration thrown by another of his friends ends with the murder of the winner. Mas gets sucked into things against his will and soon is trying to figure out how an antique Okinawan musical instrument became involved, and what the crime might have to do with another death fifty years before. And then the Department of Homeland Security gets into the act. The plot doesn't seem quite as well thought out as in the first two books, but I enjoyed the interplay among the characters, . . . especially Mas's interest in a female African-Okinawan detective.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best in the Mas Arai Series So Far, April 28, 2008

By	monkuboy (Temple City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

The other three reviews have done a good job of summarizing the plot in this book. I would just like to add that I have read all three of the Mas Arai mysteries and felt that this by far was the best. The characters were the most realistic, the writing style has evolved and to me flows the best of the three, and the book itself was pretty intriguing. It had me turning the pages to see what would happen next. Having grown up in the area and being a Sansei (third-generation Japanese-American), the book held special interest for me because of the characters, locale, and situations. But even without this, it is a book that is worthwhile reading. I'd recommend it unhesitatingly.