Stumbling onto the scene, Mas sees more amiss than the detectives do, but his instinct is to keep his mouth shut. The victim was Kazzy Ouchi, a half-Japanese millionaire who also happened to be Mari and Lloyd’s boss. But an anxious phone call from Mari asking for his help plunges the usually obstinate Mas into a series of startling situations from maneuvering in an unfamiliar city to making nice with his tall, blond son-in-law, Lloyd, to taking care of a sickly child…to finding a dead body in the rubble of a former koi pond. And Mas, busy tending lawns, gambling, and struggling to put his Hiroshima past behind him, never had much time for the family he was trying to support.įor years now, his resentful daughter has lived a continent away in New York City, and had a life he knew little about. Read Moreįrom the time she was a child, Mas Arai’s daughter, Mari, was completely gasa-gasa–never sitting still, always on the go, getting into everything. By the end of the summer, Joji will be dead and Mas’s own life will be in danger.įor while Mas was building a life on the edge of the American dream, he has kept powerful secrets: about three friends long ago, about two lives entwined, and about what really happened when the bomb fell on Hiroshima in August 1945.A spellbinding mystery played out from war-torn Japan to the rich tidewaters of L.Ī.’s multicultural landscape, this stunning debut novel weaves a powerful tale of family, loyalty, and the price of both survival and forgiveness. And now bachi-the spirit of retribution-is knocking on his door.It begins when a stranger comes around, asking questions about a nurseryman who once lived in Hiroshima, a man known as Joji Haneda. And his livelihood is falling into the hands of the men he once hired by the day.įor Mas, a life of sin is catching up to him. But while Mas keeps lawns neatly trimmed, his own life has gone to seed. In the foothills of Pasadena, Mas Arai is just another Japanese-American gardener, his lawnmower blades clean and sharp, his truck carefully tuned.

Murder on Bamboo Lane by Naomi Hirahara