2024 Ngaio Marsh Award — Best First Novel nominee #1 Bestseller (Women Sleuths) — Amazon Japan, Singapore Tokyo Weekender magazine — Autumn 2024 book club choice Beneath the sheen of its orderly streets and obedient populace, all is not well in the port city of Kobe. Business is as brisk as the Haru-ichiban spring breeze for Mami Suzuki, hotel clerk by day, private investigator by night.Who's stealing from Japan's biggest pearl trader? Where's the master sushi chef and why are his knives missing? How did the tea ceremony teacher's brother really die? And what does an island of cats have to do with a pregnant Shinto shrine maiden?From the Kobe wharfs to the rugged Japan Sea coast, the subtropics of Okinawa, and a remote island community in the Seto Inland Sea, each new adventure ends with a universal truth - that there are two sides to every story of misfortune.
