Think of this as Silence of the Lambs meets Chocolat. Except, for me, the book spent far too long on recipes and food preparation and such, and not nearly enough time on, you know, murder. Only at one point was our heroine (actually her friend) in any jeopardy and we never really got any details about anything really, er, meaty. So while there was plenty about the unfairness and impossibility of being the perfect Japanese woman, and in fact the difficutly of being a good Japanese man, I just wanted the writer to get on with it, cut to the chase. Did the woman behind bars really kill her three husbands? How did they actually die? I never found out, but I did get lots of advice on making the perfect non-lumpy sauce and how long to defrost a turkey. Maybe that was my failing as (an imperfect) reader. The novel kind of just ended, although wrapping up all the subplots and themes, I was left feeling, so what? Maybe, Butter was a dish not for me.

No. 9 of 50 books I intend to read and review in 2024.

I’m Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at my conversation school in Abiko, Japan, I write and illustrate textbooks for non-native speakers of English, release Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, paint, and write essays and Our Man in Abiko, a monthly  newsletter   highlighting good writing in English, often about about Japan, art, crime fiction and teaching.