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Rei Shimura #10
Shimura Trouble
During a family reunion on the island of Oahu, Japanese-American undercover spy Rei Shimura is roped into helping the Hawaiian branch of her family regain land stolen from them during World War II. But when fire sweeps the island and her young cousin is accused of arson, Rei, with the assistance of both her boyfriend and ex-lover, must discover the truth, which turns out to be linked to the Shimura family history . . .
173 pages, Hardcover
First published June 19, 2008
63 people are currently reading
536 people want to read
About the author
Sujata Massey
36 books2,671 followersSujata Massey is the author of historical and mystery fiction set in Asia. She is best known for the Perveen Mistry series published in the United States by Soho Press and in India by Penguin Random House India. In June, 2021, THE BOMBAY PRINCE, third book in the series, releases in the US/Canada and Australia/New Zealand; it will be published by Penguin India later the same month.
THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL, the first Perveen novel, was named a Best Mystery/Thriller of 2018 and also an Amazon Best Mystery/Thriller of 2018. Additionally, the book won the Bruce Alexander Best Historical Mystery Award, the Agatha Award for Best Historical Mystery and the Mary Higgins Clark Award, all in 2019.
The second Perveen novel, THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE, won the Bruce Alexander Best Historical Mystery Award in 2020.
Sujata's other works include THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY (2013) and eleven Rei Shimura mysteries published from 1997-2014. For more about Sujata's books and a full events schedule, subscribe to her newsletter, http://sujatamassey.com/newsletter
Sujata lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her family and two dogs. In addition to writing, she loves to travel, read, cook, garden and walk.
THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL, the first Perveen novel, was named a Best Mystery/Thriller of 2018 and also an Amazon Best Mystery/Thriller of 2018. Additionally, the book won the Bruce Alexander Best Historical Mystery Award, the Agatha Award for Best Historical Mystery and the Mary Higgins Clark Award, all in 2019.
The second Perveen novel, THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE, won the Bruce Alexander Best Historical Mystery Award in 2020.
Sujata's other works include THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY (2013) and eleven Rei Shimura mysteries published from 1997-2014. For more about Sujata's books and a full events schedule, subscribe to her newsletter, http://sujatamassey.com/newsletter
Sujata lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her family and two dogs. In addition to writing, she loves to travel, read, cook, garden and walk.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
January 10, 2021
The book is totally fine, there's not much to say about it, BUT I have to rant a bit about Rei's new boyfriend Michael (slight spoilers about their relationship ahead and btw I'm not a native speaker, sorry for any mistakes). Michael is what we call nowadays "toxic" and I hope they breakup in the next book because I really don't think he is good for Rei. For example when she tells him that she's gonna meet her ex to tell him that she is not dead and to talk about their relationship (catharsis like) Michael gets angry and threatens "if you do that I will breakup with you" and hangs up the phone. I'd call that aggressive, possessive and immature, coming from a man his age. The worst moment was when he sees a teenager smoking and throwing the cigarette onto the ground, Michael picks up the cigarette and stuffs it into the kid's mouth! What the?! I'd be scared of a guy who treats a kid like that... Oh, wait, the actual worst moment was when Rei and Michael had sex (for the first time, I think) and during that he asks if Rei wants to marry him and Rei says yes. The next day he already starts planning their wedding and is really pissed when Rei tells him that she just said yes because, well, she was aroused. What is wrong with this guy? I can understand that Massey wanted a traditional fairytale ending for Rei but forcing her to marry an impulsive idiot who has been her boyfriend for only two(?) weeks is just yikes. Without Michael I would've enjoyed the book much more.
June 4, 2008
The final Rei Shimura book according to the author's website.
Although this saddens me, I think I'm ready for Rei to settle down too.
The plot/setting of this book seemed a bit too unlikely, even for Rei, although Ms. Massey pulled it together OK.
I like Michael's character, but I am personally still mourning Hugh Glendinning, although he makes a much appreciated cameo.
May she live happily ever after, though I sure wouldn't mind seeing this series have a sequel a few years down the road.
I hope the author does as well with her next series.
Although this saddens me, I think I'm ready for Rei to settle down too.
The plot/setting of this book seemed a bit too unlikely, even for Rei, although Ms. Massey pulled it together OK.
I like Michael's character, but I am personally still mourning Hugh Glendinning, although he makes a much appreciated cameo.
May she live happily ever after, though I sure wouldn't mind seeing this series have a sequel a few years down the road.
I hope the author does as well with her next series.
May 28, 2009
I've enjoyed (and recommend) the earlier mystery novels in this series, which feature Rei, a Japanese-American antiquities dealer, and her escapades in Japan. I liked the earlier novels for their split view of Japanese culture from a young 20-something woman who is both half-outsider/half-insider. Rei talks about the food, the customs, the dress, the religious ceremonies, but all while she's solving some kind of mystery. Since the action in this book moved to Hawaii, it lost some of that exotic interest. But definitely check out the earlier series if you like part chick-lit, part travelogue, part romance.
January 31, 2013
There's something that seems to pull suspense or mystery novelists to eventually doing a 'Nuptials Episode' with an ongoing detective character finally getting married. Maybe a little similar to an aging popstar doing the obligatory record album comprised of old standards, these efforts are generally a place-holder in a series, and lucky indeed if not an embarassment.
For Conan Doyle the only brush with an emotional life for his character was A Scandal In Bohemia, in which the coked-up Holmes gets starry-eyed over Irene Adler, forever to be known as THE woman, and one with a dodgy past. During the course of the story, she is revealed as a shape-shifting player of the same games as Holmes, a female Moriarity, nearly. In the end she vanishes into the night, of course, causing nary a ripple in the fog that shrouds Baker Street. For the Victorian readership, I guess, a removed and abstracted crush (from a man who lived with another man no less) was enough. Too much, maybe-- they loved it.
From Ian Fleming, though, we get the full enactment of the Nuptials syndrome. On Her Majesties Secret Service finds our ladykiller beginning the story with a letter of resignation to the Service. Over the course of the inevitable re-enlistment (it keeps drawing him back, according to the rules of the genre) we learn we have a new Bond, one with a history, and even the occasional vestige of Emotion. Startlingly different for the average 007 novel. True to form, though, we get a highly-strung, dysfunctional and suicidal woman as THE woman for Bond. And as we get to the final pages, she's learned the lesson any Bondgirl must face, married to him or not : You only live once. Mrs. Bond is murdered in the last pages of OHMSS, as she must be.
High profile company in which to locate Sujata Massey perhaps, but she's writing in the genre begun by those giants. Sort of. Author Massey has a series going, with her Rei Shimura character, a woman who seems to get regularly "swept up" in dangerous situations. Her connection to those seems haphazard, though she's been involved with intelligence / security agencies in earlier outings.
Maybe all the nine previous mysteries have had a similar, lightweight approach, but here in the tenth, Shimura Trouble, we have our lady operative Rei preparing for marriage and misadventure in Hawaii. First she must juggle a million brand names (noted for our purchasing pleasure) and feature glowingly descriptive accounts of the resorts, restaurants and cocktail-venues at hand, always mentioned by name for future reference. A convenient Url wouldn't be much out of place. The reader gets the impression that a lot of upgraded suites and comped meals may have come into the equation.
During all the busy product placement she must contend with an unending round of physical, sinewy men-friends, from lawyers to Cia men, and Navy Seals to surfers-- all of whom seem to have time for an adventure with Rei (before or after the gym).
When she is finally landed, our Rei somehow begins to hallucinate:
"We rolled together, the once-pristine bed now an utter shambles... As we kissed, I tasted the exotic dessert we'd shared at dinner overlaid with our past: the gray streets we'd jogged, the long mornings reading dull reports, the text messages. I breathed deeply..."
The streets ? The TEXT MESSAGES ? You say you're kissing but you're also tasting the-- never mind. This kind of breathless disregard is intermittently hilarious, and all, uhm, overlaid with a Nancy Drew string of micro-dramas, layered into the laughs. The unintentional laughs.
Rei gets married here, though, and if you guessed a sinewy silent-type, you're getting the idea. Consequently, we may have to give all of this a pass; it's not every book in a mystery series where the Detective gets married, and generally, as with Holmes or Bond, it's an unusual outing. Wait, no pass has to be issued, and the author will settle it for us--
Case in point, with spoiler :
Before it became ridiculous, regular practice in mystery or pulp writing might include a convenient Amnesia condition, or maybe a secret Identical Twin, with the purpose of tying up impossible plot twists. But it became ridiculous, and as with the more recent Tourettes, Lima or Stockholm syndromes, increasingly out of fashion for any serious mystery.
Simply put, too lame to consider as a plot element.
Crowning the generally ridiculous Shimura Trouble, once and forever, is this fact: in the end, our sinewy culprit (even the culprits work out regularly) is found out to be -- a practising Psychiatrist, who is himself afflicted with Munchausen-Syndrome-By-Proxy.
Really, that's what it says in the book.
Words fail.
For Conan Doyle the only brush with an emotional life for his character was A Scandal In Bohemia, in which the coked-up Holmes gets starry-eyed over Irene Adler, forever to be known as THE woman, and one with a dodgy past. During the course of the story, she is revealed as a shape-shifting player of the same games as Holmes, a female Moriarity, nearly. In the end she vanishes into the night, of course, causing nary a ripple in the fog that shrouds Baker Street. For the Victorian readership, I guess, a removed and abstracted crush (from a man who lived with another man no less) was enough. Too much, maybe-- they loved it.
From Ian Fleming, though, we get the full enactment of the Nuptials syndrome. On Her Majesties Secret Service finds our ladykiller beginning the story with a letter of resignation to the Service. Over the course of the inevitable re-enlistment (it keeps drawing him back, according to the rules of the genre) we learn we have a new Bond, one with a history, and even the occasional vestige of Emotion. Startlingly different for the average 007 novel. True to form, though, we get a highly-strung, dysfunctional and suicidal woman as THE woman for Bond. And as we get to the final pages, she's learned the lesson any Bondgirl must face, married to him or not : You only live once. Mrs. Bond is murdered in the last pages of OHMSS, as she must be.
High profile company in which to locate Sujata Massey perhaps, but she's writing in the genre begun by those giants. Sort of. Author Massey has a series going, with her Rei Shimura character, a woman who seems to get regularly "swept up" in dangerous situations. Her connection to those seems haphazard, though she's been involved with intelligence / security agencies in earlier outings.
Maybe all the nine previous mysteries have had a similar, lightweight approach, but here in the tenth, Shimura Trouble, we have our lady operative Rei preparing for marriage and misadventure in Hawaii. First she must juggle a million brand names (noted for our purchasing pleasure) and feature glowingly descriptive accounts of the resorts, restaurants and cocktail-venues at hand, always mentioned by name for future reference. A convenient Url wouldn't be much out of place. The reader gets the impression that a lot of upgraded suites and comped meals may have come into the equation.
During all the busy product placement she must contend with an unending round of physical, sinewy men-friends, from lawyers to Cia men, and Navy Seals to surfers-- all of whom seem to have time for an adventure with Rei (before or after the gym).
When she is finally landed, our Rei somehow begins to hallucinate:
"We rolled together, the once-pristine bed now an utter shambles... As we kissed, I tasted the exotic dessert we'd shared at dinner overlaid with our past: the gray streets we'd jogged, the long mornings reading dull reports, the text messages. I breathed deeply..."
The streets ? The TEXT MESSAGES ? You say you're kissing but you're also tasting the-- never mind. This kind of breathless disregard is intermittently hilarious, and all, uhm, overlaid with a Nancy Drew string of micro-dramas, layered into the laughs. The unintentional laughs.
Rei gets married here, though, and if you guessed a sinewy silent-type, you're getting the idea. Consequently, we may have to give all of this a pass; it's not every book in a mystery series where the Detective gets married, and generally, as with Holmes or Bond, it's an unusual outing. Wait, no pass has to be issued, and the author will settle it for us--
Case in point, with spoiler :
Before it became ridiculous, regular practice in mystery or pulp writing might include a convenient Amnesia condition, or maybe a secret Identical Twin, with the purpose of tying up impossible plot twists. But it became ridiculous, and as with the more recent Tourettes, Lima or Stockholm syndromes, increasingly out of fashion for any serious mystery.
Simply put, too lame to consider as a plot element.
Crowning the generally ridiculous Shimura Trouble, once and forever, is this fact: in the end, our sinewy culprit (even the culprits work out regularly) is found out to be -- a practising Psychiatrist, who is himself afflicted with Munchausen-Syndrome-By-Proxy.
Really, that's what it says in the book.
Words fail.
February 20, 2009
This is the last book in this 10-part series.
The series overall has been uneven. I tend to prefer the ones set in Japan. I love learning about Japanese culture and history, especially as it is filtered and narrated through the eyes of Rei, the Japanese-American main character.
The books have a little bit of everything—mystery, history, romance. They are also part travelogue.
I am going to miss these book sand the characters. I have developed a lot of affection for them through the years.
The series overall has been uneven. I tend to prefer the ones set in Japan. I love learning about Japanese culture and history, especially as it is filtered and narrated through the eyes of Rei, the Japanese-American main character.
The books have a little bit of everything—mystery, history, romance. They are also part travelogue.
I am going to miss these book sand the characters. I have developed a lot of affection for them through the years.
November 5, 2019
A series running out of steam here.
July 31, 2016
The tenth installment in the Rei Shimura series was a pleasure to read -- it doesn't hurt that it was set in one of my favorite places, Hawaii :) In this one, Rei, her father, Uncle Hiroshi, and cousin Tom travel to Hawaii to meet a previously unknown branch of the Shimura family and soon get embroiled in a complex legal situation that might involve stolen land dating back to World War II. I was just glad that Rei got a chance to get in a decent cup of Kona before things went completely south! Even though I'm late to this series, I've enjoyed reading it over the past year, getting to know Rei, and seeing how she evolved over the course of the series. I read several of these books back-to-back and have been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to read this one. There's a lot to love about this series but I especially loved the cultural aspects woven into the story lines (each mystery centers on an aspect of Japanese culture and/or history), the locales and all of Rei's travels (Japan, DC, San Francisco, and Hawaii), and the humanity of the characters and how they developed over the course of the series. I always enjoy when I learn something or am sparked to go learn more when I read a novel, and this series delivers on that front too. If this one stands as the final book in the series, it's a fitting ending for Rei's story. But, this one does leave an opening for future Rei Shimura mysteries, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get a chance to find out what happens in the next chapter of Rei's life.
Read
July 30, 2011As a resident of Hawaii for twenty years, I found this one mighty tasty reading, even though it's written from a visitor's perspective. Many of Massey's fans dislike this one because it's set in Hawaii, but though I enjoy her stories set elsewhere, this one was a real pleasure to read. I could visualize Rei going from Ala Moana Center to the yacht harbor, or travelling to a mansion on Diamond Head. I am unlikely to ever travel to Japan, so I cannot visualize the landscape in her Japanese mysteries. The writing is fluent, and only falters occasionally in attempting to capture local cadences. The use of a land dispute as a central element in the plot may bore some of her fans, but it is central to hawaiian politics, and unfolded gracefully. Denying the claim or honoring it would not have worked, and Massey takes a middle ground. World War II detention camps and plantation life, as well as Japanese land speculators and munchausen by proxy make the book both historical and modern, and Rei and her family and beau are attractive, with the villains suitably villainous.
November 5, 2011
Although I have been a big fan of Massey's other Rei Shimura novels, this one falls short. The story takes place in Hawaii - Rei and some of her family have traveled there to help out a family member in trouble - and there is lots of good information about history and culture. But a lot of the plot seems too contrived and there are a lot of characters to keep straight. Guess I'd have to say her earlier books are her best.
July 15, 2008
I've enjoyed reading this series and this entry proved to be no exception. It is fast-paced, witty and crammed with Japanese and Hawaiian culture tidbits, sprinkled with a hefty dose of romance. There's more than one mystery going on here, and how Rei manages to solve all of them involves a lot of suspension of belief, so just enjoy the ride.
December 27, 2020
“Shimura Trouble” is the second to last in the Rei Shimura series, and act in a way as a closure to Rei’s story, as it was in fact, intended a the conclusion to the series (the 2011 tsunami in Japan, prompted Massey to wrote an additional book). In “Shimura Trouble” we encounter Rei, who is still working as an undercover spy, at a family reunion in Oahu, where she winds up helping the Hawai’ian branch of the Shimura family to reclaim the land stolen from them by the Government during World War II. Once again Massey succeeds in interweaving historical events and Rei’s story into a satisfying, credible and interesting story that manages both, unearth a chapter of dark American story and give a happily end to our favorite American-Japanese sleuth.
Sujata Massey’s “Rei Shimura” is a mystery series featuring the eponymous character, an American Japanese woman in her late twenties (at the start of the series) who relocates to Tokyo to reembrace her Japanese roots and start an antiquities business. The books mix classical sleuth mystery, with Japanese cultural observation and biographical bits, into a nice, easy to read and fully enjoyable series. Some mysteries remind the classical clean mysteries of old, while other (especially on the later books) deal with very serious historical events, but in each case the stories remain easy-to-read mysteries with Japanese flavour. While an in-depth study into Japanese culture, should not be expected, the books offer a very credible insight into Japanese everyday life, from the point of view of American foreigner with the added bonus of having a real Japanese heritage, that allows her to blend in and navigate the country with credible ease. Every book in the series can be read as a stand-alone from the mystery point of view, as the arc-story only pertains to Rei Shimura chronological development.
Massey, a London born, who has herself a mixed Indian-German heritage and has expended (due to her own husband work) several year in Japan, excels by interweave her own biographical data with fictional bit into one of the most original and interesting series in the genre. Rei Shimura’s character development and her reflections on the country evolve organically with the experiences in the country. Sujata Massey succeeds in showing the changes in Rei’s personality and reflections to the environment. A must-read for all fans of female slaughtering and/or ‘light’ Japanese culture.
Sujata Massey’s “Rei Shimura” is a mystery series featuring the eponymous character, an American Japanese woman in her late twenties (at the start of the series) who relocates to Tokyo to reembrace her Japanese roots and start an antiquities business. The books mix classical sleuth mystery, with Japanese cultural observation and biographical bits, into a nice, easy to read and fully enjoyable series. Some mysteries remind the classical clean mysteries of old, while other (especially on the later books) deal with very serious historical events, but in each case the stories remain easy-to-read mysteries with Japanese flavour. While an in-depth study into Japanese culture, should not be expected, the books offer a very credible insight into Japanese everyday life, from the point of view of American foreigner with the added bonus of having a real Japanese heritage, that allows her to blend in and navigate the country with credible ease. Every book in the series can be read as a stand-alone from the mystery point of view, as the arc-story only pertains to Rei Shimura chronological development.
Massey, a London born, who has herself a mixed Indian-German heritage and has expended (due to her own husband work) several year in Japan, excels by interweave her own biographical data with fictional bit into one of the most original and interesting series in the genre. Rei Shimura’s character development and her reflections on the country evolve organically with the experiences in the country. Sujata Massey succeeds in showing the changes in Rei’s personality and reflections to the environment. A must-read for all fans of female slaughtering and/or ‘light’ Japanese culture.
March 5, 2020
Rei Shimura, Japanese father, caucasian American mother is off on another adventure. We find Rei at her parents California home looking after a sick dad when a letter arrives from Hawaii, a part of the family invite them and the family from Japan to come to an Uncles 88th birthday party. Not having heard of this family, Rei does a little bit of Ancestry background, and believes they are legit. However, as soon as they get to the airport in Hawaii, something is amiss, Rei senses right away, her second cousin is a real film flam man, when he has turned down the car they have hired, and has what we use to call in Guam, a "Guam bomb" at more money, and a real wreck, this family is being taken for a ride from the beginning in more ways than one!
As always, mystery, intrigue, sleazy cousin, who even has the audacity to call Hugh in to help, even though Rei and Hugh have partied ways. Rei's heart is with some one new, and as always, some one tries to bump her off.
As always, mystery, intrigue, sleazy cousin, who even has the audacity to call Hugh in to help, even though Rei and Hugh have partied ways. Rei's heart is with some one new, and as always, some one tries to bump her off.
November 20, 2021
Mielestäni tämä oli Shimura-sarjan ehdottomasti tylsin kirja. Rein sukulaiset eivät yksinkertaisesti ole kovin kiinnostavia, varsinkin kun he suhtautuvat toisiinsa kuin vieraisiin. Ei juuri näy lämpöä veljesten ja veljenpojan välillä.
Tarinan mysteeri on epäkiinnostava eikä missään vaiheessa saa tuulta alleen.
Loppu oli... noh, ei pahimmasta päästä, mutta ehkä sitä odotti enemmän kun tämän piti olla viimeinen Rein tarina. Toki Rei sai ansaitsemansa lopun mistä pidin itsekin, mutta olisin odottanut enemmän. Tarina saatetaan päätökseen mainitsematta Rein kavereita, sukulaisia, vieraita, tuttavia? Ilmoitetaan vaan että näin kävi ja heidän tulevaisuutensa on sinun mielikuvituksesi varassa? Olisin itse kaivannut konkreettisempaa ja selkeämpää loppua.
Havaiji kuulostaa ihanalta paikalta, ja tämäkin kirja sai aikaan suuren matkakuumeen.
Mitään muuta tästä ei oikein keksi sanottavaa.
Tarinan mysteeri on epäkiinnostava eikä missään vaiheessa saa tuulta alleen.
Loppu oli... noh, ei pahimmasta päästä, mutta ehkä sitä odotti enemmän kun tämän piti olla viimeinen Rein tarina. Toki Rei sai ansaitsemansa lopun mistä pidin itsekin, mutta olisin odottanut enemmän. Tarina saatetaan päätökseen mainitsematta Rein kavereita, sukulaisia, vieraita, tuttavia? Ilmoitetaan vaan että näin kävi ja heidän tulevaisuutensa on sinun mielikuvituksesi varassa? Olisin itse kaivannut konkreettisempaa ja selkeämpää loppua.
Havaiji kuulostaa ihanalta paikalta, ja tämäkin kirja sai aikaan suuren matkakuumeen.
Mitään muuta tästä ei oikein keksi sanottavaa.
February 21, 2019
Great book. Have read at least one book in this series previously (The Typhoon Lover) although a while ago. Renews my interest in starting this series at the beginning.
This book takes place on Oahu, where I holidayed a couple of years ago, so many of the places & features are familiar to me.
Apparently there is another book coming in the series, set in Thailand post tsunami. Looking forward to reading it & hope perhaps the author has a new take on the series. This current book could have been the swan song, so hope to see the latest book soon.
This book takes place on Oahu, where I holidayed a couple of years ago, so many of the places & features are familiar to me.
Apparently there is another book coming in the series, set in Thailand post tsunami. Looking forward to reading it & hope perhaps the author has a new take on the series. This current book could have been the swan song, so hope to see the latest book soon.
February 6, 2020
I think this Rei Shimura mystery in particular would make a great film! What with the Hawaii setting and some special ops action at the climax! And of course the Rei/Michael relationship finally burgeons. Massey has become one of my favorite mystery authors! I definitely recommend this and the other 10 Rei stories (which you can read out of order, like I have, but better in sequence).
August 30, 2024
This episode of the series was a little different than the others. This one happens in Hawaii. I learned about the Japanese American society in Hawaii now and 100 years ago. I found that fascinating. The mystery was also inventive. Though I did see some of it coming, other parts were a surprise at the end. It also had a twist of extended family to it and the good and bad things about them.
January 25, 2025
Clever plot and context
Love the details of Hawaiian history with its complex cultures and land, and the mix of rich and poor and in between. Fun plot though sometimes contrived. As in her other books the central char7are all good, which gets old and the dailoogue often unconvincing. But a fun read!
Love the details of Hawaiian history with its complex cultures and land, and the mix of rich and poor and in between. Fun plot though sometimes contrived. As in her other books the central char7are all good, which gets old and the dailoogue often unconvincing. But a fun read!
June 7, 2020
I loved it!
As always, beautifully researched. I found out lots of things I didn’t know about Hawaii. It was great to see Reí with a different branch of her family. As usual, she put herself in danger and I couldn’t stop reading!
As always, beautifully researched. I found out lots of things I didn’t know about Hawaii. It was great to see Reí with a different branch of her family. As usual, she put herself in danger and I couldn’t stop reading!
May 26, 2022
This is definitely almost the end of the series. I enjoyed parts, but it dragged in parts. As always, the research was impeccable, but the story around it lagged. Despite that, I’ll still read the last book of the series.
December 31, 2018
It was good, bit not as good.
September 29, 2019
good continuing series
December 17, 2019
It was a bit much: Rei, the superhero. Whatever! 🙄 My eyes were rolling real hard, especially towards the end.
March 27, 2021
Another great Rei Shimura book!
May 29, 2022
A good capstone to the series.
(She said. And then discovered there's one more.)
(She said. And then discovered there's one more.)
June 6, 2022
I started this series because it was set in Japan and had an interesting perspective. This one set in Hawaii, was well written and had an interesting plot. I enjoyed it.
July 19, 2022
Juoni vei mukanaan niin että kirja oli luettava loppuun nopeasti. Olen koukussa tähän sarjaan.
November 17, 2022
Not so good
December 31, 2024
Set in Hawaii where Rei, her father, cousin, and uncle are visiting long-lost relatives, a deadly fire causes trouble for Rei's family.
December 22, 2025
Oikein hyvä. Miljöö mukavasti erilainen kuin muissa sarjan kirjoissa.
April 24, 2012
Sometimes its better to leave a series hanging than try to tie up all the loose ends, just because you don't want to leave your heroine standing alone in a hotel bathroom holding a note from her boss...
When to stop writing a series? At least one book before your readers lose interest sufficiently to stop buying your books and two books before you start running out of inspiration. That's easy to say for a reader though. The author may be under contract to write a specific number of books. However, authors might do well to remember that it's OK to leave a few loose threads rather than force a concluding novel after the point of no inspiration. Leaving a few things up to your readers' imagination is preferable to straining for what turns out to be an implausible ending to a series.
Sujata Massey's series of suspense novels begins when our heroine, Rei Shimura struggling to make ends meet in Tokyo, transitioning from underpaid English teacher to underpublicized antiques dealer and ends...well, that's the topic of this entry.
One of my main complaints about Shimura Trouble is the transition between it and the previous novel. The previous novel, Girl in a Box, ends with Rei in Tokyo, contemplating whether she wants to continue in the branch of the CIA for which she's been working for the past year, given that she's just realized she's in love with her boss, and possibly he with her. Shimura Trouble begins with Rei back home in San Francisco caring for her father, who's just had a massive stroke. In fairness, tragically, sometimes people do get massive strokes out of the blue with no personal or familial history of circulatory issues, but I'd expect either some mention of her father's health in previous novels or a mention in this one of the "out of the blue" nature of this stroke...and I didn't spot Massey including either, after having read the book twice. If I hadn't been paying attention (and librarians do pay attention to this sort of thing), I'd have thought that I missed a novel between Girl in a Box and Shimura Trouble, as the transition between the two is that disjointed.
Another problem I have with Shimura Trouble is that her family members don't seem overly concerned with the connection between Rei's activities in previous books and in this one; none of her family members ask obvious questions like "What do you mean, you've been working for the CIA for the past 18 months? Weren't you working on building your antiques importing business? Why are you marrying your boss? What happened to your previous boyfriends?"
This book really can't stand alone, nor does it suffice as an adequate end to a ten-book sequence. I don't think there's sufficient explanation given for any of the people, events and activities introduced in Shimura Trouble to allow it to serve even as an ending to a 'series'. All the characters in this novel seem like cardboard cutouts to the point that I can't distinguish between characters who've appeared multiple times in previous books, much less characters who appear in this book alone. As far as character motivation goes, our heroine Rei spent the first four books in Japan struggling to make a life for herself there and carrying on about how she wanted to stay in Japan despite her upbringing in the U.S. The second four books were about how she was having culture shock returning to the U.S. and about how much she wanted to return to Japan, but was banninated from same. The ninth book was how she succeeded in getting an undercover CIA posting to Japan but didn't fit in anymore. At no point in the series do I recall Hawaii being mentioned as an alternative.
The first books in the series make enjoyable lightweight reading, as much travelogue and description of expatriate life in Japan as actual mysteries, character driven rather than police procedural; read them if you like Rei. In fairness, I may enjoy these more because I haven't been to Japan. I expect that, if I were familiar with the location, I'd find Massey's description of Japan and Tokyo as irritating as I did Niffenegger's book set in Chicago, The Time Traveler's Wife...but that's a subject for another blog post. My main message for Massey here is "It would have been OK to leave your heroine in a bathroom in a hotel in Tokyo. I'd rather imagine for myself than slog through an attempt at conclusion."
When to stop writing a series? At least one book before your readers lose interest sufficiently to stop buying your books and two books before you start running out of inspiration. That's easy to say for a reader though. The author may be under contract to write a specific number of books. However, authors might do well to remember that it's OK to leave a few loose threads rather than force a concluding novel after the point of no inspiration. Leaving a few things up to your readers' imagination is preferable to straining for what turns out to be an implausible ending to a series.
Sujata Massey's series of suspense novels begins when our heroine, Rei Shimura struggling to make ends meet in Tokyo, transitioning from underpaid English teacher to underpublicized antiques dealer and ends...well, that's the topic of this entry.
One of my main complaints about Shimura Trouble is the transition between it and the previous novel. The previous novel, Girl in a Box, ends with Rei in Tokyo, contemplating whether she wants to continue in the branch of the CIA for which she's been working for the past year, given that she's just realized she's in love with her boss, and possibly he with her. Shimura Trouble begins with Rei back home in San Francisco caring for her father, who's just had a massive stroke. In fairness, tragically, sometimes people do get massive strokes out of the blue with no personal or familial history of circulatory issues, but I'd expect either some mention of her father's health in previous novels or a mention in this one of the "out of the blue" nature of this stroke...and I didn't spot Massey including either, after having read the book twice. If I hadn't been paying attention (and librarians do pay attention to this sort of thing), I'd have thought that I missed a novel between Girl in a Box and Shimura Trouble, as the transition between the two is that disjointed.
Another problem I have with Shimura Trouble is that her family members don't seem overly concerned with the connection between Rei's activities in previous books and in this one; none of her family members ask obvious questions like "What do you mean, you've been working for the CIA for the past 18 months? Weren't you working on building your antiques importing business? Why are you marrying your boss? What happened to your previous boyfriends?"
This book really can't stand alone, nor does it suffice as an adequate end to a ten-book sequence. I don't think there's sufficient explanation given for any of the people, events and activities introduced in Shimura Trouble to allow it to serve even as an ending to a 'series'. All the characters in this novel seem like cardboard cutouts to the point that I can't distinguish between characters who've appeared multiple times in previous books, much less characters who appear in this book alone. As far as character motivation goes, our heroine Rei spent the first four books in Japan struggling to make a life for herself there and carrying on about how she wanted to stay in Japan despite her upbringing in the U.S. The second four books were about how she was having culture shock returning to the U.S. and about how much she wanted to return to Japan, but was banninated from same. The ninth book was how she succeeded in getting an undercover CIA posting to Japan but didn't fit in anymore. At no point in the series do I recall Hawaii being mentioned as an alternative.
The first books in the series make enjoyable lightweight reading, as much travelogue and description of expatriate life in Japan as actual mysteries, character driven rather than police procedural; read them if you like Rei. In fairness, I may enjoy these more because I haven't been to Japan. I expect that, if I were familiar with the location, I'd find Massey's description of Japan and Tokyo as irritating as I did Niffenegger's book set in Chicago, The Time Traveler's Wife...but that's a subject for another blog post. My main message for Massey here is "It would have been OK to leave your heroine in a bathroom in a hotel in Tokyo. I'd rather imagine for myself than slog through an attempt at conclusion."
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