The Floating Girl

Rei Shimura #4

by Sujata Massey

Comics, beaches, and college kids collide in Rei Shimura's fourth Tokyo mystery. Rei, a young American antiques dealer, thinks writing a magazine column on the history of Japanese comic books will boost her reputation. During a weekend at her boyfriend Takeo's beachside house, she fixes on the perfect subject: an exquisite modern comic that reveals the disturbing social milieu of pre-World War II Japan. But when one of the comic's young creators is killed, Rei is drawn into Japan's youth underground. She floats through strip clubs, anime shops and coffeehouses, and ultimately, into the Pacific Ocean itself. But will she get the story before the killer gets her?

An edgy, sexy mystery with a strong undercurrent of humor, The Floating Girl was a Booklist Editor's Choice and finalist for Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2000.

Genres: Mystery, Japan, Fiction, Crime, Asia, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Sujata 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.

Reviews

[Marie-Therese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as previous books in the series. The mystery aspect took too long to start, the plot strands never came together in a meaningful or cohesive way, and Rei was at her most annoying much of the time. The manga angle is approached superficially and Rei never seems to really have a grasp on what manga is and what it means to its readers. The stereotypes trod out in this part of the story aren't just corny and tired, they're actually rather offensive. The whole tale just seemed a bit slap-dash, like it was thrown together without much thought or care. I hope Rei goes back to antiques in the next volume-in that milieu, she and the writer shine.

[Jane]

Set in the early 2000s, the series is about Rei Shimura, an antique dealer, who finds herself involving in various mysteries having emigrated to Tokyo. The novel was introduced to me by a friend as dealing with the manga industry in Japan and it piqued my interest. It is told in an outsider narrative, however, and it works in one sense. Being Japanese-American, Rei Shimura will not feel completely fit in with either her Japanese or "American" culture, but I often feel like there is a disdain and fascination with something Other gloss over the narrative. It can be innocuous, but often times, it has unfortunate implications, especially given the power United States has over Japan, culturally and socially, and the fact that this was written for a Western audience. So that left a sour taste in my mouth and I couldn't continue when it's apparent the novel is about Rei Shimura Rei Shimura Rei Shimura and not anyone else in the story -- and also, that the novel is not for Japanese-Americans despite being about them.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

4th book in the Rei Shimura series -- and nothing spectacular, just like the first three. What I do always like about these books is that I learn interesting things about Japanese culture. In this book, Rei has a new freelance magazine writing job that leads to research about manga (Japanese comic books) and her unlikely involvement in the death of a manga fan. The author still hasn't learned how to write a smooth story, but for some reason, I keep coming back...

[Michelle Curie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It might be unusual to start reading a series by picking up its fourth story, but this was my introduction to the Rei Shimura books and I liked this mystery novel for a lot of things – but not necessarily the mystery.



In this novel, protagonist Rei Shimura is a writer for a Tokyo newspaper called Gaijin Times, for which she's working on an article about Japan's famous comic books, called manga. As she begins her research, she stumbles upon the death of one of her subject's artists, which leads her to get involved with the Japanese gangster world.

Rei Shimura is in the special position of being half-Japanese and half-American, making her an outsider within a culture she's familiar with by nature. And that's ultimately what's fun about this book – while the mystery was at no point truly engaging, it's the little things you find out about Japanese life that are fascinating. There are little insights, such as Rei having to pay more money at a waxing salon due to her being hairier than a Japanese woman would be or people changing the way they talk to her upon noticing her accent.

Thematically, the novel focusses on introducing Westerners to the world of manga and cosplay. I grew up reading quite a few, so I'm fairly familiar with the world of Japanese graphic novels, but I felt like the book did a good job at weaving a cultural lesson into the actual plot. In an unpatronising way, you'll learn the differences in manga genres, the importance they play in people's lives and how characters and makers are idolised. A quick and informative, easy and entertaining read.

[Gateway_to_Wonderland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edellisestä Rei Shimura-kirjasta onkin mennyt aikaa. Tämä on pyörinyt pitkään kirjapinossani ja vihdoin tuli sen vuoro.

Pääasiassa pidän Rei Shimurasta vaikka täytyy sanoa, että meidän suhde ei ole vain kukkia ja hunajaa. Tässäkin kirjassa periaatteessa kaiken hyvän piti kohdata: Japani, dekkari, mangaa ja cosplaytä. Mutta sittenkään ne eivät kohdanneet.

Olin kyllä tottunut siihen, että näissä kirjoissa ei rikosta tapahdu ensimmäisten 100 sivun aikana. Joten jaksoin odottaa ja nauttia matkasta. Mutta kun rikos lopulta tapahtui, olikin se lähes täysin sivujuoni ja lopussa ratkaisu vain tipahti taivaalta. Suoraan sanottuna tuli melkolailla "mitä helvettiä"-hetki.

Muutenkin kirjan loppua kohden Rei teki ihan ihme ratkaisuja ja loppujen lopuksi tämä lukija tuli muljautaneeksi silmiään aivan liian monta kertaa Rein touhuille.

Itse mangaan ja cosplayhin yritettiin päästä sisään, mutta tuntui kuin matkaopas itsekin olisi eksyksissä. En ole mikään lajin asiantuntija, mutta sen verran aiheeseen perehtynyt, että tästä jäi hieman valju maku suuhun. Suoraan sanottuna olen pettynyt, koska tässä piti kohdata kaiken sen mistä pidän.
...mutta sitten se jäikin vain pinta raapaisuksi 😕

[Laura Martinelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some backstory here—I picked this up like, seven or eight years ago, on the recommendation of a coworker because I had mentioned that I’m a huge anime fan. And I had managed to find it at the Borders (moment of silence) near my college, bought it, and I tried reading through it a few times before ultimately giving up on it. And then it got regulated to a box of books that was in our garage until my mom unearthed it last summer.

I think that my gut instinct was trying to tell me something, considering that even years later, I had a hard time getting through this book. Not because I’ve been busy at work or that this is book four in the series, but I really just did not like this book at all. And not solely due to the fact that I was yelling at the angle (trust me, I’ll get to that.)

The main issue I have is that I did not like Rei Shimura at all. There’s a difference between sympathetic unlikeable characters and characters that I just want to punch in the face, and Rei falls into the latter category. She manages to put down every female character that she interacts with in some way—her boyfriend’s sister Natsumi’s a bitch; Rika, the intern working at the magazine Rei freelances at, is going to steal an editorial position from everyone else; even Rei remarks how her friend Karen used to be pretty but now she’s fat. Even the minor female characters are treated with derision , because how dare Rei be American.

Which leads me into the other big issue I have about the book: I get that this is a fish out of water story and I’m assuming Rei came to Japan to reconnect with distant family. If she’s been living in Japan for a while, she should have realized that Japanese society is inclusive. Like, the whole thing with Rika: the reason that the Japanese publisher is going to favor her is because Rika is native, she knows what format the publisher wants to take their magazine in, as opposed to the outsiders who do make up the staff. I don’t know if this has been touched on in the earlier books, but it’s still something worth commenting on, instead of treating the characters like they’re horrible, terrible backstabbers.

(Oh, and speaking of outsider characters WOW LET’S TALK ABOUT MARCELLUS SHALL WE? I actually think he was one of the better characters—right up until he explains why he’s sleeping with Natsumi—but then there’s the fact that when we meet him, Marcellus says that he poses as a “rape artist from Los Angeles” at a host/stripper club even though he’s really from Senegal. Nobody corrects him on the pronunciation of the word “rap” even though he can handle Japanese and English fairly well. I just… WOW that is an amazing level of offensive right there.)

And the plotline is just so…completely convoluted. To me, the resolution to the central mystery feels like such an utter copout—that Kunio Takahashi wasn’t really the murderer all along, it was the girlfriend of the victim. By the time everything was resolved, it felt more to me like Rei was chasing after a story that really wasn’t there. And to be fair, I can’t really get on board with finding justice for Nicky Larsen because 1. He’s an asshole, and 2. When we find out how he died and who killed, it just feels like everything has been for naught. The ending of this book is such a lousy pay-off that when the truth was revealed, I was sitting there going, “That’s all? Really? Really?” I don’t know why the yakuza is specifically involved so much, seeing as how there’s barely any contribution to the revelation of the murderer involving them; they just literally show up for no good reason.

It’s the same thing with the heavy involvement with the doushinji scene. While I’ll admit that a murder mystery involving a foreigner involved with a doushinji circle would be interesting, the plot keeps circling back to it rather than letting the events branch out naturally. (It does make sense when we find out who really killed Nicky, but again, that revelation felt forced and out of left field to me.) And even the trappings of anime and manga that peppered the story aren’t very well handled. On the one hand, this was written in 2000, right as anime was becoming mainstream in Western culture. On the other hand, Rei’s comments about anime/manga are incredibly reflective of the time—commenting mostly on the sexual elements, like how she can’t stand seeing another schoolgirl raped. (And it’s immediately mentioned that she’s reading girls’ comics—WHAT THE HELL KIND OF SHOJO MANGA ARE YOU READING? 90% of my manga collection is shojo, and off the top of my head, I can think only three series that used sexual assault as a plot device.

Also, Rei is apparently doing a story on the history of manga, not ONE mention of Osamu Tezuka in 355 pages. I think the best we get is maybe one Astro Boy reference.)

I was actually a lot angrier at the plotting and characterization of the book more than the “YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG, SHUT UP” on anime. (Although, I find it hilarious that I got to the part of “Sailor Moon’s braids!” the day before the Sailor Moon Crystal PV came out. Because yes, Usagi totally has braids. /fangirl tangent) Because I was so bored with everything and I didn’t like any of the characters. (Actually the Marcellus thing pissed me off the most because again that is amazingly offensive.) I really can’t recommend this book, because there’s so much about it that I didn’t like about it, superficial trappings aside.

[Anna-Maria Tuominen-Reini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taattua tavaraa! 👍

[chats · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehhhhhhhh. The mystery wasn't very interesting, and the plot dragged. I can see why some readers say they started rooting against Rei—she seems to spend most of this book complaining about the fact that she doesn't know much about manga or journalism, rather than using her skills with antiques / art restoration in an interesting way. I have the next book out from the library, so I'll finish that, but then I think I'm done with this series.

[Maureen Hetzel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment after the earlier books in the series. So many of the characters were just annoying and not ones I would want to spend time with. Rei herself was “off” and the level of detail about manga was excruciating, particularly the continuing focus on its treatment of women. Off putting and made me decide I needed to go no farther down this rabbit hole.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of this series. I also am a fan of comic books & manga. This should have been my fav book & yet it didn't work. It felt like it should have been 1st in the series rather than 4th. Rei is not as deep & unlike other books in the series, there was not the same level of in depth understanding of these subject. Oh well, they can't all be perfect...

[Katheyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Floating Girl” is Rei Shimura introduction to the world of Japanese Manga. As with every new book, Sujata Massey takes on a distinct cultural aspect of Japanese culture and makes it the central piece into a murder mystery with Rei Shimura as amateur sleuth. To add to her unsteady income as an antiquities dealer, Rei has begun to write articles for the Gaijin Times (which was in fact the name by whom the ‘entertainment” English version of the Japan Times aimed at foreigners was know unofficially, sadly but true nevertheless! Even if the newspaper in the book is a fictious one and not the real English Japan Times, the name has a real root).

Rei is feeling the pressure of working in a Japanese environment, which increase as the owner has the brand-new idea to change the outlook of the journal from a traditional newspaper to a manga magazine. Rei might not have any insight into historical manga, but she is eager to delve into the subject. As Rei works into an article on the history and culture of manga, focusing on the subject of Showa manga, she discovers ‘Manga Girl’ and accompanies its creator Kunio Takahashi on Tokyo’s up and down neighbourhoods, trying to solve the murder of the floating girl. Sujata Massey’s depiction of manga in Japan is insightful and provides some valuable points for the layman.

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.

[Macey Morcom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up from a used bookstore without realizing that it was the fourth (?) in a series. However, I didn't have any trouble due to not having read the first installments and ended up really enjoying it. At times I couldn't even put it down! Though I wouldn't quite put it at a five star rating.

The opening scene was rather odd so it had me worried that the rest of the story would follow suit, but it was actually really enjoyable. It did take a long time to get to the murder mystery part of things, which is usually something that bothers me, but I didn't mind that at all. The details were interesting, though I can't speak to whether or not the cultural and manga details were accurate or not. Given that I'm a comic book fan, I found it quite strange that the manga were referred to as magazines quite often, but since I'm a comic book fan and not a manga fan I have no way of knowing if that's actually what they're called. Maybe it was an early 2000s thing?

On that topic, some aspects of the story were definitely outdated. A word for transgender individuals that is now considered a slur was used multiple times, though it was in the "that was the language of the time" way and not genuinely intending to be harmful. However, that could be triggering for some to read so I figured it had to be mentioned. R*pe is also a concept that plays into this story, though through a couple of manga issues that the main character is studying and a briefly mentioned backstory for a relative of another character as opposed to it actually taking place during the time of the story to one of the "real" people. Though the description of the manga stories are not obscene in the sense that they spell out every aspect of the horror, they would be enough to trigger somebody who is sensitive to such a topic, I think. And other mentions of the non-consensual content of the manga drew my mind back to those scenes in a way that made it kind of difficult to get past them in the sense of forgetting them.

The story itself as a whole was really enjoyable, though, and the author's writing style was just as enjoyable as the story itself. I was successful in figuring out the solution (to put it that way to avoid spoilers) from fairly early on, but there were enough twists and turns that made it not completely obvious and I had a few other suspicions to go along with it. What kept the rating from five stars, though, was that the main character was occasionally annoying in her behavior... and downright stupid in others. Like, painfully stupid. That did get on my nerves a bit at times, but it wasn't enough to stop me from having a great time with this book and rooting for the main character to get to the bottom of things. I think another reason why I enjoyed it so much was that the topic was really different from the usual murder mysteries. It was a unique, well-written story that I would definitely recommend to others!

[Lauren Schultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really torn about what rating to give to this particular novel in the Rei Shimura series. I agree with another reader's assessment that it's not as good as the other novels in the series thus far, but so many aspects of the story were so entertaining and eye-opening about different aspects of modern Japanese culture in the early 2000s that I really enjoyed reading the book anyway. It's too bad that Massey doesn't seem to have put much energy into characterization, for either her series-long characters or the characters particular to this novel. But wow did I learn some interesting stuff about Japanese anime fan culture, doujinshi publishing, different types of anime (broadly), types of hangouts for anime fans and teenagers, themed strip clubs for women, and the supposed kinky sexual nature of otherwise sedate Japanese homemakers and office women. I'm not entirely sure whether to trust the book's portrayal of the Japanese yakuza (gangsters/mafia) or not, but you have to admit that if you throw all of those plot elements together, you're going to have a really entertaining story. If I were rating this The Floating Girl based solely on how entertaining it was for me, I would give it four stars. But since I know Sujata Massey is quite capable of developing her characters better and giving them more understandable motivations (which seemed somewhat weak for her protagonist Rei in this novel), I'm giving it 3 stars.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Floating Girl is a continuation of the story of Rei Shimura, who is half Japanes, she has an American mother, and a Japanese father. She was raised in California, but has strong ties to Japan, and is happy when she is in Japan working on her Antique business. I am reading these out of context, so am often confused about why characters have gone, e.g. Rei was engaged and madly in love with Hugh her Scottish love of her life, and poof, Hugh has taken off in another book, somewhere leaving Rei to continue her life without him.

In this book she has a new love interest who is Japanes, who has a twin sister that hates her. There appears to be some confusion if they care for each other enough! In this adventure Rei is still writing article for a Japanese American paper, however her boss has decided he would like it to be written comic style, as that appears to be all the rage. Rei finds she us up against a real back stubbing little witch who will lie and cheat and deceive people, to get ahead of the game on the paper. Trying to make Rei look like an idiot. Rei is taken into a different aspect of "after dark" Japan, that she has not experienced before, there are murders, and she is also under attack, and could have been killed, and not by someone she is expecting. Comic books, she finds, can be more complicated than she ever thought!

[Sanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Varmaan huonoin Reihin keskittyvä kirja. Rikostarina on jokseenkin naurettava, tylsä, ja etenee kohtuuttoman hitaasti. Rei käyttäytyy rasittavasti jahdaten sarjakuvapiirtäjiä, eikä Marsilaisen tytön lukeminen, tai Rein lukemisen lukeminen, oikein jaksa kiinnosta. Mukaan vedetään epäuskottavasti yakuzaa, mutta olen sitä mieltä että kun sille tielle lähdettiin niin sitä olisi voitu vetää mukaan vielä enemmän. Kala kuulosti veikeältä tyypiltä, odotin että kun ukko kerran nimeltä mainitaan niin hänen sekaantuu kaikkeen vielä lisääkin. Tarinan suurin "mysteeri", poika nimeltä Kunio, vaikutti ylimieliseltä ääliöltä.
Tämä kirja oli niin tylsä ettei sitä oikein osaa edes arvostella mitenkään erityisesti. Aiheesta olisi varmasi saatu aikaiseksi paljon enemmän, mutta vaikutti siltä ettei itse kirjailija jaksanut sitten kuitenkaan perehtyä mangan ja animen maailmaan niin paljon kuin olisi tarvinnut, joten tulos oli sitten tämä. Eipä sillä että itsekään tietäisin asiasta yhtään mitään, en todellakaan tiedä. Mutta odotin itse ehkä enemmän.
Jos tämän kirjan jättää välistä, ei menetä mitään sarjan suhteen.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mainly a detailed intro into the world of manga comics, illustrators, publishers, and the underworld of manga enthusiasts in Japan with side plots about strip clubs patronized by young Japanese women, who are not as innocent and demure as we think, and the workings of Japanese yakuza gangsters. Too many tangents and sidetracks make the story line herky-jerky and overlong - could have been 50 pages less. Not as good as the early entries in this series with Rei and boyfriend, Hugh; now Hugh has been written out and Takeo is her boyfriend, and Rei is more irritating and irritable instead of comedic.

[Christine Lucia Asha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still miss Hugh....Takeo is wishy-washy.

Manga is the lead story in this one! I had no idea who the killer was, so many mysterious happenings and wondrous characters. I kept thinking that Rei has had a different job in every novel, and she confirmed it herself! I also miss the store keeper, the antique expert, and her American friend who don't make any appearances in this one.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm taking this description from another reviewer, " nothing spectacular ." Nothing happened in this story until page 89. I kept wondering, when does this become a novel of suspense? I appreciated the information on the Japanese culture, but the story didn't wow me at all. Zzzzzzzzz

[Nina Silvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this book not only engageging to read but also dense with the culture content, but i must say, the manga content is not really my interest so, i did not enjoy as much reading the previous three.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have liked the other books in this series more than this one. Rei seems to make huge leaps of logic in her mystery solving and that aspect of the story just didn’t gel for me. I did like the setting of the book in Tokyo and the insights into Japanese culture.

[Tiia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story was easy to follow and more of light little snack of a read. Most Interesting part was the one showcasing Japanese culture. There's not much to say about it really. I think manga part was not that interesting after all.

[Tiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tarinassa Rei Shimura haahuilee sinne tänne ja epäilee ketä kulloinkin. Ihme, että hänen mysteerinsä selviävät. Kyseessä on enemmänkin onnekas sattumus kuin hänen nokkeluutensa. Jutun luettuaan se haihtuu mielestä saman tien. Kertomus piti kuitenkin kohtuullisen hyvin otteessaan, joten ookoo.

[Adrian Healey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eigentlich würde ich eher 3,5 Sterne geben, aber für 4 Sterne reicht es nicht.
Das Buch ist gut geschrieben und lässt sich flüssig lesen, aber die Auflösung kommt zu abrupt und ist in sich nicht schlüssig genug.

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out - for me - with great promise. I like reading about Japanese culture and enjoy a good mystery. But about midway through I completely lost interest. Not sure why yet.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good reading to learn about manga culture. Cannot say much about the mystery though.. it is a snail-paced mystery story.

[Victoria Law · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as gripping as her previous mysteries, but still a fun read.

[Shirley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bikinizone entwachsen, Strip-Clubs... eher nicht für mich

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting info about the world of Japanese animation. pretty good mystery with a surprise ending

[Annukka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sopivaa aivojen nollaus lukemista.

[Jen Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best one of the series so far. I would’ve liked to have seen some antiques in the story, but the story itself made up for it.