From Publishers Weekly
Kidnapping, death and intrigue are all on the menu for Rei Shimura in Massey's winning seventh mystery (after 2003's The Samurai's Daughter) to feature the half-Japanese, half-American antique dealer and sometime sleuth. After moving in with her fiancé, lawyer Hugh Glendinning, in Washington, D.C., Rei takes on the decoration of a trendy new Asian restaurant, Bento. Barred from reentering Japan, where her business was originally based, she hopes to plan her upcoming wedding and find a market for the art objects she's stored locally. All hell breaks loose when Rei's cousin Kendall Johnson disappears during the opening dinner at Bento, leaving Rei with Kendall's twin toddlers. Then Bento's hostess approaches Rei for help in locating her Japanese-born mother, a war bride who went missing from her Virginia home more than 30 years earlier. Finally, sweet Aunt Norie arrives from Japan to help with the wedding preparations and ever-dependable Hugh makes himself scarce for propriety's sake. Crosscultural misunderstandings and prejudices, plus behind-the-scenes machinations, add spice to an already volatile mix. Adept at crafting dead-on dialogue and juggling serious issues with humor, Massey has produced another triumph. FYI: Massey has won Agatha and Macavity awards. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
No longer allowed to live in Japan because of a previous misadventure, Rei Shimura is residing in Washington, D.C., with her Scottish fiance, Hugh Glendinning. Followers of Rei's adventures will not be surprised that an engagement ring doesn't necessarily lead to smooth sailing for the volatile couple. As she tries to adjust to life with Hugh, Rei is introduced to Bento, a new Japanese restaurant, by her yuppie American cousin Kendall. When Bento's eccentric owner Marshall hires Rei to decorate the restaurant, she welcomes the chance to jump-start her Japanese antique dealership in D.C. Impeding her work are Marshall's incessant demands and a new friendship with a prickly hostess named Andrea. When Kendall is abducted outside of Bento, Rei attempts to find out who took her and why--and then becomes a victim herself. Foodies will love the inside look into the restaurant scene, and Massey fans will delight in the chance to gain more insight into their heroine, Rei. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Publishers Weekly
"Adept at crafting dead-on dialogue and juggling serious issues with humor, Massey has produced another triumph."


New York Times Book Review
"Sujata Massey gracefully weaves Japanese art, history and social mores into a series narrated by a Japanese-American antiques dealer."


Library Journal
"A riveting story."


Baltimore Sun
"Sujata Massey remains a strong sustainer of suspense."



"You can’t go wrong sharing the adventures of Rei Shimura."


USA Today
"This novel is beautifully constructed and highly emotional. Massey’s knowledge of Japanese antiques and downtown D.C. enhances the story."


Baltimore Sun
"A feast of delights, sure to make readers impatient for Rei Shimura’s next adventure."


Philadelphia Inquirer
"Sujata Massey’s mysteries are breezy and girly and...tartly funny."


New York Times Book Review
"Sujata Massey gracefully weaves Japanese art, history, and social mores into a series narrated by a Japanese-American antiques dealer."


Book Description

A dazzling engagement ring and the promise of a fresh start in a new country bring antiques dealer and sometime-sleuth Rei Shimura to Washington, D.C. But while she tries to play catch-up with her beautiful, politically connected cousin, Kendall, and is commissioned to furnish a chic Japanese-fusion restaurant, things start to go haywire. First, Kendall vanishes from the restaurant's opening-night party, and then Rei is drafted to help Andrea, the restaurant's elegant, cagey hostess, investigate the disappearance of her own Japanese mother thirty years earlier.

As the strands of these puzzles begin to come together, Rei finds that her relationship with her fiancé, Hugh, has changed from sizzle to burn. At the same time, she faces troubling questions about what it means to be a loving mother -- and whether her own independent streak will endanger the women to whom she has grown close.

Rei must research the scary old days of the Vietnam War and delve into the secret history of an ambitious presidential candidate to piece together the mystery of the vanished women -- and also understand truths about herself, which may change her destiny.

In The Pearl Diver, Sujata Massey delivers a multilayered, suspenseful story complete with the intrigue, romance, and rich Asian cultural background that her fans have come to relish.


About the Author
Sujata Massey was born in England to a father from India and a mother from Germany. During her childhood her family immigrated to the US, and she grew up in Philadelphia, PA, Berkeley, CA and St. Paul, MN. She earned a bachelor's degree in the writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University, where she took classes from such writers as John Barth and Martha Grimes. After college, Sujata worked as a features reporter at the Baltimore Evening Sun where her specialty beats included food and fashion-major emphases in the Rei Shimura mystery series that she was to write later on. Sujata left the paper in 1991 when she married her college sweetheart, Tony Massey. She accompanied him to Japan to carry out a U.S. Navy service obligation. Almost immediately, Tony was deployed to the Persian Gulf, and Sujata began her life as a brand-new expatriate housewife -- battling Japanese realtors determined not to rent to foreigners, and bargaining for a used car from a dealership where no English speakers had gone before. Within two weeks, she had rented a traditional, unheated house in a Japanese town called Hayama about a half hour from the base. She'd also acquired a right-hand drive car and a Japanese drivers' license and signed up for her first Japanese language class. Freed from the newsroom, Sujata plunged into daily life -- learning such rituals as flower arrangement and tofu-making from her new friends and neighbors, and studying Japanese in a challenging immersion program in nearby Yokohama. The deeper Sujata ventured into Japan, the more she wondered about the stereotyped representations of it in popular literature. Where was the Japan where housewives dutifully swept leaves from the street in front of their houses every morning, where sweet potato vendors offered their goods from portable braziers, and where schoolgirls sold their used school uniforms to grown men? To Sujata, it seemed like a world of sanctified tradition and bizarre modernity -- and time to start writing again. After two years in the Japanese suburbs, Sujata returned with her husband to Baltimore, where she continued writing about Japan. Making trips back to Tokyo to fact-check the series, and continuing research on Japanese arts and traditions with Japan scholars in America, Sujata has kept alive the stories inspired by Japanese culture and people. Becoming the mother of her own two children has challenged her writing time, but also marked the series with a powerful emphasis on love and family. Her books continue to attract new readers and strong reviews worldwide. The Rei Shimura series is published in the USA, Australia and India by HarperCollins Publishers, and by other publishers in Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Romania and Poland. The Salaryman's Wife, the first book, took four years to write and focused on the trials of Rei Shimura, a twentysomething, half-Japanese and half-American English teacher in Tokyo who discovers a valuable antique object, ventures into the world of host bars, acquires a glamorous Scottish boyfriend and solves the murder of a staid suburban woman with a shocking past. The book won the Agatha award for Best First Mystery of 1997 and was a nominee for the Anthony and Macavity Awards. It was also a People "Page Turner of the Week." Zen Attitude followed and was nominated for the Edgar and Anthony awards of 1998 and was a USA Today "Summer Reading Pick." Then came The Flower Master, which won the Macavity Award for Best Mystery and was nominated for the Agatha Award; The Floating Girl, which was an Agatha nominee and a Booklist "Editor's Choice" book; The Bride's Kimono, a Booksense 76 selection and a nominee for the Agatha Award; and The Samurai's Daughter, which was an Agatha nominee in 2003. The newest book in the series, The Pearl Diver will be published in the summer of summer 2004

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"A dazzling engagement ring and the promise of a fresh start in a new country bring antiques dealer and sometime-sleuth Rei Simura to Washington, D.C. But while she tries to play catch-up with her beautiful, politically connected cousin, Kendall, and is commissioned to furnish a chic Japanese-fusion restaurant, things start to go haywire. First, Kendall vanishes from the restaurant's opening-night party, and then Rei is drafted to help Andrea, the restaurant's elegant, cagey hostess, investigate the disappearance of her own Japanese mother thirty years earlier." "As the strands of these puzzles begin to come together, Rei finds that her relationship with her fiance, Hugh, has changed from sizzle to burn. At the same time, she faces troubling questions about what it means to be a loving mother - and whether her own independent streak will endanger the women to whom she has grown close." Rei must research the scary old days of the Vietnam War and delve into the secret history of an ambitious presidential candidate to piece together the mystery of the vanished women - and also understand truths about herself, which may change her destiny.

FROM THE CRITICS

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times

Sujata Masseya gracefully weaves Japanese art, history and social mores into a series narrated by a Japanese-American antiques dealer named Rei Shimura, whose efforts to define her identity involve close examination of her bicultural heritage. In The Pearl Diver, her assignment to furnish a new Japanese restaurant in Washington yields wonderful detail about Asian cuisines and the multicultural kitchen workers who prepare them. The narrative dovetails nicely with a moving subplot about a war bride who in her native Japan had been an ama-san, a female shellfish diver, until both stories are swamped by blow-by-blow updates on the heroine's personal life and a smelly red herring about Washington politics. There are still lessons to be learned from the uncluttered and serene lines of Japanese art.

Publishers Weekly

Kidnapping, death and intrigue are all on the menu for Rei Shimura in Massey's winning seventh mystery (after 2003's The Samurai's Daughter) to feature the half-Japanese, half-American antique dealer and sometime sleuth. After moving in with her fiance, lawyer Hugh Glendinning, in Washington, D.C., Rei takes on the decoration of a trendy new Asian restaurant, Bento. Barred from reentering Japan, where her business was originally based, she hopes to plan her upcoming wedding and find a market for the art objects she's stored locally. All hell breaks loose when Rei's cousin Kendall Johnson disappears during the opening dinner at Bento, leaving Rei with Kendall's twin toddlers. Then Bento's hostess approaches Rei for help in locating her Japanese-born mother, a war bride who went missing from her Virginia home more than 30 years earlier. Finally, sweet Aunt Norie arrives from Japan to help with the wedding preparations and ever-dependable Hugh makes himself scarce for propriety's sake. Crosscultural misunderstandings and prejudices, plus behind-the-scenes machinations, add spice to an already volatile mix. Adept at crafting dead-on dialogue and juggling serious issues with humor, Massey has produced another triumph. Agent, Kim Witherspoon. (Aug. 1) FYI: Massey has won Agatha and Macavity awards. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Having returned from Tokyo, Japanese American sleuth Rei Shimura (The Samurai's Daughter) now lives in Washington, DC, where she's opening an antiques business. For her first substantial job, she provides pieces for a new Japanese restaurant. Despite the great d cor, things go wrong at the opening: her cousin is abducted, and adverse news coverage puts a serious crimp in business. Police soon find the cousin, but then the restaurant hostess asks Rei's help in finding her Japanese mother, who disappeared years ago under suspicious circumstances. Not surprisingly, the two "disappearances" eventually connect. Genteel prose, a forthright but tactful protagonist, and a riveting story line commend this to most collections. An Agatha and a Macavity award winner, Massey lives in Baltimore. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews