Comics and college kids collide in Rei Shimura's fourth Tokyo mystery. Rei, a young American antiques dealer, thinks that writing a magazine column about the history of comic book art in Japan will boost her reputation. During a weekend at her boyfriend Takeo's beach 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 a killer drags her under?
An edgy, sexy mystery with a strong undercurrent of humor, this popular mystery novel was an Agatha Award Finalist and a BOOKLIST "Editor's Choice" selection in 2000.
BOOKLIST commented: "Rei is one of the most complex female protagonists around. She is Japanese, but she is also an American living in Japan, and this dichotomy gives her observations of Japanese culture a fascinating double edge." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY said: "Deftly sketching everyday life in parts of Tokyo rarely seen by tourists, Massey tells a series of overlapping stories about identity, the popular media and the hilarious frenzy of contemporary comic book culture."
