The Salaryman's Wife

What had looked like bark was a frozen length of human hair. And the pale, trailing branch was a slender forearm, hair shaved off in the super feminine manner of many Japanese women. The last thing I took in before my feet gave out were glossy scarlet fingernails, one of them broken. A condition Setsuko Nakamura would not have tolerated, had she been alive.

In this first novel in the series, Rei Shimura decides that the best way to spend the New Year is in the castle town of Shiroyama; after all, her passion and her talent lays towards antiques, and she figures the shops and museums will offer plenty of distraction. Distraction is what she gets, all right...she's not there for much more than a day when she discovers the dead body of Setsuko Nakamara, the beautiful wife of a Salaryman, or business man. Being Japanese-American, she is conveniently on scene for the tough as iron Captain Okuhara, and acts as translator. Further distraction is provided by the incredibly sexy Hugh Glendinning. A Scottish lawyer working for Sendai, the same company that Nakamura works for; he becomes a likely suspect in the murder...even as Rei tries to fight the strong attraction she feels for him.

Rei is not conventional...she is often, in her own words, "Too Japanese," meaning too polite, too willing to stick with the normal conventions of society...but that's on the surface. She is also willing to do anything to help the people she cares about, and soon she finds herself crashing funeral parties in disguise, breaking into houses dressed as a maid and protecting Mariko, who moonlights as a waitress at a hostess bar and who may have strong connections to Setsuko's past. These connections seem to have made Mariko a target for a killer. Rei takes everything in stride, even when she becomes the target of paparazzi cameras, enamored of the fact that she might be a murderer's mistress. It's not a surprise; Rei is determined to take the hard road in life. She could be living in luxury in America with her parents, who would give anything to have her back, but she loves Japan, feeling a sense of connection and love with her new homeland. She has a horrible paying job teaching English, a crappy apartment she shares with her best friend Richard, but she's happy.

The fact that she's Japanese American is really cool for us who do not have the honor of having any experience living in Japan. This is because she translates for us...an outsider who almost fits in explaining things to us, noticing things that perhaps a native would not think worthy of attention. She makes the setting of Japan stand out; her descriptions to us are more colorful, more easily visualized. There are tons of clues about the culture in context...from references to the proper way for a woman to act, to corporate politics. I am also intrigued by the honesty...Massey pulls no punches, and although we see the beauty of the place, we also see how hard it is for a gaijin to make her way in this world. Which, I guess, is another mark of Rei's strength. Also, we see clearly how stigmas...her worry over the possibility of prosecution causes her to resign from her job...seem to be even worse in this strict society.
Massey does a spectacular job bringing Japan to life...from the way the people talk, to the careful, almost ceremonial politeness with which they treat each other, I felt as if I had gone on a journey. This makes sense...the author herself moved to Japan and taught English, and so in some ways I imagine that Ms. Massey has poured many of her experiences straight on the paper, showing that true experience often adds magic to fiction.

I just hope she didn't find any bodies in the snow.