Hiroshima Boy

January 1, 2018
In Edgar-winner Hirahara’s moving seventh and final Mas Arai mystery (after 2016’s Sayonara Slam), the 85-year-old retired L.A. gardener reluctantly returns to Japan, his birthplace, for the first time in almost 50 years, to carry the ashes of his friend Haruo Mukai to Haruo’s older sister on the island of Ino off Hiroshima. A survivor of the atomic bomb that destroyed the city in 1945, Mas wants only to deliver the ashes and leave. On the ferry to Ino, he observes a group of boys, one of whom, Sora, he finds drowned on the beach the next day. After Mas meets Sora’s grief-stricken mother, he decides to stay to help her determine what led to her son’s death. Then Haruo’s ashes are stolen from his hotel room. Mas’s memories of the bombing, plus a memorial ceremony and other present-day reminders of that shattering event, overshadow the detective work. Hirahara has crafted a fitting ending to Mas’s journey from stricken Hiroshima to what he considers his real home in Altadena, Calif. Agent: Allison Cohen, Gersh Agency.

February 1, 2018

In 1994's Summer of the Big Bachi, Hirahara introduced an unusual amateur sleuth, an elderly Japanese American gardener and survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Mas Arai's first case involved secrets connected to that terrible August day in 1945, and now in the seventh and final mystery (after Sayonara Slam), he must return to a city that still holds painful memories for him. The octogenarian had come home only once before--to find a bride 50 years ago--but now Mas is delivering the ashes of his best friend Haruo (and fellow survivor) to Haruo's sister, who lives in a nursing home on a small island near Hiroshima. On the ferry to the island Mas notices a teenage boy sitting alone; the next morning he discovers that boy's body floating near a jetty. Was his death an accidental drowning, suicide, or something else? As Mas is reluctantly pulled into the investigation, he must also deal with the theft of his friend's ashes. In the process, Mas revaluates his life and his family. "This trip to Hiroshima had changed the course of his life, or what was left of it." VERDICT Hirahara completes her Edgar Award-winning series with a quiet and melancholy mystery that explores the tragic legacy of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Not surprisingly, she dedicates this novel to the hibakusha, the survivors.--Wilda Williams, Library Journal

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2018
Mas Arai is a retired gardener and sometime sleuth, born in Hiroshima but living in L.A. At 86, he's not doing much sleuthing, but when his best friend, Haruo, dies, and Mas must return to Hiroshima to deliver his friend's ashes to Haruo's sister, he finds himself once again helping in the investigation of a murder. It starts on a ferry ride to the nursing home where Haruo's sister lives on an island outside Hiroshima. On the trip to the island, Mas noticed some teenage boys apparently bullying one of their group, and, later that day, the boy's body washes up on the island. Mas is first just a witness but soon becomes a sounding board for the investigators. His life experience, intelligence, and insight into the human soul guide the police to the killer. Hirahara is an Edgar-winning author, and her seventh and, we're told, final Mas Arai novel is another winner, with Mas again showing flashes of Columbo, with, perhaps, an even finer nose for nuance. A memorable conclusion to a too-little-known series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)