The Samurai's Daughter

Rating:
Summary: Missing the Japanese Connection
Review: Although I really enjoyed the book, I found myself wanting more of Japan. As a confirmed Japanophile, I was thrilled when I discovered this series years ago. I have followed Rei's adventures and eagerly awaited the release of each new book. I was hoping the Bride's Kimono would be her only departure from Japan, but it looks like Rei is in America for a while to come.
I will continue to read any new books in the series because the characters and plots are always entertaining.


Rating:
Summary: It had to happen sooner or later
Review: Even the best authors write at least one book that's not quite up to their usually excellent standard. Let me start with stating, that i am a devoted fan of Massey's work, and her heroine Rei Shimura. The next installment in the series chronicling Rei's mis-/adventures as a struggling antiques dealer and reluctant sleuth is always an eagerly awaited pleasure for me. That said i must confess i was a bit disappionted by this, the latest volume. As has been stated by some of the other reviewers, what makes Masseys books such a treat isn't so much the cases themselves, as the fascinating glimpses she gives us of life in japan (as experienced by a westener) and japanese culture in general. Since The Samurai's Daughter for a large part plays in San Francisco i had already resigned myself to my 'nippon fix' being somewhat diluted, but what was offered was even less than i had feared. Don't get me wrong, it's great to find out a bit more about the Shimura family and Rei's pre japan life,

but i'm afraid it isn't interesting enough to occupy half a book with i'm afraid. Still this would be forgiveable, would it serve as set up for Rei's return to japan, and were the crime investigated truly engrossing, but unfortunately neither is the case. The end of the story sees Rei back where she started from, unlikely to return to her home of choice before the end of the next book, and the 'case', never Masseys strong suit, is i'm afraid an utter, incoherent mess, that completely failed to grip me (it's finally 'solved', if you will call it that, not so much through logical deduction, but rather a chain of lucky coincidences and the elimination of all other possible suspects aka authorial handwaving). Massey can do, and in the past has done, _much_ better. About Rei's 'great epiphany', that belonging to a particular nationality/race doesn't automatically make you a virtous, better human being, and that the japanese people, like everybody else, are made up of individuals, both good and bad, the less said the better. In conclusion it's a book for Massey's fans(and i will definitely buy the next one, and the one after that, and...), but newcomers should start with her earlier works, and, if Rei is their kind of sleuth, buy this volume once it comes out in paperback.

Rating:
Summary: Please... more about Japan!
Review: I feel the same way about this series that many reviewers seem to: a lot of what makes these books interesting is their glimpses into modern-day life in Japan. So, there is a significant loss when instead a novel (this one) takes place primarily in San Francisco. However, the mystery was still intriguing and I did learn interesting tidbits about Japanese culture through this book. I just hope the setting returns to Japan & stays there!

Rating:
Summary: Great addition to one of my favorite series
Review: I just finished this latest addition to Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura mystery series. I thought it rivaled her other novels, and even bettered a few of them.

A change of setting was a new twist Massey gave the reader in this book, splitting Rei's time between her hometown of San Francisco, and her beloved, adopted home in Tokyo. I thought this split helped character development - the reader got to know Rei and her background even more than in previous novels. Her love life has finally stablized with on-again, off-again beau, Scottish man Hugh Glendinning.

While Rei is visiting her parents in SF, she is working on a family history document. Hugh is a central character as he navigates his way through a class action lawsuit against former WWII slave laborers. As her involment in both projects grow, Rei comes to understand her own roots even more fully.

If you've never read one of Massey's books before, this will be a treat (and go grab the others, too!). If you are looking for guns, violence, and hard language, look elsewhere. Massey's lack of these things makes her novels a haven for me! If you have enjoyed her novels before, this one, I believe, will not be a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Never a Dissapointment
Review: Rei Shimura is a character that I feel strongly drawn to. She's just an awesome representation of my niche in my generation. That being said, being drawn to a main character isn't enough to make a great book. However, Massey, as usual, delivers both a likeable/identifiable character and a darn good mystery.

In this installment Rei is back home in San Francisco and this time she is learning more about her family and her once again boyfriend, the delicious Hugh Glendinning. Of course, knowledge for Rei always leads to painful chaos and "The Samurai's Daughter" isn't any different.

This is another great addition to a series that always creates a concrete and fascinating local and an interesting mystery all while progressing the main character(s).


Rating:
Summary: Another Winner from Massey
Review: This latest in the delightful Rei Shimura series finds our intrepid Japanese-American once again up to her delicate neck in mystery and mayhem--with a bit of intrigue and a lot of love interest thrown in.

Stuck with her parents in their San Francisco homestead, Rei is in turn pleased to be spoiled, and chafing under the bit to get back to her privacy in Japan. But she has a strange house guest, a native Japanese student, to contend with--as well as the ardent courtship of her long-time boyfriend, the sexy Scots lawyer Hugh Glendinning.

While contending with the usual East-West contradictions of her everyday life, Rei is contenting herself with researching and writing her family's history. But she uncovers more than she bargained for when it turns out that her grandfather actually tutored Emperor Hirohito--and may have been part of a right-wing Japanese political group that fostered the ultimate events of World War II. Now Rei has to face the Japan of the War, and contrast it with the modern-day Japan, her much-beloved adopted country--and the country of her father.

Add to that the top-secret case that Hugh is working on, which concerns reparations for Japanese war crimes, and one gets an idea of Rei's state of mind. For the first time, she becomes distant from her father and her family as she searches her soul for who she really is.

The answer is there, and always has been, for the enchanted reader to see--and when Rei ultimately finds herself, there is a wonderful treat in store for her and for us.

Rating:
Summary: Between two worlds...
Review: Unlike other reviewers, I enjoyed Rei's experience of returning to America after living so long in Japan. We see Japan through her Americanized eyes and then we see San Francisco filtered through her Japanese experience.

I agree with other reviewers: This series is best read from beginning to end. But if you've been following Rei Shimura and have come to care about the heroine, this volume offers background into the heroine's life and how she has been formed into a unique individual -- someone who grew up in the US but lives comfortably in Japan.

The plot was a little far-fetched and there is some reliance on coincidence. Most readers will smell a rat as soon as they meet the character who turns out to be the villain, although the connection won't seem at all obvious. However, I didn't mind and didn't question the plot or the motive until I put the book down, after a long and satisfying read.

And Rei's alliance with Hugh should lead to more adventures. As others have noted, the author is at
her best when she's writing about Japan. However, beginning with The Bride's Kimono, I suspect the author wants to write more about the US. And I'll look forward to the next volume in the series, no matter where it takes place.