Fabulous Fiction Firsts #649

With the melancholic lyrics of one of Japan's top singles threading through the narrative of Blue Light Yokohama * *, debut novelist Nicolás Obregón introduces Inspector Iwata in an atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful series opener. The story was inspired, in part, by an actual unsolved crime in 2000.

Kosuke Iwata, newly reinstated to the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police, was immediately assigned to a multiple murder case when the lead detective committed suicide. His new partner, the sharp-tongued, brash dynamo Noriko Sakai was less than enthusiastic -- weary of the gossips surround Iwata's troubled past, suspicious of his American background (UCLA), and frustrated with superiors who clearly want them to fail.

On February 14, four members of the Kaneshiro family were brutally butchered in their home. While the Tokyo brass was ready to pin the murders on a crippled thug, Iwata and Sakai puzzled over the ritualistic details at the crime scene -- a missing body part, a distinctive incense smell, and the symbol of a black sun scrawled on the ceiling. Almost immediately, the "Black Sun Killer" claimed another victim -- the widow of a prominent judge.

Fighting his personal demons and insomnia, Iwata relentlessly follows up on every lead, explores every angle, trying to connect these murders and another death as far away as Hong Kong, and instinctively knowing that the killer is not done.

"Obregón (a Los Angeles-based travel writer who fell in love with Japan while on assignment for a magazine) maintains a high level of suspense throughout his superior fiction debut, an intricately constructed whodunit that doesn’t sacrifice depth of characterization for plot." (Publishers Weekly)

Fans of police procedurals set in contemporary Japan might also enjoy Malice (the first in the Kyochiro Kaga mystery series) and Under the Midnight Sun (a Detective Sasagaki novel), both by Edgar-nominated Keigo Higashino.

The tormented Iwata brings to mind Insomnia (2002), an American psychological thriller that is a remake of the 1997 Norwegian noir classic.

* * = 2 starred reviews

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #650

Ian Bassingthwaighte (UM, MFA, Helen Zell Writers' Program) won the Hopwood Novel Award in 2015 for Live From Cairo * *. This debut novel, set during the turbulent days after the January 25, 2011, uprising in Egypt -- commonly referred to as The Arab Spring -- is supported by Fulbright Program grant.

Cairo, 2011. President Mubarak is ousted from power, but for many people, Cairo is still a volatile, dangerous place. Dalia, an Iraqi refugee, finds herself trapped in Egypt when her petition to join her husband, Omran, in the U.S. is denied. Hana, an Iraqi-American working at the U.N. Refugee Resettlement Office, is assigned her case and is desperate to help her. Neither one is unaware that Dalia's impulsive American attorney, Charlie, is in love with his client and is about to forge a not entirely legal plan to get her out. Meanwhile, Aos, Charlie’s translator and only friend, spends his days trying to help people through the system and his nights in Tahrir Square protesting against it.

As these well-meaning but ill-equipped individuals come together to help Dalia, laws are broken, friendships and marriages are tested, and lives are risked.

"The author paints a deep and empathetic picture of the inner struggles of his courageous, flawed characters, who in the midst of mortal danger and insurmountable odds, grapple with the most fundamental questions of right and wrong. The answers follow neither rules nor laws, making the climax to this novel breathtaking and heartrending." (Publishers Weekly)

Siobhan Fallon follows up her prizewinning short story collection with a debut novel, The Confusion of Languages *. While her stories focused on military spouses stateside, this novel is from the perspective of two wives of U.S. Embassy staff in Jordan as the Arab Spring unfolds.

After two years in Amman, Cassie Hugo considers herself a worthy mentor to Margaret Brickshaw, a new arrival to the Middle East. But the sight of Margaret -- and especially her toddler, Mather -- sends Cassie into a fit of jealousy, having tried for years to start a family. Desperate for a friend among the expat families, Cassie shows Margaret around town and tries to impart upon her the wisdom and safeguards of embassy rules. However, Margaret yearns for adventure, to learn Arabic, and to connect with the locals.

With their husbands deployed, Cassie is asked to mind Mather while Margaret insists on venturing out alone to settle a fender-bender incident. When Margaret fails to return, Cassie panics and looks through Margaret's journal for clues. What she finds among her friend's many secrets is her own possible role in Margaret's disappearance.

"For all that these women appear designed for a morality play, they are honest and well-formed characters, and Fallon strenuously avoids pat answers to the central question of how a woman should behave in a foreign land."(Kirkus Reviews)

* * = 2 starred reviews
* = starred review

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