Publisher's Weekly Review
Hirahara's insightful follow-up to 2021's Edgar-winning Clark and Division finds newly married Aki Nakasone returning to Los Angeles in 1946, two years after her family was forcibly relocated to the Manzanar internment camp in Illinois. Aki is working as a nurse's aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when a bruised and battered old man arrives. Suspecting he has been abused, Aki confronts the man's son--who turns out to be Babe Watanabe, her husband Art's best friend and the best man at her wedding. She never liked Babe, but resists the idea that he could be responsible for his father's injuries. When a shooting occurs at the sleazy hotel where the Watanabes are staying, Babe drops out of sight, and Art's friendship with the missing man brings the police to Aki's door. Fearing that her family may become further embroiled in a murder investigation, Aki sets out to locate Babe on her own. Drawing on rich historical detail, Hirahara provides a visceral account of the hardships facing Japanese Americans during and just after WWII, and her lucid prose elevates this above standard mystery fare. It's a memorable outing. Agent: Susan Cohen, PearlCo Literary. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
A compassionate caregiver risks all to solve a brutal crime. Hirahara's beautifully crafted novel opens with a poem that poignantly describes the loss and devastation inflicted on Japanese Americans forced into internment camps. In 1946, two years after she was released from Manzanar, Aki Ito works as a nurse's aide in the newly reopened Japanese Hospital in East Los Angeles, her home before the war. Noticing signs of abuse on newly admitted patient Haruki Watanabe, she asks to speak to the son who brought him to the hospital. This, surprisingly, turns out to be Shinji, aka Babe, the best friend of Aki's husband, Art, and the best man at their wedding in Chicago a year and a half earlier. Babe served in the Army with Art, who's days away from discharge himself. Flashbacks filled with family and friends describe the couple's efforts to rebuild a life after detention and move the story from Aki's stint in Chicago to her current life in LA. When Mr. Watanabe is shot, Aki tries to contact Babe, but he's no longer at the hotel where he and his father had been living. A sense of duty and her affection for the avuncular Watanabe compel her to dig deeper, and Art's homecoming provides further impetus and support. Hirahara expertly folds this crime story into her insightful and fully realized portrait of postwar America and the struggles of Japanese Americans to come to terms with the American society that had imprisoned them during the war. Aki and Art's sleuthing takes them all over the city, most significantly through the criminal underworld, on the way to a complex solution. The mystery adds urgency to this historical snapshot but never overpowers it. A thought-provoking noir with a searing period flavor. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this solid follow up to Clark and Division (2021), Hirahara, who has a background in journalism, sets the stage for suspense with a carefully researched social history of Japanese Americans after WWII. After their initial resettlement in Chicago following more than two years at the Manzanar internment camp, the Ito family has returned to Los Angeles, hoping to regain what they can of their former life in their old neighborhood. Art is a veteran of the predominantly Japanese American 442nd Infantry Regiment and Aki is working as a nurse's aide in the Japanese Hospital when she encounters Babe, Art's best friend from boot camp, and his elderly father, Mr. Watanabe, who has been severely beaten. Later, when Mr. Watanabe returns to the hospital with a fatal gunshot wound, Babe is the prime suspect. As Aki tries to find Babe in Boyle Heights, a historically Jewish neighborhood whose population is becoming increasingly Japanese American and Mexican American, she learns more about her changing world and uncovers a dark side that puts her family in danger.
Library Journal Review
Hirahara's series about the Ito family's experiences as detainees at the concentration camp Manzanar continues (after Clark and Division) as the family is finally allowed to return to their home in California. Aki Ito Nakasone has taken up work as a nurse's aide at the Japanese Hospital in Los Angeles while she waits for her new husband Art to be discharged from the all-Nisei 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team. When she examines an elderly man who comes in for treatment of an infection, she notices his body is covered in bruises. Her shock magnifies when she recognizes his son--Babe Watanabe, Art's best man at their wedding. Soon Aki and her family are embroiled in the mess Babe has made, adding to the tension between the reunited newlyweds. Art's inability to share his war experiences and his PTSD drive them further apart. VERDICT Once again, Hirahara illuminates the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II by embodying them in the lives of the Ito family. The author weaves a compelling tale, which is all the more poignant as it reminds readers of the shameful treatment of Japanese Americans, along with the racial prejudice still at work. A must-read.--Julie Ciccarelli
