The Floating Girl

In a pitch-perfect voice that has garnered wide praise, Sujata Massey sends Rei Shimura, her energetic young sleuth, on her fourth outing. This time Rei is writing about art and antiques for a monthly magazine published in Tokyo.

After a hostile takeover aided by a deceptively perky college intern, the Gaijin Times has adopted a comic-book format to attract more readers. It falls upon Rei to write something glowing about the history of comic-book art. During a long weekend of research and relaxation at her boyfriend Takeo's beachside house, Rei stumbles on an exquisitely drawn modern comic book that reveals the disturbing social milieu of pre-World War II Japan.

Rei's exhaustive search for the comic book's twenty-something creators leads to three college students. When one of them turns up dead in a scene straight out of the comic, the art story turns into a murder investigation. Rei finds herself floating through strip clubs, animation shops, and coffeehouses to get the true story--and to save her own skin.

In The Floating Girl, Sujata Massey delivers a grippin mystery that explores Japanese youth culture through the eyes of an appealing an gutsy heroine.