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I am not much of a thriller or detective reader anymore, although I must confess I have devoured a lot of them in the past. But I am making an exception for the novels by Sujata Massey because her suspense fiction is written from an interesting intercultural viewpoint. The heroine of the novels, Rei Shimura, has a Japanese father and American mother and has grown up in the U.S. Now she has returned to Japan to teach English classes and find her roots and she is caught in the tension of looking Japanese but not being able to act like one.

She tries hard to conform, something which is not easy as she speaks her mind rather too freely and her manners are not quite what they should be in case of a Japanese young woman. So she is caught betweeen the expectations of her Japanese relatives and what she feels comfortable with in her own life. The books also give a good view of the contrasting worlds of foreigners living in Japan, from poor teachers in freezing old apartments to well-heeled businessmen and diplomats in luxurious apartments, as Rei Shimura’s friend Hugh Glendinning.

Sujata Massey’s own life has also been a multicultural journey, as she tells on her website. She was born in the U.K . from Indian and German parents, and educated in the U.S., of which country she is now a citizen. She got to know Japan when in the early nineties her husband was transferred there by the military. Those years must have been an intense experience as she is still writing about it! But she really soaked up Japanese culture (and still returns regularly for research for her books) as she makes no mistakes. The only disorienting thing is the way she changes place names, especially in the first novel, The Salaryman’s Wife, where Gifu mountain town Takayama becomes Shiroyama and the heroine travels there by train via Nagano, which is impossible in the real Japan.

A nice trait again is the interest of Rei Shimura in Japanese antiques, which play a large role in the plot of the second novel, Zen Attitude. Also characteristic is the way in which the novels when read in sequence trace the development of Rei Shimura from penniless teacher of English to increasingly more succesful antiques dealer and art appreciator. The novels have been translated in many languages, among which Japanese (to make the circle round). Sujata Massey continues writing, her ninth novel is Girl in a Box.

The suspense novels by Sujata Massey are published by Harpercollins. See Sujata Massey’s website for an overview of all titles.

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