Naomi Hirahara tvorí podmanivé detektívne romány a noir príbehy, ktoré často prelínajú historické prvky s osobným skúmaním. Jej diela skúmajú zložité rodinné vzťahy a kultúrne identity, pričom sa vyznačujú bystrým postrehom a jedinečným štýlom rozprávania. Prostredníctvom svojich postáv sa Hirahara ponára do hlbín ľudskej prirodzenosti, hľadajúc pochopenie motivácií a minulosti, ktoré formujú prítomnosť.
Miyamoto Usagi spojí své síly se zlodějem a samurajem, aby se postavili nebezpečnému černému trhu. Potká ronina, který přišel v souboji o ruku... ale ještě mu zbylo pár triků v rukávu. Pomůže loajálnímu samuraji ochránit vzácný poklad. Bude doprovázet nevěstu k jejímu snoubenci a zkříží zbraně i s vyslancem z Evropy!
Očití svedkovia vraždy to nikdy nemajú ľahké. Na vlastnej koži sa o tom presvedčí aj agentka newyorskej kancelárie Lacey Farrellová, ktorá vidí vraha utekajúceho z miesta činu. Jej položenie sťažuje fakt, že obeť pátrala po príčine údajnej autonehody svojej dcéry a výsledok spolu s hodnoverným dôkazom potvrdil jej podozrenie. Ani postavenie chráneného svedka a zmenená totožnosť neeliminujú nebezpečenstvo hroziace pôvabnej mladej žene. Vrahovia, ktorým ide o všetko, sú vynachádzaví, o nič menej dôvtipu a guráže však nemá ani Lacey, ktorú okolnosti prinútia nielen zmeniť taktiku, ale aj rázne konať - vydať sa po horúcej stope, aby vyriešila záhadu, ku ktorej kľúč drží sama. Najmä ak sa nitky zbiehajú k človeku, ktorého nič nezastaví...
"Chicago, 1944: Twenty-year-old Aki Ito and her parents have just been released from Manzanar, where they have been detained by the US government since the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, together with thousands of other Japanese Americans. The life in California the Itos were forced to leave behind is gone; instead, they are being resettled two thousand miles away in Chicago, where Aki's older sister, Rose, was sent months earlier and moved to the new Japanese American neighborhood near Clark and Division streets. But on the eve of the Ito family's reunion, Rose is killed by a subway train. Aki, who worshipped her sister, is stunned. Officials are ruling Rose's death a suicide. Aki cannot believe her perfect, polished, and optimistic sister would end her life. Her instinct tells her there is much more to the story, and she knows she is the only person who could ever learn the truth. Inspired by historical events, Clark and Division infuses an atmospheric and heartbreakingly real crime fiction plot with rich period details and delicately wrought personal stories Naomi Hirahara has gleaned from thirty years of research and archival work in Japanese American history." -- Provided by publisher
"It's the middle of the pandemic and Hawai'i has been virtually closed to tourists. So when Leilani Santiago and her young sisters save a mysterious woman wearing a lei from drowning in Waimea Bay in Kaua'i questions abound: who is she and where did she come from? The lei, which is made of mokihana berries, the official flower of Kaua'i, is traced back to Leilani's best friend, the very pregnant Courtney Kahuakai, and her family's flower business. While the woman is in a medically induced coma in a local hospital, Leilani languishes as her shave ice shack is temporarily shuttered due to the pandemic. Leilani becomes obsessed with the woman and even breaks into her Airbnb to discover her identity. She finds that the woman, a travel agent who has a Japanese passport, has information about a local attorney on the island, Garvin Washburne. When Washburne shoots and kills a hospital nurse who, armed with a machete, had trespassed into the attorney's home, Leilani is further drawn into this mystery. As residents protest the reopening of tourism, do Garvin and the travel agent from Japan represent the opposition? Soon the future of Leilani's family member is threatened and Leilani realizes the serious repercussions of her amateur investigation. The survival of Leilani, her family and friends will depend on her sense of ingenuity and the strength of her island community"-- Provided by publisher
A Japanese American nurse's aide navigates the dangers of post-WWII and post-Manzanar life as she attempts to find justice for a broken family in this follow-up to the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning Clark and Division. Los Angeles, 1946: It’s been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California—but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles. Aki is working as a nurse’s aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband’s best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse? Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki’s home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in a murder investigation?