Naomi Hirahara píše poutavé záhady a příběhy noir, které často proplétají historické prvky s osobním zkoumáním. Její díla zkoumají složité rodinné vztahy a kulturní identity, přičemž se vyznačují bystrým postřehem a jedinečným stylem vyprávění. Prostřednictvím svých postav se Hirahara ponořuje do hlubin lidské povahy a hledá pochopení motivací a minulosti, které formují přítomnost.
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!
Kniha plná napětí se odehrává v New Yorku a Mineapolisu. Příběh Lacey Farrellové je dobrodružstvím nejlepší agentky velké Manhattanské realitní kanceláře. Mladá žena se ocitne v nesprávný čas na nesprávném místě - a zaplete se do vyšetřování nebezpečného zločinu. Při prodeji luxusního bytu se Lacey náhodou stane svědkyní vraždy, vyslechne poslední slova oběti, která je přesvědčena, že vrah hledal deník její dcery. Ta zahynula před rokem při autohavárii. Byla to opravdu nešťastná náhoda? Lacey předá deník policii, ale předtím si udělá kopii - a to se jí stane osudným. Získá policejní ochranu, je nucena vzdát se vlastní identity a odstěhovat se do jiného státu; přinejmenším na čas, než zatknou vraha a ona jej identifikuje. Okolnosti ji donutí vzdát se rodiny, práce i vlastní totožnosti, v zájmu ochrany svědků ji přestěhují do Minneapolisu, kde má vést nový život, dokud zločince nechytí a nepostaví před soud. Konečně najde muže svého života, Toma Lynche, rozhlasového moderátora. I on opětuje její city, jenže Lacey je zmatená a nespokojená s životem plným lži a nechce svého přítele ohrozit. Vzdá se lásky? Jednoho dne zjistí, že ji vrah našel a je jí v patách
"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?