January 28, 2013
At the outset of Edgar-winner Hirahara’s engaging fifth whodunit featuring retired Japanese-American gardener Mas Arai (after 2010’s Blood Hina), Arai mourns the loss of second cousin Shug Arai, one of his few relatives in the U.S., who has expired of an apparent heart attack. Shug, a strawberry breeder in Watsonville, Calif., was known as Dr. Strawberry, due to his talent for developing new varieties of the fruit. After the bloody body of Laila Smith, an environmental activist concerned about genetically modified food, is found in Shug’s greenhouse, the dead man’s widow confides to Mas her suspicions that he, too, was murdered. Both deaths may be connected to the development of a new strawberry strain. An earth-shattering discovery made by Laila shortly before she was killed adds to the intrigue. Parts of the story stretch credulity, but Hirahara again wisely makes her unusual lead—and most unlikely sleuth—the focus.