From Summer of the Big Bachi to Gasa-Gasa Girl, Naomi Hiraharaโs acclaimed novels have featured one of mystery fictionโs most unique heroes: Mas Arai, a curmudgeonly L.A. gardener, Hiroshima survivor, and inveterate gambler.
Few things get Mas more excited than gambling, so when he hears about a $500,000 winโfrom a novelty slot machine!โheโs torn between admiration and derision. But the stakes are quickly raised when the winner, a friend of Masโs pal G. I. Hasuike, is found stabbed to death just days later. The last thing Mas wants to do is stick his nose in someone elseโs business, but at G.I.โs prodding he reluctantly agrees to follow the trail of a battered snakeskin shamisen (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of the crimeโฆand suddenly finds himself caught up in a dark mystery that reaches from the islands of Okinawa to the streets of L.A.โa world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.
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