Review: ‘Lady First’, by Lea O’Harra

Independently Published

Publication Date: 28th August 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781549610981

Format: Kindle e-book and paperback

Price: Kindle – £2.00, Paperback – £7.99

Blurb

Murder is back, and it’s nastier than ever… Fujikawa in southern Japan is finally getting over the shock murder of a resident university head and, three years later, the strangling of a local child – when terror strikes the quiet, provincial town once more. When young Mayumi Ikeuchi is killed on her way home from her job at The Paradise nightclub in a Fujikawa park, there isn’t a shortage of suspects. These include Mr Tani – Mayumi’s boss – who likes to leer over the girls who work for him, and Atsushi Taniguchi, a man who seems quite normal to the outside world but is free with his fists around his wife, Yui. There is also Nose-san, a loner who lives with his aged, incontinent mother, with witnesses hearing the sounds of brutal, physical arguments coming from his house. Even Mayumi’s sister is reported to have been overly possessive of the girl, threatening her when Mayumi had declared she wanted to strike out on her own. Lise Foster and Yui Taniguchi forge an unlikely friendship after the death of Mayumi: one is a victim of violence and the other may become one. Lise is a teacher at the local school, living close to the murder site in Ogawa Woods, and is it her imagination or is there someone sinister lurking outside her home in the shadows? Could Lise be next? For Chief Inspector Inoue and Inspector Kubo – Yui’s brother – and their colleagues, it is a race against time to find the perpetrator before he strikes again.

My Review

Lea O’Harra is the pen name of Wendy Jones Nakanishi. She has lived in Japan for 33 years and is married to a Japanese farmer. This is the third book in the Inspector Inoue Mysteries series. She emailed me in August to see if I’d be able to review Lady First; I’ve finally managed to fit her in. I spent Friday and Saturday afternoons this week reading it, although most of the book was read yesterday in a five hour sitting because I was a bit restless on Friday and even after a walk I couldn’t settle so I did some crochet instead.

That’s by the by. What did I think of the book?

Interesting plot that worked well, very evocative descriptions, and relateable characters. The narrative brings up some of the hidden problems in Japanese society as part of the plot, it doesn’t feel forced, rather the discussions are essential to moving the plot forwards.

Some of the dialogue was a bit strained and I guessed who the murderer was fairly quickly.

It’s a nice cosy crime novel, set in an unusual location and culture but one which shines through the narrative.

3/5