As always, Mary Sugiyama, the retired executive director of the North America branch of the Sogetsu School of ikebana, provided key introductions and advice. Rei’s sound track of Japanese and American pop music was suggested by the pop-music critic J. D. Considine and by Kristin Weisman, the coolest college student in Baltimore.
I also thank Mari Miyake, Chris Belton, and Mark Schreiber for answering my questions about Japanese culture, and Susanne Trowbridge for continuing good advice and maintaining my author Web site. I thank Marcia Talley, Karen Diegmueller, John Mann, Janice McLane, Susan Shorr, Joshua Wolf, Rufus Juskus, Sandy Fleming, Meg Tipper, Anita Sherman, and Lalita Noronha, all great writers themselves, for coaxing the book along. And finally, to my family in New York—my agent, Ellen Geiger, and editor, Carolyn Marino—and the family at home—Tony and Pia Massey—I continue to feel blessed to have you in my life.
And to my readers here and abroad—don’t be strangers. You can drop me a line through my Web site, www.sujatamassey.com/sujata
Sujata Massey
PRAISE FOR THE BRIDE’S KIMONO
“Brimming equally with Japanese cultural lore and with Rei’s sharp comments on love, money, death and silk.”
S.J. Rozan, author of Reflecting the Sky
“The cross-cultural suspense story is as active as the traffic pattern at Dupont Circle…Japanese pop culture references, style, intrigue and the quick pace of The Bride’s Kimono combine…to attract hip readers.”
Daily Press (Virginia)
“Astute character development and fascinating use of Japanese history.”
Booklist
“The Bride’s Kimono takes the reader along on another humor-filled thrill ride with a heroine for the new age, Rei Shimura, the Japanese-American antiques dealer-cum-sleuth who must navigate between two worlds and two lovers—and around a corpse—as she solves the mystery of a stolen antiquity.”
Stephen Horn, author of the New York Times bestseller In Her Defense
ACCLAIM FOR
SUJATA MASSEY’S previous novels
THE FLOATING GIRL
Booklist Editor’s Choice
Agatha Award nominee
“Sujata Massey is one of the rising stars of the [mystery] genre.”
Denver Post
“Rei is one of the most complex female protagonists around. She is Japanese, but she is also an American living in Japan, and this dichotomy gives her observations on Japanese culture a fascinating double edge. Another must-read from an author who has honed the skill of captivating and educating her readers at the same time.”
Booklist
THE FLOWER MASTER
Macavity Award Winner
“Massey not only fleshes out each of [the] sub-plots but weaves them together to illuminate conflicts of old and new in Japanese manners, morals, family, and love.”
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“What Sujata Massey excels in, as evident from two previous Rei Shimura thrillers, is the arranging of plot details, interwoven with sprays of scene and freshly cut dialogue.”
Baltimore Sun
ZEN ATTITUDE
Anthony and Edgar Award Nominee
“A gifted storyteller who delivers strong characters, a tight plot and an inside view of Japan and its culture.”
USA Today
THE SALARYMAN’S WIFE
Agatha Award Winner
“Sly, sexy and deftly done, Wife is one to bring home.”
People Page-Turner of the Week™
Other Books by Sujata Massey
THE FLOATING GIRL
THE FLOWER MASTER
ZEN ATTITUDE
THE SALARYMAN’S WIFE
Coming soon in hardcover
THE DAIMYO’S DAUGHTER
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, New York 10022-5299
Copyright © 2001 by Sujata Massey
ISBN: 0-06-103115-1
www.avonmystery.com
THE BRIDE’S KIMONO. Copyright © 2001 by Sujata Massey. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
First Avon Books paperback printing: October 2002
First HarperCollins hardcover printing: September 2001
Avon Trademark Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. and in Other Countries, Marca Registrada, Hecho en U.S.A.
HarperCollins ® is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780062218902
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