Strawberry Yellow: A Mas Arai Mystery

The fifth offering in Hirahara's "Mas Arai" series (after Blood Hina) finds the curmudgeonly gardener, Hiroshima survivor, and sometime detective back in his hometown of Watsonville, CA, for the funeral of a cousin. Immediately, he is thrown into a maelstrom of suspicion, jealousy, and agricultural intrigue between the two competing strawberry growers in the area. Could his cousin have been murdered? Is his death related to the murder of a young woman romantically linked to another cousin? Are they both linked to the battle to patent a strain of strawberry resistant to the deadly "strawberry yellow" blight? Unwittingly, Mas ends up in the vortex of the controversy and nearly loses his life when he gets too close to the truth.The complex interrelationships of this multigenerational Japanese American community and the fierce competition for control of the California strawberry industry make this a thoughtful and highly entertaining read.