Naomi Hirahara will discuss her latest novel on Saturday, May 24, at 2 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave. (at First Street) in Little Tokyo.
Hirahara is best known for her Mas Arai mystery series, in which the sleuth is a curmudgeonly Kibei gardener. “Murder on Bamboo Lane” is the first in a new series featuring LAPD bicycle cop Ellie Rush.
Ellie Rush dreams of becoming a homicide detective, but it’s still a shock when the first dead body she encounters on the job is that of a former college classmate. At the behest of her aunt Cheryl Toma, the highest-ranking Asian American officer in the LAPD (a source of pride for Ellie’s grandmother, but annoyance to her mom), Ellie becomes tangled in the investigation of the coed’s murder — with equal parts help and hindrance from her nosy best friend, her over-involved ex-boyfriend, a smoldering detective, and seemingly everyone else in her extended family.
The book is available at the Museum Store.
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