Naomi Hirahara
@gasagasagirlNaomi Hirahara is the author of the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai mystery series, which features a Kibei Nisei gardener and atomic-bomb survivor who solves crimes, Officer Ellie Rush series, and now the new Leilani Santiago mysteries. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo, she has written a number of nonfiction books on the Japanese American experience and several 12-part serials for Discover Nikkei.
Updated October 2019
Stories from This Author
Chapter Eight — Try Tamago
May 4, 2019 • Naomi Hirahara
I wait for Crowe to threaten to publicly expose my lies. I picture being kicked out of the dorm and being on the front page of the Stanford Daily: middle-aged Japanese sushi chef impersonating a graduate student. “Anago feast,” he says, sharpening his kitchen knife with a steel rod. “Excuse me?” I find a wire-mesh strainer and pour my broth into a plastic container. I’ll use the dashi for another purpose. “You mean that you prepared an anago feast for …
Chapter Seven — The Magic of Kitchen
April 4, 2019 • Naomi Hirahara
The condo itself is one of those nondescript kinds all along Embarcadero in Palo Alto. It’s part of a larger complex with probably at least fifty units. My ex-husband’s condo is way in the back and I stand there waiting for his lawyer, Jordan Phelps. With everything that has happened, I know that it’s quite dangerous for me to be out there, in plain sight. But I’m tired of being scared and ashamed about my past. Ever since my customer—well, …
Chapter Six — Pretender
March 4, 2019 • Naomi Hirahara
I’m assembling a natto hand roll for a software engineer with Google, when a man in a motorized wheelchair enters Yudai’s Corner. He has a grizzled red beard that looks like strands of saffron and a Giants baseball cap. “I’m looking for Maki Mitchell,” I hear him announce to our waitress, Carrie. He is already looking my way, so I figure he already knows who I am. Carrie is giving him the third degree, but I tell her that it’s …
Chapter Five — Murder Menu
Feb. 4, 2019 • Naomi Hirahara
“The first official meeting of Yudai Investigations is called to order,” Yudai says as our fivesome make our way in a residential area of Mountain View. Instead of our typical donburi, Hector has made onigiri with leftovers in the middle. Som has one with a hotdog; Carrie, tofu; Yudai, carnitas; and me, tamagoyaki. Hector himself eats a burrito he has made at home. All of it can be eaten while walking. Som stuffs his onigiri in his mouth and starts …
Chapter Four — Maki vs. the BGWAAM
Jan. 4, 2019 • Naomi Hirahara
Up to now, I’ve never felt that a group that I belonged to believed in me. When I left for America, my family thought that I would come running back home. That didn’t happen. My classmates thought that I was peculiar, too clever for our fishing village in Wakayama. They predicted that I would end up a hostess girl in the red-light district in Tokyo. That didn’t happen, either. But as I’m sharing my current troubles to my coworkers at …
Chapter Three — Don’t Be a Bakatare
Dec. 4, 2018 • Naomi Hirahara
What attracted me to Kurt, you may wonder. It wasn’t that he was particularly good looking. I mean, he was tall, six-three, but he was really thin; at five-six I may have actually weighed the same as he did. But just the fact that he desired me made me desire him back. The waitress at Yudai’s Corner, Carrie, says this is old-school thinking. Women should not be objects, playthings for men. She’s a gorgeous blonde Stanford student, while I’m of …
Chapter Two — False Identity
Nov. 4, 2018 • Naomi Hirahara
The first thing I figure out: that my date, Ray DiPietro, wasn’t quite who he said he was. Before I can even call in his murder, the police arrives at my workplace, Yudai’s Corner. First it was a couple of plainclothes detectives in an unmarked car. And then five black-and-white squad cars with Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department emblazoned on their side doors. I begin shaking like a leaf. A woman pulls me aside, shows me some official identification and starts …
Chapter One — Henna Otoko
Oct. 4, 2018 • Naomi Hirahara
Yudai is gone tonight, so I’m in charge again. The third night in a row. I’m tired; I notice some dark circles around my eyes this morning and apply a heavier layer of Shiseido concealer. I try to pretend that it magically works to transform me into a young woman full of vitality, but I can’t get away from the stark truth that I’m a forty-two year old divorcée with a slightly crooked front tooth and wrinkles on her forehead …
Chapter 12
Aug. 4, 2018 • Naomi Hirahara
He’s standing about a foot away from me. He holds his right hand behind his back. Could he have some sort of weapon? My mind whirls. I don’t know how to play this. I decide to keep it casual, as if I don’t even suspect anything is askew. “Hi, Kyle. How have you been?” “I heard that you were at the koban. Asking about me.” I try to create more space in between us, but Kyle’s not budging. “Yeah, the …
Chapter 11
July 4, 2018 • Naomi Hirahara
“Grandma, let me see that log book.” “Be careful; it’s old as dirt,” Grandma Toma cautions me as she hands over her father’s notebook that he kept while working as a policeman in Manzanar. I sit down at her desk, crowded by Sudoku books, John Wooden biographies, and junk mail. Grandma Toma is a bit of a hoarder; it took us quite a while to empty out her house before she moved in. The only good thing about it today …
