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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good mystery which reveals much about Japanese culture., 23 Jan 2003
When Shunsuke Honma, a detective recovering from a gunshot wound, is asked by a young relative to try to find his missing fiancee, Shoko, this "simple" request quickly evolves into much more. Honma also finds himself dealing with issues of credit card debt, bankruptcy, identify theft, and possibly multiple murders. While the reader is pre-occupied with the complications of this fascinating mystery, s/he is also learning a great deal about how Japan "works" on many levels--the process of job-hunting, the importance of family and the use of the family register, the Public Employment department, attitudes toward women and their changing roles in society, attitudes toward adoption, and how the economy is changing as credit becomes more readily available. These topics add a fascinating new dimension to what might otherwise be a fairly standard, though extremely well written, mystery, keeping the reader thoroughly engaged on a level other than plot. Cleanly written and straightforward, the novel is also unusual in that Miyabe develops character more successfully than many other mystery writers. Honma is a real person who seems older than his 42 years, with real worries and real domestic problems, and we come to know him, his life with his 10-year-old son, and his hopes for the future. This mystery is a welcome change of pace, still lively and absorbing even ten years after its initial publication.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Want Of A Penny, 10 Jun 2004
It is a shame that this single volume is the only novel of Miyuki Miyabe's that has made it into translation. In Japan, Miyabe is a highly successful writer whose novels have been adapted into 10 films as well. Here she is only barely known, represented only by a single detective story - All She Was Worth.
The novel tells the story of Shinsuke Honma, a middle-aged police detective who is off duty while recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. The enforced inactivity has begun to wear thin on him, and a request from a distant relative to investigate the disappearance of his fiancée - Shoko Sekine tempts him into a freelance investigation that is part meticulous investigation and part social commentary. Shoko disappeared when it was revealed that she had gone through a personal bankruptcy. Honma discovers layer after layer of misdirection and subterfuge - the disappearance is only a reflection of the grim truth.The telling of the story reveals many of the inherent differences between Japanese and Western writing, even as it pares away at a social problem - easy credit and indebtedness - that is universal in both cultures. The telling is extremely detailed, with a strong focus not on the plot, but on the social and family milieus of the characters. The style is very naturalistic, and may irk American readers who are so used to stories that are action based and plot driven. Yet there are opportunities here for the writer to indulge of some niceties of language, many of which come through despite it being a translation. What Miyabe has chronicled is the lives of ordinary Japanese, carrying on with their lives, not the flashy high tech or Samurai mythos face of Japan that we see most often in imported Japanese culture. This is quite eye-opening, even as we realize that quiet desperation is just a Western phenomenon. In a sense, the plot itself isn't very important. In fact, the reader will know from fairly early in the novel what the crime is and who committed it. But the details of Honma's investigation, the bits of his family life, the fine grains of Shoko Sekine's own adventures, fit together like a puzzle, forming a compelling whole of their own. As such, this is an excellent introduction into what makes Japanese popular fiction tick.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific mystery reveals much about Japanese culture., 25 Dec 2002
When Shunsuke Honma, a detective recovering from a gunshot wound, is asked by a young relative to try to find his missing fiancee, Shoko, this "simple" request quickly evolves into much more. Honma also finds himself dealing with issues of credit card debt, bankruptcy, identify theft, and possibly multiple murders. While the reader is pre-occupied with the complications of this fascinating mystery, s/he is also learning a great deal about how Japan "works" on many levels--the process of job-hunting, the importance of family and the use of the family register, the Public Employment department, attitudes toward women and their changing roles in society, attitudes toward adoption, and how the economy is changing as credit becomes more readily available. These topics add a fascinating new dimension to what might otherwise be a fairly standard, though extremely well written, mystery, keeping the reader thoroughly engaged on a level other than plot. Cleanly written and straightforward, the novel is also unusual in that Miyabe develops character more successfully than many other mystery writers. Honma is a real person who seems older than his 42 years, with real worries and real domestic problems, and we come to know him, his life with his 10-year-old son, and his hopes for the future. This mystery is a welcome change of pace, still lively and absorbing even ten years after its initial publication. Mary Whipple
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