Rei Shimura is a

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, ...

amateur sleuth and antiques expert who features in a series of

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reas ...

s written by

Sujata Massey Sujata Massey is an American mystery author and historical fiction novelist. Her books are published in English in the US and Canada, the United Kingdom and India, and Australia/New Zealand. Massey’s novels are also available in different langu ...

. Her character is first introduced in the novel ''The Salaryman's Wife'', in which she unravels the murder of a woman on a sight-seeing trip

Character history

Born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Rei Shimura was raised in the United States by her Japanese father and (Caucasian) American mother before emigrating to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. While in Japan, she worked in a succession of jobs, ranging from columnist for the ''Gaijin Times'' to antiques dealer. Rei Shimura is described as appearing more Japanese than Caucasian, and she is often mistaken to be of full Japanese ancestry when in the United States. In Japan, she is regarded as a foreigner despite her fluent Japanese and she still has difficulty with the written language. Rei Shimura's mother is a member of the influential Howard family, but in ''The Pearl Diver'' Massey indicates that only one member of this family, Kendall Howard, reaches out to Rei when she moves to Washington D.C. All of her father's family live in Japan, and Rei has a close relationship with her cousin, Tom Shimura, and her aunt, Norie.

List of novels

*''The Salaryman's Wife'' (1997) *''Zen Attitude'' (1998) *''The Flower Master'' (1999) *''The Floating Girl'' (2000) *''The Bride's Kimono'' (2001) *''The Samurai's Daughter'' (2003) *''The Pearl Diver'' (2004) *''The Typhoon Lover'' New York: Harper, 2005. , *''Girl in a Box'' (2006) *''Shimura Trouble'' London: Severn House, 2008. , *''The Kizuna Coast'' (December 2014) Fictional amateur detectives {{novel-char-stub