SIMON ROWE

"Delicious and delightful—I’d travel with Mami Suzuki anywhere in Japan."

~ Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai mysteries and Clark and Division

Cover design by Levente Szabo, Briskartist

Single mother and straight-talking private eye Mami Suzuki takes cases the Kobe police have little time for and proves that quick wits and compassion solve mysteries faster

Beneath the sheen of its orderly streets and obedient populace, all is not well in the port city of Kobe. Business is as brisk as the Haru-ichiban spring breeze for Mami Suzuki, hotel clerk by day, private investigator by night.

Who’s stealing from Japan’s biggest pearl trader? Where’s the master sushi chef and why are his knives missing? How did the tea ceremony teacher’s brother really die? What does an island of cats have to do with a pregnant Shinto shrine maiden? From the wharfs of Kobe to the rugged Japan Sea coast, the Okinawa subtropics, and a remote island community in the Seto Inland Sea, each new adventure begins with a quandary and ends with a universal truth — that there are always two sides to every story of misfortune.

Tokyo Weekender Book Club choice — Autumn 2024

"Mami Suzuki captured my heart" — Books on Asia

"Immensely enjoyable … takes us around Japan and into the shadows of modern Japanese society" — Bookish Asia

Amazon Japan #1 Bestseller in Women Sleuths

"Rowe showcases his skill in creating a vivid sense of place" — The Japan Times

"Like all great mystery novels, Mami Suzuki is not about the who of a whodunnit but the exploration of why." — Japonica

"Travel writing at its best" — Writers in Kyoto

"Rowe's detective is something out of the ordinary" — Kyoto Journal

Praise for Mami Suzuki: Private Eye

"Mami solves her cases through a combination of intuition and common sense, but it is her acute understanding of the human condition as much as her sleuthing that makes her such a compelling and likeable character."
~ The Japan Times

"A gently compelling, atmospheric feast of a book ... I couldn’t stop turning the pages"
~ Harini Nagendra
Author of The Bangalore Detectives Club — 2022 New York Times Notable Book of the Year

"Rowe's detective is something out of the ordinary"
~ Kyoto Journal

"Crisp, witty, intelligent … a clear cut above the average mystery"
~ Amy Chavez
Author of The Widow, The Priest and The Octopus Hunter

"For those who loved Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, try Japan!"
~ Katherine Govier
Author of Three Views of Crystal Water and The Printmaker’s Daughter

"A hard-boiled female detective with street smarts, and the adoring man who waits for her in bars. What's not to like?"
~ Deborah Iwabuchi
Minamimuki Translations

"Beautifully written, beautifully evoked"
~ Lesley Downer
Author of Geisha, Madame Sadayakko and The Last Concubine.

"Atmospheric and beguiling"
~ Crime Watch

"Suzuki is from the gentle art of persuasion end of the PI spectrum."
~ AustCrime

2021 Best Indie Book Award winner
2021 International Rubery Book Award nominee
2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist

"Rowe brings to life an impressive variety of nuanced characters and cultures. Every detail is mesmerising and nothing is predictable."

The Book

Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere is a collection of short fiction set in Japan and in seven other countries around the world. Driven by characters who are tough, gritty, charming and witty, each of the sixteen tales takes the reader on a trip which ends with a twist.

Read 'West Wind' in Tokyo Weekender magazine, Japan's oldest English-language publication.

REVIEWS!

Asian Review of Books (link in photo)

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Signed paperback (274 pages) for immediate delivery worldwide
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Good Night Papa:
Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere

The Book
Good Night Papa: Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere is fifteen stories high, nine countries wide, and tells of people with problems and the clever - and sometimes unorthodox - ways they use to resolve them.

Paperback (193 pages) for immediate delivery
USD 16.50
**Shipping USD 2.00 extra

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For Kindle

Himeji strikes again!

The Convenience Store Ballerina makes the cut for

The Best Asian Short Stories 2019!

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Buy the Stories
(click the Kindle logo for previews)

The Storyteller

Simon Rowe grew up in small town New Zealand and big city Australia. He writes short fiction and screenplays from a small room in an old house overlooking a samurai castle in Himeji city, western Honshu. His stories have appeared in TIME Asia, the New York Times, the Weekend Australian, the South China Morning Post and The Paris Review.