#3 Mas Arai mystery set in LA. Mas, a seventy-something-year-old Japanese-American gardener who is also a Hiroshima bomb survivor, gets sucked into another mystery when a party he's coerced into attending by his friend GI Hasuike to celebrate the Vegas jackpot GI's friend Randy won sports an interesting ending--Randy being murdered in the parking lot, next to him a broken antique shamisen--an Okinawan musical instrument.

Once again, history plays a role in the case, which Mas works on with Juanita Gushiken, a licensed PI and GI's girlfriend. As he begins to trace the shamisen, he finds out some interesting details about Randy that even GI didn't know, and the murder could tie into the disappearance of a Japanese national some fifty years previously. Mas must set aside his naturally reticent nature to go knocking on doors and be persistent about asking questions.

I always learn something when I read this series and this book was no exception. Although the story can be a little difficult to follow at times, with the use of some Japanese terms as well as the strange sort of combination English-Japanese speech that many of Mas's generation use, I've gotten somewhat used to it now by this third book. I really like Mas and look forward to reading his next adventure.