For someone committed to living in Japan, Rei seems too often to overlay her American beliefs on the culture. ( )

1210 ( )

Zen Attitude by Sujata Massey is the second of the Rei Shimura mysteries. Rei has moved in with her boyfriend and her antique business seems to be taking off. Everything, though, goes wrong when she is tricked into paying too much for a tansu.

Shimura has fallen for a classic con and it's cost her most of her savings. The blow to her confidence and her wallet strains the relationship with her boyfriend. Pretty soon everything is flying out of control.

Having started the series with the later books first, I'm surprised by how naive and scared Rei is. I'm also now saddened that she gets back together with her boyfriend later because he's actually abusive here — not physically, but definitely emotionally.

As far as the mystery goes, I'm reminded most of the film, The Spanish Prisoner, though the con run on Rei isn't specifically that con. But there's that sense of realizing the pieces of the con by the shock of revisiting the places and events a day or even days later and realizing it was all put on for her benefit. ( )

This is the first of the Rei Shimura series and introduces the characters that are to follow in following books. In this book Rei is working at a school as an English translator while persuing her interest in antiques. ( )