From <b>Summer of the Big Bachi</b> to <b>Gasa-Gasa Girl</b>, Naomi Hirahara&#8217;s acclaimed novels have featured one of mystery fiction&#8217;s most unique heroes: Mas Arai, a curmudgeonly L.A. gardener, Hiroshima survivor, and inveterate gambler. <br><br>Few things get Mas more excited than gambling, so when he hears about a $500,000 win&#8211;from a novelty slot machine!&#8211;he&#8217;s torn between admiration and derision. But the stakes are quickly raised when the winner, a friend of Mas&#8217;s pal G. I. Hasuike, is found stabbed to death just days later. The last thing Mas wants to do is stick his nose in someone else&#8217;s business, but at G.I.&#8217;s prodding he reluctantly agrees to follow the trail of a battered snakeskin shamisen (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of the crime&#8230;and suddenly finds himself caught up in a dark mystery that reaches from the islands of Okinawa to the streets of L.A.&#8211;a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.