<DIV><p>Curmudgeonly Japanese American gardener and unwitting detective Mas Arai is back in this fifth in the Edgar Award?winning series. Naomi Hirahara has created a memorable protagonist unlike any other: a Hiroshima survivor, Los Angeles gardener, widower, gambler, grandfather, and solver of crimes. In <I>Strawberry Yellow</I>, he returns to the strawberry farms of his youth and encounters family intrigue, danger, and murder.</p><p>The series' most compelling and evocative mystery yet is set in the strawberry fields of Watsonville, California, where young Mas first arrived as a Hiroshima survivor in the 1940s. He returns for the funeral of a cousin and quickly gets entangled in the murder of a young woman. Was his cousin murdered, too? Mas has to figure out what happened, keep himself safe, and uncover the mystery of the Strawberry Yellow blight and a new strawberry varietal so important that it could be inspiring a murderer.</p><p><B>Naomi Hirahara </B>is an engaging speaker who's always a hit at bookstore and mystery events. She's very active in the Japanese American community in California and is a past president of the southern California chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. She won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery for <I>Snakeskin Shamisen</I>, the third in the Mas Arai series.</p><BR></DIV>