Name: Naomi Hirahara w/ Mayumi Tsutakawa, CROWN CITY
Start: 2026-03-05T19:00:00-08:00
End: 2026-03-05T20:00:00-08:00
Location: The Elliott Bay Book Company

$Naomi Hirahara w\/ Mayumi Tsutakawa, CROWN CITY$

Two Japanese amateur detectives uncover the dark underbelly of their multicultural city in turn-of-the-century California
About this Event

Award winning author of Clark and Division and Evergreen, Naomi Hirahara, visits the store for her latest mystery novel, Crown City, in which two Japanese amateur detectives uncover the dark underbelly of their multicultural city in turn-of-the-century California. She is joined by writer and editor Mayumi Tsutakawa.

Pasadena, 1903: Eighteen-year-old Ryunosuke “Ryui” Wada staggers off the boat from Yokohama, Japan, ready to reinvent himself after the untimely deaths of his parents. Though battling loneliness and culture shock, Ryui does his best to settle into his work as an art dealer’s apprentice while adjusting to his new home. From his enigmatic photographer roommate, Jack, to the beautiful seamstress living downstairs, Ryui finds himself surrounded by colorful characters and unbelievable opportunities and is soon utterly swept up in all “Crown City” has to offer.

But tensions are seething under Pasadena’s bustling prosperity. Ryui is the victim of an anti-Japanese attack, and a painting is stolen from the studio of Toshio Aoki, Pasadena’s most successful Japanese artist, who then hires Ryui and Jack to investigate. It’s not long before their sleuthing leads them into real danger. Ryui is a naive young man in a foreign country—has he bitten off more than he can chew?

In this fish-out-of-water mystery, studded with cameos by real historical figures, Edgar Award–winner Naomi Hirahara brings to life a little-known slice of California history.

Naomi Hirahara is the Mary Higgins Clark Award, Edgar Award, and Lefty Award–winning author of Clark and Division and Evergreen; the Mas Arai mystery series, including Summer of the Big Bachi, which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; and the LA-based Ellie Rush mysteries. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, she has co-written nonfiction books like Life after Manzanar and the award-winning Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America's Edge. She and her husband make their home in Pasadena, California.

Mayumi Tsutakawa is an arts writer and editor. She often speaks and writes about the history of Japanese Americans and her family’s 120-year history in Washington State. She was formerly head of grants for organizations at the Washington State Arts Commission and prior to that she headed the King County Arts Commission. She serves as an Asian film programmer for Seattle International Film Festival. Mayumi co-edited several multicultural anthologies, including They Painted from their Hearts: Pioneer Asian American Artists and The Forbidden Stitch: Asian American Women's Literary Anthology. She was born and grew up in Seattle, attended Scripps College, and received her Master of Communications degree from the University of Washington.