In Plain View

Mystery fans comfortable with deferring gratification will enjoy Shigekuni’s well-written if enigmatic tale. A short prologue, in which a four-year-old girl’s mother suddenly disappears in baffling circumstances, sets the cryptic tone. The book then shifts from the prologue’s undefined time and place to 2010 Los Angeles, where Daidai Suzuki has recently stepped down from her position as an art museum curator in the hope that a less stressful lifestyle will maximize her prospects of becoming pregnant. That choice creates tensions with her husband, Hiroshi, a professor of Asian-American studies, which are exacerbated by one of his students, Satsuki Suzuki (who isn’t related to them). Satsuki becomes a frequent visitor to the couple’s apartment, and Daidai fears that she has designs on Hiroshi. After the student’s mother dies in a convent, Daidai finds out that the death was a suicide and starts to play detective to learn the truth about Satsuki. Shigekuni (Unending Nora) does a superb job of portraying her lead’s insecurities. Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Nov.)