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| All She Was Worth | 
| Author: Miyuki Miyabe
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $1.47
You Save: $12.48 (89%)
New (28) from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 86787
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0395966582
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.198920096
UPC: 046442966580
EAN: 9780395966587
ASIN: 0395966582
Publication Date: May 12, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Binding creased. Fine for a read. Shipping promptly from NYC!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Recovering from a leg injury, a 43-year-old Tokyo police inspector named Shunsuke Honma realizes how out of touch he has become when a relative asks him to make some private inquiries into the disappearance of his fiancee. While he wasn't paying attention, it seems that everyone in the country but Honma has been caught up in a consumer feeding frenzy--going into heavy debt and declaring bankruptcy at a snowballing rate. This engrossing story of the search for happiness through shopping marks the first appearance in English of one of Japan's leading writers.
Product Description
Here is a deftly written thriller that is also a "deep and moody" (NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW) journey through the dark side of Japan's consumer-crazed society. Ordinary people plunge into insurmountable personal debt and fall prey to dangerous webs of underground creditors-so dangerous, in fact, that murder may be the only way out. A beautiful young woman vanishes, and the detective quickly finds she is not whom she claims to be. Is she a victim, a killer, or both? In a country that tracks its citizens at every turn, how can two women claim the same identity and then disappear without a trace?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 clunky July 24, 2008
Miyabe does a good job creating Honma, the lead character, and the plot is reasonably realistic. But other than the lead the characters don't come alive and/or aren't stable or credible. In particular, Miyabe has trouble creating a stable voice for Honma's boy, a 10 year old who sometimes sounds like a (youngish) 10-year-old but other times serves as a weary adult voice when Miyabe thinks she needs that. Similar instability with the lead villain, who is never credibly fashioned into a monster.
As others here have said, the long lectures on consumer credit are boring and damage credibility. Honma was long time on the juvenile beat and he's supposed to be unaware of the phenomena? Miyabe needed to find a different way to inform her readers, perhaps in a foreword or with some other device.
Usual mystery, different locale March 17, 2008
I won't give another plot synopsis but I will say this is a very enjoyable book if you like mysteries, stories set in Japan, or both. This book won't change the mystery genre or shape the minds of generations but it is a good example of a well-written mystery. Interesting, quick-paced and keeps you turning pages well after you've decided on just one more chapter before bed.
The detailed explanation of credit in Japan is slightly tedious but at the same time is interesting to read simply for comparison. The closest thing to a complaint for this novel is the ending is somewhat open and I personally like a nice, tidy close to mysteries but this is more realistic. All in all, if you like mysteries or are just interested in the ways of the East, you won't be disappointed with this book.
 Fascinating February 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read a lot of detective fiction, but usually not contemporary thrillers because they tend to be far too gory for my taste. I bought this on the recommendation of a friend, and found it thoroughly enjoyable. The central mystery is tightly plotted, and the characters are well observed.
I loved that I learnt a lot about Japanese culture that I wasn't previously aware of. I think it's true to say this story coudn't be set any where else, because there are key plot points that revolve around some idiosyncratic aspects of Japanese law.
When I first read this book, nothing else by Miyuki Miyabe had been translated, now several other titles are available in English, and all of them are on my wish list!
Enjoyable, absorbing mystery novel February 4, 2008
Miyuki Miyabe fleshes out a sordidly suspenseful web of lies that start from a simple case of one woman's stolen identity. Shunsuke Honma, a middle-aged Tokyo police inspector with a 10-year-old son, takes on a private detective case a la Vertigo while on disability leave when a nephew asks for his help in finding his missing fiancee.
Who is at the bottom of this brutal crime, and what motives led to the murder of the real woman, Shoko Sekine? This is an absorbing novel that not only presents a pithy mystery but also shows an insider's look into Japan's uniquely complex address registration and census system, as well as an anecdote that illustrates how the bursting of Japan's bubble economy led much of its middle-class to fall into a cycle of lending and debt.
Mesmerizing November 28, 2007
The structure and style of this mystery is compellingly different from that of western writers. I found myself drawn into the story and into the world of the characters.
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