Not her best, as my friend Susan Cooper says, but it surely wonderful nonetheless. Particularly engaging for me: we were there at the 2009 World Baseball Championship where this is set! ( )

Sayonara Slam by Naomi Hirahara was an enjoyable story about Mas Arai, an almost 80-year old gardener by trade...and an amateur slueth fueled by his persistent analyzing of tidbits of facts. Using Los Angeles Dodgers baseball as a backdrop, Mas works to unravel the murder of a Japanese journalist killed as he was covering Japan's baseball team in the World Baseball Classic held at Dodger Stadium. I enjoyed the historical information included about the Japanese and the treatment they faced during WWII especially as it pertained to baseball. Since this is the sixth book in a series, I look forward to finding the first five titles to read. ( )

This is the fifth book in this series and I really wished that I had started with the first in the series instead. I was very excited by the beginning of this book but later on, I started to get lost, I couldn't remember the characters except for Mas and I am must be honest, I have never been a baseball fan. I just had the feeling of being an outsider.

The writing is almost poetic at times and I would have liked to have met Mas and help him solve this mystery but I would have been so frustrated by his ability to hold his life experiences so secret. There is a lot of history in this story and of course a mystery but the character of Mas is at the same time frustrating and amazing.

I recommend this mystery to baseball fans and also people wanting know more about Japanese-American history in United States.

I received a finished copy of this book from the Publisher as a win from FirstReads but that in no way made a difference in my thoughts or feelings in this review. ( )

The latest book in the series of mysteries starring Japanese gardener Mas Arai is set during the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Japan and South Korea are playing at Dodger Stadium. Mas is particularly interested in the work of the grounds crew, of which his son-in-law, Lloyd, is a member. Mas is present at a practice session where he witnesses the death of one of the Japanese journalists. Mas intends to stay out of the way and let the police handle the murder investigation. Before he knows it, though, he agrees to work as the driver and translator for another Japanese journalist who wants answers about his colleague's death.

I have enjoyed the three books I've read in this unusual mystery series. Although the books are set in the 21st century, history has a central role in this series. Mas is nisei, born in the U.S., but his family returned to Hiroshima before World War II, and Mas is a survivor of the atomic bomb. The treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II is woven into this story, as well as Japan's treatment of comfort women during the war. At the same time, the Dodger Stadium setting during the World Baseball Classic anchors the mystery firmly in the recent past.

The cultural and historical elements overshadow the mystery plot at some points, and I occasionally found it hard to follow. I had a hard time distinguishing among some of the secondary characters, and I had to flip back to earlier passages to sort out who was who. The author uses lots of Japanese terms but doesn't always provide a translation for them. Sometimes I could figure out the meaning from the context, but sometimes it remained a puzzle. A glossary would have been helpful. However, the payoff is worth the additional reading effort.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. ( )

Mas Arai is visiting Dodger Stadium, where his son-in-law is head groundskeeper, when he witnesses the death of a famous reporter before the Japan-Korea game. A veteran gardener himself, Mas cannot quite fathom what is so special about being a groundskeeper at a stadium. He's also struggling with whether to take the next step with his romantic interest, Genessee. But, the majority of this mystery has to do with Mas and his young reporter sidekick searching for the answer to the poisoning of the famous reporter.

I found this an interesting book, but with less baseball than I'd hoped. It was nice to learn some of the Japanese phrases interspersed in the book. It was also interesting to learn about the ships and prisoner exchanges from WWII. found Mas to be a likeable, yet sometimes cantankerous, character. But, I wish there had been a little more baseball and a little more intrigue. It seemed like a struggle to keep reading, at times. ( )