A haunting first novel set in Tokyo, "The Earthquake Bird" reveals a murder on its first page and takes its readers into the mind of the chief suspect, Lucy Fly -- a young vulnerable English girl living and working in Tokyo as a translator. Lucy grew up in England, and still harbors painful memories of her childhood in Yorkshire. Only her fascination with music and language provide her with a final break from her past, allowing her to move to Tokyo and start a new life as a translator of technical books. There, she begins an intensely erotic affair with a brilliant and secretive photographer named Teiji. But when Lucy befriends Lily Bridges, a young woman who has also fled trouble in Yorkshire, her life begins to unravel. Lucy doesn't like being reminded of what she left behind in England. Nor does she like Teiji's friendship with Lily. Now the police have accused her of killing Lily, because it is becoming apparent that Lucy has had the motive, the means, and the opportunity.
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Lucy Fly left home as soon as she was able and found herself in Japan, as far away as one can get from England. She lives and works there as a translator. As the novel opens, Lucy is arrested on suspicion of murder. As the police interrogates her, Lucy narrates her life story to the reader.[return][return]She left immediately after college, without bothering to inform her family. Not that they cared anyway; her mother was expecting another boy and lost interest when she saw that her newest child was a girl. Lucy was a ghost in the household. Her brothers followed their mother's example and ignored her, except for the times when they made cruel sport of her.[return][return]This was how she accidentally caused the death of one of her brothers.[return][return]In Tokyo, Lucy finds work, an irregular set of friends and a boyfriend who is obsessed with taking photographs. Teiji is a puzzle to her, but it is a comfortable bed-buddy arrangement. Then, Lily entered the picture.[return][return]Lily is from the same part of England as Lucy. The little piece of home unsettles Lucy and her new friend's personality sometimes grate on her nerves, but somehow they became friends. It was Lily's disappearance and recovery of a woman's torso that led the police to arrest Lucy.[return][return]Similar names in the same story annoy me because I have to look twice to make sure I didn't mistake one for another. It didn't help that they were both 4-letter names starting with an L.[return][return]It also didn't help that Lucy is a little peculiar. In the middle of a narration, she starts referring to herself in the third person, which doesn't help with keeping track of both women. However, it does show that there's something wrong with her and her take on what happened may not be what really happened.[return][return]Author Susanna Jones lived in Japan for a number of years, and brings the Japanese culture and society to life in her novel, although thankfully, she didn't thrown in unnecessary details that may overwhelm the reader.[return][return]The Earthquake Bird is one of those quiet mysteries where it's all already happened, and what's left to do is follow the road that led them there.[return]return
