The earthquake bird

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