Why a Booktrail?
Destination: Matsuyama, Shikoku Departure Time: 2000s
Following on from the Cherry Blossom Murder, Josie Clark is once again getting herself in involved in even more tricky situations
The Haiku Murder
What you need to know before your trail
Josie Clark is a British expat in Tokyo who goes on a Haiku Country tour with people from a company called Ando investments. It’s to be a getting to know you trip away for new clients and they’ll be visiting places well known for Haiku fans as well as being the ideal getaway. Writing poetry is on the agenda for every evening and the trip looks set to be relaxing as well as enjoyable.
But when the party arrive at Matasuyama castle, one of the participants of the trip, a charismatic financier is found dead at the bottom of a castle. A tragic fall! they cry, but Josie has other ideas and believes he was pushed.
Travel Guide
We’re sure that poetry is not normally as deadly as that portrayed in the book but it was very interesting to find out about the Haiku trip and to go on the itinerary with them. It was like a poetry booktrail so was right up our street and getting to know the array of characters was interesting too. The scenes at the airport before they even depart set the scene well with descriptions of quirky characters with hidden agendas.
As the tour progresses, we find out more about Haiku – such as lovers would converse in haiku and what it takes to write a piece.
Jimbocho and Saitama seem to be the places where the bookshops are in the book and how we wanted to linger here for longer. Makes us want to learn Japanese now too.
Matsuyama
The largest city and area on the island of Shikoku – where the famous Matsuyama castle is.
Japanese culture seems so fascinating in Fran Pickering’s hands – the funeral traditions for one were interesting to read about as was the yuzu icrecream and the yuzu flavoured sweet bean paste that was the Matsuyama speciality.
The gesture of standing on a bridge and dropping a camellia in to the water on one side and then making a haiku before it appeared on the other side seemed like a lovely thing to do and this is one image that stayed with us.
Streetview Maps
A) Japan - Shikoku - Matsuyama Castle
B) Japan - Shikoku - Matsuyama Castle
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
Fran Pickering’s passion for Japan really is the way in which she is able to write about the country with such skill. Her writing is easy to read and flows well and the snippets of Japanese life fit well into the case Josie gets herself involved with. I had images of a Japanese style of Nancy Drew kind of girl as Josie got herself further and further into the case despite David’s protestations. She’s a curious girl -I like that- and I urged her not to listen to the boyfriend and to get solving the case.
Some would call this cosy crime – like Grantchester or Nancy Drew but do we always have to have horrifc graphic murder everytime? It makes a nice change for the setting and the investigation side to come out on top and to focus on the person solving the mystery. There’s lots of conversations and inner thoughts that Josie shares throughout which make it easy for us to get on side early on and I was willing her to get the criminal. To do so in a landscape that is so tricky to navigate, one where we learn about the culture along the way is really interesting.
I like Josie Clark, I really do. Poor girl gets herself into a lot of scrapes but she uses her love of Japan and the Japanese language to full effect.
Josie if you would ever like to come on a booktrail, we’d love to have you! Safer than Haiku tours we assure you!
Where Next?
