Showing The Floating Girl by Sujata Massey

Comics, beaches, and college kids collide in Rei Shimura's fourth Tokyo mystery. Rei, a young American antiques dealer, thinks writing a magazine column on the history of Japanese comic books will boost her reputation. During a weekend at her boyfriend Takeo's beachside house, she fixes on the perfect subject: an exquisite modern comic that reveals the disturbing social milieu of pre-World War II Japan. But when one of the comic's young creators is killed, Rei is drawn into Japan's youth underground. She floats through strip clubs, anime shops and coffeehouses, and ultimately, into the Pacific Ocean itself. But will she get the story before the killer gets her?

An edgy, sexy mystery with a strong undercurrent of humor, The Floating Girl was a Booklist Editor's Choice and finalist for Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2000.