I am Wendy Jones
Nakanishi, an American, a long-term resident of Japan: my husband is an orange
grower on Shikoku island. I adopted the pen name of Lea O’Harra to write crime
fiction, wanting to try my hand at a literary genre I’ve researched in a number
of published articles as a Japanese university professor. That Ian Rankin was a
fellow postgrad at Edinburgh in the early eighties also played a part in my
decision. I wrote the Inspector Inoue thriller series first: Imperfect
Strangers (2015), Progeny (2016), and Lady First (2017). My
fourth book, Dead Reckoning (2022), is a standalone murder
mystery set in the American Midwest in a rural community not dissimilar to my
hometown of Rolling Prairie, Indiana, population 500. My fifth, Sayonara, My
Sweet ((2025) is a standalone in small-town Japan. My books have
been nominated/finalists in a number of literary competitions.
Is it a case of love is blind? Kaori is horrified when Hiroki admits he once belonged to a yakuza gang in Tokyo. She toys with breaking up with him but changes her mind after he apologizes and brings her a box of chocolates.
Her younger brother Aki is eavesdropping on the couple when he hears the sister he adores begin to cough. An ambulance is summoned but too late: she dies, and it turns out some of the chocolates were poisoned. Hiroki disappears. Unable to find the main suspect, the police cannot solve the case, and Kaori’s family moves away.
Ten years later, Aki returns, determined to find out who killed his sister.
You can get the book Here
You can follow Wendy on her author Website and on her Amazon Author Page
If you are coming to the Death in the Dales Festival of Crime in October, Wendy and I will be taking part in a panel discussion about using foreign locations in our books. You can read more about the Festival of Crime Here
Look out for a post about the third panel member - David Beckler - in September ...
