A Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery set in Kyoto

by Tina deBellegarde (Level Best Books, Sept, 2024)

Review by Simon Rowe

Autumn in Japan is traditionally a time for reading, with cooler evenings and sumptuous seasonal foods apt to put one in the mood for enjoying a good book.

Mystery writer and Agatha Award nominee, Tina deBellegarde, has a seasonal offering that is both timely and ripe for the reading.

Hot on the heels of her first two Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery books comes Autumn Embers, a fresh tale of intrigue driven once more by the savvy, small-town sleuth, Bianca St. Denis. This time, leaving behind a cast of quirky local characters, she departs New York State for Japan’s former capital, Kyoto, to return a priceless artefact and visit her musician son, Ian, who has taken up residency in one of the atmospheric old neighbourhoods.

But whilst we experience the city’s timeless charm through her ‘fresh eyes’ (and faux pas), it becomes quickly apparent that all is not well in the ancient capital.

Tension is ratcheted up when St. Denis’ joy at seeing her son turns to dread after she witnesses a violent struggle in the garden of his guesthouse late one night. When the police find no evidence of foul play, she grows unsettled, convinced that something sinister has come to pass, but helpless in a city where she doesn’t speak the language and is still grappling with its idiosyncratic customs. Her worst fears are confirmed when a body appears in the local river — to be followed by the shocking revelation that her son, Ian, is the number one suspect in the police investigation. Her maternal instincts kick in and she resolves to hunt down the perpetrator.

Like all rollicking mysteries, Autumn Embers deals in the physical as well as the psychological. Between moments of tension, deBellegarde eases us through the quaint shopping streets of downtown Kyoto, sampling its treats, sifting for books and records in its hundred-year-old stores, or just stepping out of a passing rain shower and into a cozy cafe to savour jazz music over a stormy brew.

Scenes like these imbue the story with a strong sense of place and cleverly temper the moments of chaos. Aside from themes of ‘familial love’, ‘friendship’ and ‘revenge’, we come to understand what it means to be a foreigner living in Japan, and that no matter how sincere and earnest one’s endeavours are to fit in and understand the culture, one is forever doomed to remain a gaijin — an outsider.

Autumn Embers moves at a fair clip thanks to the use of short chapters which to-and-fro the narrative between Japan and the U.S. where a parallel story of trial and tribulation is played out by St. Denis’ friend and cohort, Batavia-on-Hudson sheriff Mike Riley. The twain, thankfully, do converge by the end of the book, bringing this story to a satisfying conclusion while also leaving us wondering if there may be more to their relationship than meets the eye.

deBellegarde’s next book, number four, is sure to reveal all.

Simon Rowe is author of Mami Suzuki: Private Eye (Penguin, 2023)