Join Edgar Award–winning author, Naomi Hirahara, for a presentation on her newest historical mystery novel Crown City. Crown City is the story of a young carpenter from Yokohama who is dispatched to Pasadena, California in 1903, only to find himself completely disoriented in a western world obsessed with all things Japanese. Of course, since this is a mystery, there are a series of crimes, including an art theft and the discovery of a dead body.
Crown City will be released on February 17, 2026, and will be available in the JANM Store.
There will also be a JANM Members Only Meet-and-Greet event at 1 p.m.-1:45 p.m. prior to this event. We request that you RSVP separately for that program here.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
Pasadena, 1903: Eighteen-year-old Ryunosuke “Ryui” Wada staggers off the boat from Yokohama, Japan, ready to reinvent himself after the untimely deaths of his parents.
As he battles loneliness and culture shock, he settles into his work as an art dealer’s apprentice while adjusting to his new home and is utterly swept up in all “Crown City” has to offer. But tensions seethe under Pasadena’s bustling prosperity. Ryui is the victim of an anti-Japanese attack, and a painting is stolen from the studio of Toshio Aoki, Pasadena’s most successful Japanese artist, who then hires Ryui and Jack to investigate. It’s not long before their sleuthing leads them into real danger. Has Ryui bitten off more than he can chew?
Bios
Naomi Hirahara
Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories. Her Mas Arai mysteries, which have been published in Japanese, Korean and French, feature a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor who solves crimes. Her first historical mystery, Clark and Division, which won a Mary Higgins Clark Award, follows a Japanese American family’s move to Chicago in 1944 after being released from a California wartime detention center. A former journalist with The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, Naomi has also written numerous non-fiction history books and curated exhibitions. She has also written a middle-grade novel, 1001 Cranes. Her follow-up to Clark and Division, Evergreen, was released in August 2023 and was on the USA Today bestseller list for two weeks. Her latest book, Crown City, will be published in February 2026.