American Fuji

By Sara Backer

Gaby used to be an English professor at Shizuyama University in Japan but she was suddenly and without explanation fired. Now she works for a Japanese fantasy funeral company, selling elaborate funerals to grieving families.
Alex, a psychologist, is in Japan on a book tour, but he is also there to investigate the death of his son in a motorcycle crash. He has a lot of questions about it but was unable to get any answers, especially to the question of why his son's body was missing its heart. He meets Gaby and talks her into helping him with his investigation, to be his interpreter and his liaison between himself and a culture that he is finding very difficult to understand and deal with.

This is a mystery novel and a romance novel, with the defensive and prickly Gaby gradually warming to the hurting and bewildered Alex. She helps him unravel the mystery of his son's death and he helps her unravel the mystery of her sudden firing from her position at the university.
I don't know if it is a fair depiction of the Japanese or not. I don't know anything about Japan. But I did enjoy this story very much. It grabbed me and held my interest from the very start.