‘An accomplished crime series which gives an insight into Japanese culture... The Inspector Inoue thrillers grip and inform.’ Thomas Waugh Japan 2016. One cold winter evening three-year-old Makiko Kohara goes missing from a shopping mall in Fujikawa. When Chief Inspector Inoue gets the news, he is playing with his own three-year-old son. Inoue is worried - but determined to find the child with the aid of his two lieutenants, Ando and Kubo. CCTV footage reveals a hooded figure entered the deserted women’s toilets at the mall after the child. As a father and a policeman, Inoue is shocked by the brutal nature of Makiko’s abduction. He prays the child is still alive. During the investigation, Fujikawa is experiencing a crime wave. When little Makiko’s body is found, all of Japan is watching and waiting. There is pressure on Inoue to find her killer. Inoue’s son is then taken. He must now find Makiko’s killer to save his own child. Lea O’Harra lived in Japan for thirty-six years, working as an English professor at a private university in western Japan. 'Lea O'Harra offers us a whodunnit set in a Japan labouring under the weight of cultural imperialism, a country where the characters find that their friends and lovers are really strangers - and imperfect ones at that...' Nick Sweet, author of the Inspector Velázquez series 'With her deep knowledge of Japanese culture, superb writing, and sensitivity to human foibles. O’Harra has crafted a cross-cultural whodunnit sure to please Japanophiles and mystery lovers alike.' Suzanne Kamata, author of Losing Kei 'Imperfect Strangers is a novel that probes the society in which its characters live. As such I commend it highly and wish it well on its voyage across the choppy seas of international crime fiction.' Paul Johnston, author of the Alex Mavros series