Robert Goddard, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection

Unassuming, middle-aged Umiko Wada is a detective's assistant tasked with traveling from Japan to England to investigate a decades-old death. The assignment lands her in the middle of a huge conspiracy and other assorted goings-on: murders, kidnappings, missing persons, assumed identities. That all makes it sound more interesting than it is, though. The plot is intricate—that is Robert Goddard's forte, after all—but that's really where it lost me. The story was too complicated, and not clear enough, and not interesting enough. I would have enjoyed this book more if more attention were paid to character development and less to the plot. Wada leaves me lukewarm as is, but given more development, I can see myself liking her enough to want to read more.