Sandra L Vasquez

By all appearances, Frank and Maggie share a happy, loving marriage. But for the past six months, they have not spoken. Not a sentence, not a single word. Maggie isn’t sure what, exactly, provoked Frank’s silence, though she has a few ideas. Day after day, they have eaten meals together and slept in the same bed in an increasingly uncomfortable silence that has become, for Maggie, deafening.

Tokyo resident Keiko Furukara has never fit in - neither in her family, nor in school - but when at the age of 18 she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of national convenience store chain Smile Mart, she realizes instantly that she has found her purpose in life. Delighted to be able to exist in a place where the rules of social interaction are crystal clear (many are laid out line-by-line in the store's manual), Keiko does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and mode of speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less.

Emmy thought that the dark days of her sleuthing were over...but now it feels like they're starting all over again. After a dinner party at the Byrnes' house because of a new business deal that Emmy's dad ventured in, Emmy and Daniel, alongside the rest of the guests, were surprised to find Wendy, their cat, jumping on a man named Caleb Roberts - Troy Byrne's new business partner. Is Wendy just being catty? Or is there anything else - something graver, crazier - that Emmy should know?