On the surface this is a simple whodunnit, but the more I think about it the more subtle and complex it seems. It is like an episode of Columbo where you know who the killer is from the first scene but the beauty of the piece is the detective putting all the pieces together.

It also gives the reader a wonderful insight into Japanese life and the author manages to make a study of Japanese consumer spending into a gripping sub-plot!

A delightful book, if not exactly taxing, and a real page turner.


For Want Of A Penny   June 9, 2004
 28 out of 29 found this review helpful

It is a shame that this single volume is the only novel of Miyuki Miyabe's that has made it into translation. In Japan, Miyabe is a highly successful writer whose novels have been adapted into 10 films as well. Here she is only barely known, represented only by a single detective story - All She Was Worth.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-5-0.gifThe novel tells the story of Shinsuke Honma, a middle-aged police detective who is off duty while recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. The enforced inactivity has begun to wear thin on him, and a request from a distant relative to investigate the disappearance of his fiance - Shoko Sekine - tempts him into a freelance investigation that is part meticulous investigation and part social commentary. Shoko disappeared when it was revealed that she had gone through a personal bankruptcy. Honma discovers layer after layer of misdirection and subterfuge - the disappearance is only a reflection of the grim truth.

The telling of the story reveals many of the inherent differences between Japanese and Western writing, even as it pares away at a social problem - easy credit and indebtedness - that is universal in both cultures. The telling is extremely detailed, with a strong focus not on the plot, but on the social and family milieus of the characters. The style is very naturalistic, and may irk American readers who are so used to stories that are action based and plot driven. Yet there are opportunities here for the writer to indulge of some niceties of language, many of which come through despite it being a translation.

What Miyabe has chronicled is the lives of ordinary Japanese, carrying on with their lives, not the flashy high tech or Samurai mythos face of Japan that we see most often in imported Japanese culture. This is quite eye-opening, even as we realize that quiet desperation is not just a Western phenomenon. In a sense, the plot itself isn't very important. In fact, the reader will know from fairly early in the novel what the crime is and who committed it. But the details of Honma's investigation, the bits of his family life, the fine grains of Shoko Sekine's own adventures, fit together like a puzzle, forming a compelling whole of their own. As such, this is an excellent introduction into what makes Japanese popular fiction tick.


Highly Recommended   March 11, 2000
 14 out of 15 found this review helpful

Wonderful Read! As a mystery, it's got all the intrigue and plot red herrings you would expect. However, if you are even remotely interested in Japanese society or just want to follow someone around Japan, this book does it well. I am left wondering how well does the translation keeps to the original since more than once I saw what I would have suspected as an English idiom crop up with a Japanese touch. Most notabably a variation on "Keeping up with the Jones". However, as an English reader, this touch only made the story more accessable as a whole. Very entertaining and leaves me wanting more!


Tokyo noir   September 24, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

All she was worth is a very engaging essay on the changing Japanese (family) values in increasingly materialistic modern times, wrapped in the form of a detective novel. While the subject of the corruption of modern life by seemingly endless credit has lost some of its novelty since the appearance of this book, it still stands as an admirable effort in describing the strain that consumerism has put on Japanese society.

The story and characters are well rounded and believable and except for some outdated discussion of credit card dept, the pace of this novel is very good. The exploration of the subject of the definition of the individual on the basis of family records is right on the money. The ending is especially beautiful.

While all these provide sufficient reason to read this book, its greatest strength lies in the style of the prose. Even in translation Miyabe's style, that could be described as sensually sparse, is remarkable. While being highly individual, this book's style reminded me of a mix between Harukami and Kafka. Highly recommended, not just for lovers of the mystery genre.


Wonderful   December 26, 2002
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is one of the books that I have wanted to read for quite some time but for some reason or another have put it off. Well, I have finally read it, and enjoyed every minute of it. To begin with I have never read many mystery novels before, so I did not know how I would respond to this one, but it gripped me very quickly. The story is pretty simple. A detective named honma is taking it easy because he was wounded by a gunshot his nephew soon comes by and asks him to help him find his missing fiance. Bored with sitting at home Honma takes the case, but it soon changes into something completely different than simply a runaway fiance. What he finds involves a case of murder. a murder to steal someone else's identity. He enters the world of Kyoko a beautiful woman whose life had been completely destroyed by her father's financial woes.

Although it seems simple this is actually a complex read. The most complex character is Kyoko: the reader does not know whether to hate her or feel sympathy for her. I don't want to give away any details here. please read the book.