



The Musubi Murder
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
After a brutal year on the academic job market, Professor Molly Barda finally lands a teaching job. In Hawaii! But chronically-underfunded Mahina State University isn't exactly paradise.
After yet another round of budget cuts, Mahina State finally gets some sweet news: Jimmy Tanaka, founder of the Merrie Musubis lunch shop empire, announces a massive donation to the College of Commerce. But Tanaka goes missing before he can write the check, and Professor Molly is ordered to track down the missing mogul. As she uncovers festering feuds and fresh scandals, Molly realizes that there's something rotten in Mahina--and she may have bitten off more than she can chew.
What is a Musubi (pronounced moo-soo-BEE)? The Spam musubi, Hawaii's favorite snack and Merrie Musubis' signature dish, is a cube of sticky rice topped with a slice of fried Spam, and then wrapped in a strip of dried seaweed. From a distance, musubis look a lot like oversized pieces of sushi. Up close, they're delicious.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Professor Molly Barda, the narrator of the pseudonymous Bow's winning first mystery, is pursuing tenure at Hawaii's Mahina State University. The academic politics of Mahina are tougher than most, but Molly plays the game quietly until guest of honor Jimmy Tanaka, the owner of the Merrie Musubi fast-food chain and a potential major donor to Mahina, fails to show for a big reception at the school cafeteria. Molly unwillingly enters a search for Tanaka, and in the process finds herself falling for the man's competitor, Donnie Gonsalves, the owner of Donnie's Drive-Inns. Amid faculty grudges and unpopular student retention policies, Molly searches for the key to not just the missing Musubi mogul but a nasty killing. Bow, who teaches at a public university, uses wry humor to alleviate the horror of her heroine's situation and is familiar enough with island culture to know the popularity of Musubi rice balls with a heart of Spam.