Clouds Over Mountains

"Clouds Over Mountains," by first time author Matt Joseph, is a fast, intriguing, murder mystery from two pints of view using Pearl Harbor as a pivotal point in time for Japan and the United States. This book "examines themes of love and family, shame and redemption, truth and hope, and considers how historical events continue to affect people six decades later." "Clouds" interweaves the stories of two people. The first is a young Japanese village boy, Takehiko Ikeda, who became a naval pilot that flew in the Pearl Harbor attach and after suffering burns and injuries at Midway, switched his identify to save face and avoid shame for himself and his family. His redemption, his final atonement, brings in the second story. Margaret Roberts, career FBI and the first female acting director of the FBI, in the midst of Congressional confirmation hearing and the final stages of her mother's life. Matt Joseph's research into the pre-WWII Japan's mindset, along with the WWII attacks on Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway bring realism to Takehiko's story. You can put yourself in his mind at that time. Since the story took place in modern times and started in Japan, the Joseph's research and description of the modern live and thought of the Japanese brings home what a transformation event WWII was for Japan. Amidst the political intrigue of Washington DC, Margaret Robert's story starts with flashbacks to the earlier influences that shaped her being who and what she was. It was Takehiko's final atonement and the death of her mother that reveals the connection to Pearl Harbor and the huge influence over Margaret's life. "Clouds over Mountains" kept my interest and kept me guessing all the way through. Even though I figured out the main story line ¾ of the way, how it was done, and why it was done kept me guessing until the end. It was full of colorful characters, "bad" good guys, and "good" bad guys. How Joseph intertwined the two stories, both historically and as a thriller was great. It was well-worth the time to read it.

Ok, so what gets your attention more quickly and faster than a dead body? That's how Clouds Over Mountains starts. Perry Mason goes in front of the civilians and Navy officers to re-account his story of what happened that night. Perry tells them that it was a foggy evening when Seaman Franks shouts that he spotted something propped up on the dock. When Perry and Franks go to investigate what was on the dock to their surprise they find the body of a man. Koji Imaichi wants to figure out why Navy pilot Yasuo Saito so many years ago disappeared, especially after surviving the attack by the Americans on the Navy carrier Akag at Midway. So Imaichi, an ex-cop decides to pose as a reporter to get answers from Saito. The problem is when Imaichi shows up at Saito's doorstep in Japan; Saito gets scared and runs away. The chase is on now. Imaichi follows Saito from Japan to his childhood home and finally to Hawaii. Just when Imaichi thinks he has lost track of Saito a new twist gets thrown in the mix and you won't believe what it is! When I read the book summary and concept for Clouds Over Mountains I was very interested. I didn't realize through that Clouds Over Mountains would be better than it sounded. The characters were great as well as the storyline. Plus I didn't figure out what the secret was that Saito was hiding till Mr. Joseph wanted the reader to learn it. I do have to admit that when I first picked up this book I was like ok so it might take me a while to finish reading Clouds Over Mountains but it moved so fast and smooth that I had more trouble putting it down than I did picking it up. A big credit to this fact is Mr. Joseph's writing style. Also when I found out this was Matt Joseph's first novel; I was like I hope there is more to come

The December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the pivotal events of American history, an event that not only changed the course of World War II but also greatly impacted the futures of America and Japan for generations to come. In Clouds Over Mountains, author Matt Joseph revisits that tragic day from both the American and Japanese points-of-view. Yasuo Saito, who became one of Japan's finest wartime pilots despite his humble beginnings in rural Japan, has lived with what he considers to be a shameful secret for almost fifty-three years. He lived a quiet, self-contained life all those years but, fearing that his secret is about to be exposed, he decides that personal honor and loyalties require him to return to Hawaii's Pearl Harbor one last time. Margaret Roberts, one of the FBI's most successful female agents ever, has reached the point in late 1998 of being considered for the agency's top spot, a mixed blessing because of the personal embarrassment resulting from the media investigation into her past and qualifications for the job. Roberts, hoping to relieve some of the tremendous stress she is under, looks to a few days in Hawaii as the way to go but finds herself there when an unusual crime makes headlines around the world: a body has been found on the U.S.S. Arizona memorial with bloody footprints leading away from it. Because of the location of the crime scene, the FBI assumes jurisdiction over the investigation and Roberts is immediately in the thick of things. Clouds Over Mountains is an intriguing mystery, one that keeps the reader guessing for a while, but its real strength is that it is a strong character-driven mystery and not just a simple whodunit. Yasuo Saito is old-school when it comes to issues of personal honor and he has struggled for most of his life to reconcile himself to a decision that he made during the war. Through Saito's efforts to explain the life that he has lived for the last five decades, the reader is taken inside a pre-World War II Japanese society very different from the modern Japan we know today. It is an interesting look at what American history will always characterize as a "sneak attack" from the viewpoint of those responsible for the attack and a reminder that both sides suffer greatly during any armed conflict. Clouds Over Mountains is about family loyalties, patriotism, personal honor and shame, and desire for atonement. As in the best fiction of this type, history is simply the backdrop used to share the lessons learned by those who were there to experience it. This one took me to a world I was not at all familiar with, and I'm glad I made the trip.