Milo Murano
Created by Natsuo Kirino

Although Japan isn't exactly crawling with private eyes, fictional or otherwise, well-respected Japanese author Natsuo Kirino won the Edogawa Rampo award with her first typical hard-boiled novel, Hoho Ni Kakaru Ame ("Rain Dropping on the Cheeks"), which features a female private eye named Milo Murano (allegedly after James Crumley's protagonist, Milo Milodragovitch).

Recently Kirino has even been translated and published in English, and Out, her disturbing noirish tale of murder and dismemberment, has been garnering a lot of attention, even scooping up an Edgar nomination a few years ago. Hopefully, Hoho Ni Kakaru Ame will soon follow suit.

NOVELS

• Hoho Ni Kakaru Ame ("Rain Dropping on the Cheeks", 1993)

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.