Kimura

Amateurish writing and excessive sentimentality mar this otherwise entertaining mystery debut. In 1970 L.A. cop Harry Edwards is called home to San Francisco by his father, a lawyer who wants to reopen a murder case he lost 27 years ago, during WW II. His client was Tanizani Kimura, a Japanese-American resisting internment who was convicted of brutally killing a Japanese-American woman married to a Caucasian. Harry is not interested in the case until his father dies in a suspicious accident. Returning to San Francisco, where students are preparing for a massive protest against the Vietnam War, Harry searches for a man named Edward Capos, the writer of a book whose plot is strikingly similar to the Kimura case. Investigating his old neighbors, Harry is forced to examine closely his childhood and the climate of racial hatred during WW II. Unfortunately, Davis doesn't delve deeper for a better understanding of a shameful period of American history. (Aug.)