I found this book dull. It really doesn't get going until the final third and unless you have an unnatural level of interest in Japanese consumer credit, it's really not worth the effort. As other reviewers have noted, the ending is anti-climactic.

Miyuki Miyabe's "All She Was Worth" took 7+ years to make the trans-Pacific leap to these shores. As a result, we get a classic 1992 piece of Japanese 'popping of the bubble' fiction. When reading, you keep saying to yourself "Oh yeah, it's 1992." The roots of the story have to do with Japan's credit culture, the weight of personal financial debt and how otherwise 'normal' people get ensnared in ruinous, cyclical borrowing. Within the background of what Japan was like with its spectacular financial collapse of the early nineties, Miyabe's work is brilliant insight on that period.

It's also a great look at a police investigation and a quite plausible look at how an experienced detective pieces together a story.

Like others, I was hooked by the look of this book. The cover is beautiful and magnetic. Nice work by Mark R. Robinson, who is credited for the cover design. The contents, for once, measure up to the cover. I was hooked from Page One. The ending is a bit abrupt though...while the major question is answered, I wish the author had spent a bit more time tidying up some loose ends.

All She Was Worth really caught my eye, and I started reading it the moment it arrived. I found the book to be an intriguing, eye opening look into modern Japanese culture, and also what can happen when you spend more then you have.

The book was written very well, and it had me hooked from the first page. I read the book in several days, and as a slow reader, this is very unusual for me. I could not put this book down, I enjoyed nearly every page, up until the last one. I will not spoil the ending, but I will say that after reading the last page, as someone else mentioned, I sat there searching the blank pages, hoping to find anything to sum it up.

I feel that the book was built up to this final moment, on the final page, and then there is no conclusion. The ending definitely left much to be desired, but I still enjoyed the book immensely. My only other complaint about the book would be that at times, it was to in depth in explaining how bankrupty works. Sometimes it felt more like a text book then a fictional novel.

If you are ok with cliff hangers, then this is a great read, and definitely worth the purchase. If you need loose ends tied up, and the book's main questions answered, then this is not the book for you.

Winner of both Best Mystery and Novel of the Year in Japan in 1992, and well deserving of such awards in my mind, this one is highly recommended.

Set in the form of a police procedural, with an intricate and tightly plotted storyline about a predatory woman leaving her past behind by assuming the identity of her victim, the reader is left stunned with the calm and chilling believability of it all. I recall laughing out loud at one of the Jack Reacher novels where he takes a 38 bullet full in the chest, while his giant kevlar-like pectorals prevent any damage; there's none of that larger-than-life american pomposity here.

Rather, we are immersed in everyday Japanese life and -- changing -- social structure, as the detective protagonist proceeds in his investigation of 2 missing women. The breakup of close-knit family clans, the rise of a consumerist-based, credit-underwritten economy and it's attendant perils, are integrated wonderfully, without becoming preachy essay-like additions stitched onto the plot. And the moral is left for us to ponder: What does it mean to have an identity? Is it being able to connect a person to a database, or simply whether anyone cares if you live or die.

I've recently started reading Japanese mysteries and, on the whole, they've been very satisfying. So I delved into this one with great anticipation.

Miyuki Miyabe does a terrific job of bringing Japanese society to life. I was fascinated by all the cultural differences and loved the characters the author created. I was dying to know the solution to the mystery.

And therein lies the disappointment. I like solid storytelling and while this kept my interest all the way through, the ending was more than disappointing. I don't want to spoil it for those of you who want to read the book, so I won't spell out the ending. I'll simply say that it left me shuffling through the blank pages at the end of the book thinking that there must be something more to this. Admittedly, it's a personal thing, but I want a slam dunk ending with a punch - not something I can't recognize as an ending at all.

The rest of the book would get a five, but the ending was a zero for me and leaves me somewhat reluctant to try any of the author's other books.