Book Review: Snow Falling On Cedars

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. This is a novel set in the early 1950's (post WWII). It is set on a remote island in the pacific northwest. It is a murder mystery, it is a love story, it is a courtroom drama, and it is formost a discussion of racism.

This story is about a japanese american fisherman who is accused of murdering another fisherman. The motive for the murder is that the accused's family was to have purchased some land from the dead man's family and just before the deal was done, the war in the pacific breaks out. Because of the japanese internment, the final payment on the land was never consumated.

This is well crafted novel. You not only feel the physical beauty of the pacific nortwest but you feel the tension in the courtroom and the simmering love triangle.