In Kiss of the Geisha, Page and Kenji Tanaka are enjoying a passionate life together following their whirlwind courtship, when they are drawn into a mysterious murder.

Page is teaching part time at Kyoto University when a fellow professor dies of poisoning from the deadly puffer fish, fugu. Several other men have died in the same way, and Page begins to suspect that the professor was murdered because of his research into Japanese war crimes involving the dead men.

Page is tutoring a young Japanese girl who is training to become a geisha. This young girl becomes involved in the killings when she overhears a conversation between her geisha mother and her geisha mother’s patron.

Page and Kenji travel to Europe, but when they return, the threat of danger still hangs over them. Page realizes that having all the money she could ever need doesn’t make her immune to that danger. She knows that someone wants to silence her, possibly forever, and she must rely on Kenji and her friends to save her.

Kyoto, Tokyo, Kamakura, and Osaka are the settings for Kiss of the Geisha where every day life in Japan presents some interesting challenges for Page. Some familiar characters from Kyoto Connection return in this second book in the continuing series.

Deborah Kemp was born in Massachusetts. She received a B.S. degree in Psychology, and then worked as a travel agent for ten years. After traveling extensively, she returned to school, received a Master’s degree in Education, and became a teacher.

She and her family hosted several Japanese students, and she began what she calls a "life-long love affair with Japan." She spent two summers visiting Kyoto where she made side trips to other areas of Japan. In writing Kyoto Connection, she combined her years of learning about Japan with her personal experiences in Japan.

She continues to teach her students about life in Japan, and is working on her third book, Captive in Kyoto. This book features Page and Kenji from Kyoto Connection and Kiss of the Geisha, as they get involved in the disappearance of an American woman in Kyoto.

We took the food out to the garden room/solarium to eat. The gardens outside could be seen through the glass enclosure, and there were many plants inside as well. It was a serene dining area. I loved to come out early in the morning and have tea there. After more than two years in cramped city apartments, this was heaven in the Higashiyama hills.

We cleaned up the remains of dinner, and walked back to the bedroom where Kenji suggested a nice soak in the tub. The bathroom had a traditional ofuro, a deep tub for soaking, and it overlooked the gardens. In Japan, it is the custom to wash outside the tub, rinse well, and then enter the tub. Kenji went to turn on the water to fill the deep tub while I changed out of my clothes and went in to scrub. He joined me, and as was our custom, we scrubbed each other. In the past this had led to some heated lovemaking before we ever got to the tub, but tonight we both seemed content to relax and enjoy the tub first. The water was very hot, and I could feel myself relax almost instantly. I thought nothing could be better than sharing a tub with my gorgeous husband, staring into his beautiful eyes and seeing the love I felt for him reflected back to me. I pushed away thoughts of less happy times we had experienced, and looked forward to our future, knowing that happiness was a precious but sometimes fleeting emotion.

It was my suggestion to leave the warmth of the tub for the warmth of our futon, and Kenji did not resist. We dried each other off and slid beneath the fresh clean sheets of the futon. As always I marveled at Kenji’s smooth muscular body made strong by years of aikido martial arts training. Like most women, I found flaws with my own body, but Kenji made me feel flawless when he made love to me. I was more amply endowed than most Japanese women, a fact that not escaped Kenji’s notice from the beginning. We kissed and made love slowly, deliberately prolonging our pleasure in each other’s bodies. When at last we finished, I lay content in his arms.

"Are you looking forward to the party?" Kenji asked me. "I’m a little nervous," I confessed. He frowned slightly. "My parents have accepted our marriage. You don’t need to feel nervous around them." I did not share his optimism, but I didn’t want to spoil the way I felt just now, so I changed the subject. "Everything is almost packed and ready to go in the morning," I told him. "Good, then we can sleep a little later, or not," he added with a twinkle in his eye. Through the past few months I had come to know and love that twinkle. Later that night Kenji fell asleep in my arms, but thoughts of the party kept intruding, and sleep did not come so easily to me.