Monday 25 November 2013

BARRY LANCET - JAPANTOWN

Synopsis/blurb..........

FIVE BODIES. ONE CLUE. NOT A TRACE OF THE KILLER.

San Francisco antiques dealer Jim Brodie recently inherited a stake in his father’s Tokyo-based private investigation firm, which means the single father of six-year-old Jenny is living a busy intercontinental life, travelling to Japan to acquire art and artefacts for his store and con­sulting on Brodie Security’s caseload at home and abroad.

One night, an entire family is gunned down in San Francisco’s bustling Japantown neighbour­hood, and Brodie is called on by the SFPD to decipher the lone clue left at the crime scene: a unique Japanese character printed on a slip of paper drenched in blood.

Brodie can’t read the clue. But he may have seen it before—at the scene of his wife’s death in a house fire four years ago.

With his deep array of Asian connections and fluency in Japanese, Brodie sets out to solve a seemingly perfect crime and at the same time learn whether his wife’s tragic death was more than just an accident. And as he unravels a web of intrigue stretching back centuries and connected to the murders in San Francisco, the Japantown killer retaliates with a new target: Brodie’s daughter.


Another debut author and another intriguing mystery set in part in present day San Francisco, part New York, part modern Tokyo and part Japanese village.

We open with the execution of a family of five and the placement of an indecipherable Japanese kanji (hieroglyphic) at the scene of the murders. Half-Japanese, half-American antique and art dealer, Jim Brodie gets called in by the police to help decipher the clue.  Brodie, a widower is unable to ascribe a meaning to the kanji, but is determined to unlock the puzzle, as it may be connected to his wife’s death a few years previously.

Within a short period of time he is followed and attacked after confronting his pursuer, his stateside business is burgled and he is approached by the Japanese business magnate, whose family were slaughtered in the recent slaying. Katsuyuki Hara wants Brodie’s Tokyo-based PI team to start looking into the slaughter.

Brodie, with the blessing of the SFPD, heads to Japan to try to find answers for Hara, the police and more importantly himself as it may unlock the key to his wife’s death. The killer though, always a step ahead; has Brodie in his sights. In taking him on, he opens a can of worms which ultimately threatens his 6 year-old daughter.

Part murder mystery, part thriller, part history and culture lesson; Lancet introduces us to a modern-day Japan, still in the grip of its historic past.

Murder, family, revenge, betrayal, Japanese art, antiques, kanjis, martial arts, Tokyo, San Francisco, New York, Soga clan, Samurai, village-life, loyalty, business, corruption, technology, murder and greed all play a part in this enjoyable tale.

Satisfying, entertaining and a little bit different from what I’m used to reading. Quite unlike anything I have read for a few years, perhaps in the same ballpark as Barry Eisler’s John Rain, with their shared ethnicity and same likeability, durability and capability. I don’t feel like I need to visit Japan, because Barry Lancet’s already taken me there.

4 from 5

Author Barry Lancet (photo by Ben Simmons)
Thanks to Glen (Tracy’s friendly other half!) for alerting me to this mystery and thanks to Barry Lancet the author for arranging for his publisher to send me a copy.        




                

14 comments:

  1. Col - This one does sounds like a good 'un. I respect authors who give the reader a strong sense of culture and history without taking away from the story at hand.

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    1. Margot, definitely a strong sense of Japan in the book - who would have guessed with that title eh? But still a strong mystery element as well.

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  2. This one does sound interesting....

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    1. Moira - I don't want to fall out with you, but ALL MY BOOKS SOUND INTERESTING! Denial is more than an African river.

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  3. Col, good to see your review and that you enjoyed the book. San Francisco really can't be beat as a setting and I especially like a book when history and culture are woven into the story. I plan on getting to this once I'm done with my current read.

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    1. Glen, thanks for the heads-up on this one. Definitely more to it than just a murder mystery, and yes San Francisco is a great setting. Hope you enjoy it.

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  4. I did not need another book to read in 2014. Maybe in 2015. I did not realize it took place in Japan also. Even better. Very glad you liked it.

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    1. Thanks Tracy, I'm sure it will keep until 2015, if it has to!

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  5. Hey Col, great review. Sorry to say, I'm not a Barry Eisler so if it's similar this one may not be for me. Just not my type of mystery read, that's all.

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    1. Keishon cheers. No problem, it would be a dull old world if we were all reading and liking the same thing. Ticked a fair few boxes for me though.

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  6. Col, not long ago I read two novels set among Chinese and Jewish communities in San Francisco and I might add the Japanese quarter. Immigrants are increasingly having a big role in fiction. Books have been written by, and about, the Indian diaspora in America.

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    1. Prashant, a month or two ago I read another book White Ginger which concerned the Chinese community in San Francisco, so it's a popular theme. You'll have to point me in the direction of something with an Indian flavour please.

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    2. Col, I recommend the Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri's award winning THE INTERPRETER OF MALADIES, a collection of short stories, and THE NAMESAKE, which was made into a successful film of the same name. Both are non-crime books.

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    3. Prashant, thanks - I will go and look them up. I'm trying to avoid adding to the piles of books, but sometimes you have to make an exception, so I will see!

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