CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: J IS FOR ...... JAPAN, JACK CARTER, JELLO SALAD

Week 10 and I'm up to J

J is for.......

Japan

To be fair I've only ever read a couple of Japanese crime fiction books and the results weren't especially rewarding. It would be unfair to write of a whole country's crime fiction without giving it a fair go. I remain optimistic.

There's a few in the collection that will hopefully prove a bit more satisfying ...... Ryu Murakami, Koji Suzuki, Fuminori Nakamura..... time will tell

Ryu Murakami

In the Miso Soup (2004)

From Wikipedia

In the Miso Soup (イン ザ・ミソスープ, In za Misosūpu) is a novel by Ryu Murakami. It was published in 1997 in Japanese, and in 2003 in English. The novel won the Yomiuri Prize for Fiction in 1997.

Plot summary

Twenty-year-old Kenji is a Japanese "nightlife" guide for foreigners—he navigates gaijin men around the sex clubs and hostess bars of Tokyo. On December 29 he receives a phone call from an American named Frank, who seeks three nights of his services. While Kenji has promised to spend more time with his girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Jun, the money is too good to pass up. He finds himself closing out the end of the year accompanying Frank around Shinjuku, wondering if his strange, plastic-skinned patron could be responsible for the gruesome events recently reported in the news.

Fuminori Nakamura - The Thief (2012)

The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn't even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections.... But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can't refuse. It's an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.


J is for........

Jack Carter. Carter was the creation of British author Ted Lewis. Who could ever forget Get Carter with Michael Caine? 

Lewis went on to pen a couple more Carter books - Jack Carter's Law and Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon 



Jack Carter and the Law (1974)

The author of Get Carter returns to his greatest invention, a smooth-operating hardcase named Jack Carter, who is about to burn a city down in order to silence an informant

London. The late 1960s. It's Christmastime and Jack Carter is the top man in a crime syndicate headed by two brothers, Gerald and Les Fletcher. He's also a worried man. The fact that he's sleeping with Gerald's wife, Audrey, and that they plan on someday running away together with a lot of the brothers' money, doesn't have Jack concerned. Instead it's an informant - one of his own men - that has him losing sleep. The grass has enough knowledge about the firm to not only bring down Gerald and Les but Jack as well. Jack doesn't like his name in the mouth of that sort.

In Jack Carter's Law Ted Lewis returned to the character that launched his career and once again delivered a hardboiled masterpiece. Jack Carter is the ideal tour guide to a bygone London underworld. In his quest to dismantle the opposition, he peels back the veneer of English society and offers a hard look at a gritty world of pool halls, strip clubs and the red lights of Soho nightlife.


J is for.......

Jello Salad

Jello Salad is the second book by Rochdale author Nicholas Blincoe. I've not got around to reading him yet - only twenty plus years on the TBR pile. Plenty of time yet. There's a few more from him on the pile....... Acid Casuals, Manchester Slingback, probably something else as well.

Oh well one of these years.....

Nicholas Blincoe - Jello Salad (1997)

A dangerously moreish mix of Tarantino violence and Almodóvar camp

They’re opening a new restaurant in Soho tonight. Susan Ball’s the owner, and she’s funding the joint with the money she ripped off from her gangster husband, Frank ‘Ballistic’ Ball.

Hogie’s the cook. He’s from Manchester and his long blond locks have made him a natural TV chef. The trouble is, he’s also a screaming pervert.

Cheb’s the Maitre D. He’s just back from Goa and he might not say his brains were completely drug-fried, but everyone else would. Oh, and I wouldn’t trust him with your credit card…

‘This black comedy of modern bad manners aims at outrage and hits the bull’s eye every time… a must-read’ Val McDermid

‘Ultra hip, manic, funny, hugely imaginative… Blincoe is a terrific talent’ The Times


‘A riotously good read’ Observer



Previous entries

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO