Gate of the Tigers - Softcover

Meigs, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006472621 ISBN 13: 9780006472629

Publisher: Fontana, 1992

Synopsis

Paperback

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

The murder of American computer employee Kathy Johnson on a Tokyo street corner sparks a far-reaching inquiry involving Japanese, American, Soviet, and free-lance investigators, each with their own agenda. The American and Japanese principals--burned-out CIA man Robert Ludlow and Yankee-hating Inspector Tetsuo Mori, whose father killed himself rather than surrender to the Americans in 1945--naturally disagree about everything, from whether Kathy Johnson was really an American counterspy gathering information on Japanese industrial espionage (or pinching the technological secrets of a new supercomputer) to whether Mori, Sr., was actually executed in the aftermath of a bungled attempt to whitewash the emperor. It takes common enemies to bring them together, and pseudonymous first-author Meigs delivers more than enough for the job: double-dealing Colonel Yuki of Japanese intelligence; Erika, the attractive woman Yuki sics on Mori to isolate him from his wife, Mitsuko; and a large, well- equipped Russian contingent--headlined by a blond killer named Kovalenko--who have designs on that supercomputer themselves. The plot is designed as the thinking man's Blade Runner; but despite some subdued initial scenes showing Ludlow and Mori clashing over the trajectory of bullets into Johnson's body or the significance of the fibers discovered in the wounds (American-made, or just designed to implicate Americans?), it isn't long before nationals of every stripe are off and shooting in preparation for the obligatory American/samurai accord at the close. Gorged with zoo's-eye details of Tokyo culture, larded with deceptions within deceptions (as each new theory of Johnson's death implicates a wider, more powerful cast of international powerbrokers)- -but, beneath it all, mainly a story of two guys buddying up while they take turns shooting guns out of their assailants' hands. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

The Japanese values of honor and subservience motivate this first novel by a pseudonymous American with 35 years of experience in the Far East. Honor arises because Lieutenant Mori hopes to avenge his father's ritual suicide in World War II. Subservience arises because Japanese men and women share an intensely nuanced hierarchy where gesture, glance, and silence are potent communicators. When a beautiful U.S. computer expert is killed in the Ginza, Mori is thrust into unwelcome cooperation with an American agent. Soon, the men come to realize that both their governments are intent on a cover-up of the murder. The investigators must break free of their preconceptions about honor and patriotism so that together they can reveal and destroy the plot. What sets this thriller apart is its insightful and sympathetic interpretation of Japanese character and actions. Though well drawn, the American is conventional, but the Japanese hero is presented in fascinating detail. An excellent geopolitical saga; Meigs will find readers in all popular fiction collections.
- Barbara Conaty, Li brary of Congress
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fontana
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0006472621
• ISBN 13: 9780006472629
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320