Samurai Boogie

Let's take this out on a limb. Let's say Tasker's third novel (after Silent Thunder and Buddha Kiss) set in urban Japan in the 1990s is one of the best hardboiled detective novels ever written. Let's say Tasker himself is one of the smartest writers in the genre: book smart, in the remarkable lyrical quality of his prose or the frequent brilliance of his imagery; street-smart, like Elmore Leonard, in that his streets and the often terrible people that walk them are so mundanely real; socio-economic smart, in that his dark, almost heartbreaking, depiction of Japanese society is so believable. One feels that outside the novel's action, his characters are real people leading normal lives. A Tokyo-based British writer and partner in a money management firm, Tasker puts his knowledge of Japanese business to fine use. Detective Kazuo Mori, a former youthful rebel whose indignation at social injustice has mellowed into a weary acquiescence, is a tough guy only when necessary. He gets his information by deception, pretending to be a figure of authority. His investigation into the alleged natural death of a government official leads him into the most secret places in Japanese society: corporate files. Angel, a young woman he rescues from a Yakuza boss, may appear to be a damsel in distress, but God help anyone who crosses her. Both she and Mori are pursued by a Yakuza hitman, George the Wolf Nishio, who like so many of Leonard's criminals is frighteningly real. The publicity citing U.K. reviews plays up the Japanese manga comic books angle, but this is pure American hardboiled and it's outstanding.

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*Starred Review* Tokyo-based Tasker capitalizes on his knowledge of Japan and the financial and video-game industries to write a superb mystery in which ancient Japanese traditions clash with Tokyo's fast-paced lifestyle; violent yakuza gangsters battle robotic office workers; and corporate greed collides with corporate culture. Survival in the midst of chaos is crucial, and no one does it better than N. Mori, private detective. Colombo-like, he shambles through life, badly dressed, disorganized, and addicted to baseball and pachinko parlors. In spite of everything, however, Mori is quite a deft detective. Hired by a beautiful woman to find her lover's killer, Mori doesn't realize he's stumbled into a case that will take him from the boardrooms of Tokyo's most successful companies to its seamiest sex clubs; pit him against high-powered pharmaceutical giants and low-down gang members; cast him into the cutthroat video game industry; and oblige him to rescue prostitutes, dodge bullets, and save a friend--all before finally coming up with the name of the murderer. A riveting, violent, eye-opening, laugh-aloud, poignant, dazzling triumph. Detective fiction doesn't get much better than this! Emily Melton
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