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A Jim Brodie Thriller
by Barry Lancet
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, traveling to Japan to acquire art and artifacts 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 neighborhood, 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.
"Starred Review. Readers will want to see more of the talented Jim, with his expertise in Japanese culture, history, and martial arts." - Publishers Weekly
"Engrossing debut thriller... Lancet has a gift for pacing and keeps the reader engaged and guessing til the very end." - Library Journal
"A solid mystery with a memorable protagonist, the book captures our interest from the first page. The story doesn't cry out for a sequel, but it's unlikely anyone would object to another Brodie novel." - Booklist
"A key plot point involving powerful new technology that is up for grabs is under-developed, and the novel isn't without its "Now I'm going to kill you" moments. But the intricate plot is skillfully developed, the action never flags and the climax is gripping. A fresh voice in crime fiction, Lancet successfully imports yakuza fiction to San Francisco while probing its origins in Japanese lore." - Kirkus
"From gritty San Francisco to exotic Tokyo, Japantown is a whip-smart, razor-fast ride, and entertaining from cover to cover." - Taylor Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of The Informationist
"An elegantly brutal thriller, Japantown is reminiscent of classic Daniel Silva and Barry Eisler. Lancet's unique background bleeds authenticity into the story. This is a bold and exciting debut. Don't miss it." - J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of Edge of Black
"This is a terrific debut from a talented and very promising writer. Nimbly written and atmospheric, Lancet brings San Francisco to life in all its layers, focusing on the mysteries of the Japanese-American people. He depicts a rich mixture of art and violence, the past and the present, east and west." - T. Jefferson Parker New York Times Bestselling Author of The Famous and the Dead, and The Jaguar
"Get ready for an action-packed, tension-filled escape with Barry Lancet's thriller worthy of Elmore Leonard. The trail of crime races from Tokyo to New York and returns inevitably to Japantown, six square blocks in San Francisco, where antiques dealer and private eye Jim Brodie walks a dangerous line in the shadow world of clashing cultures." - Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service and The Secrets of the FBI
"Japantown is an expertly written story with vivid, complex characters. The mystery holds surprises until the very end." - New York Times bestselling author Larry Bond
This information about Japantown was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Barry Lancet has lived in Japan for more than twenty-five years. His former position as an editor at one of the nation's largest publishers gave him access to the inner circles in traditional and business fields most outsiders are never granted, and an insider's view that informs his writing.
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