Michael Pronko's Blog, page 12
June 24, 2017
Interview with Literary Titan
Posted by Literary Titan
Michael Pronko Author Interview
The Last Train revolves around Michiko Suzuki and the team of detectives that are investigating the train murders. What was the inspiration to the setup to this thrilling novel?
For quite a few years I was writing about jazz every week, so I was always going to Roppongi and Shinjuku and Shibuya, nightlife parts of the city. I’d see the hostesses who work in all the clubs there, and they would often be in the jazz clubs. They were almost always strikingly attractive, but underneath that seemed some sadness. Whatever one thinks of their work, the women seemed smart. What impressed me most, though, was the great personal dignity with which they carried themselves. So, I started wondering what kind of life those women lived, and what if they turned the tables. What if one of those people-savvy women took things into her own hands to do things men usually do? And what was this odd dynamic between men and women that seemed so unfair to women, but then again, was something else, too. Many Japanese women might not even say Japanese society is unfair exactly, perhaps because Tokyo is home to a vibrant urban culture where women are incredibly free to do what they want and live how they like. But, what would that freedom turn into if taken to an extreme? Michiko is that extreme. The men struggle to catch up.
Michiko is the daughter of a factory owner whose mother died when she was young. Her character continues to get deeper as the story progresses. What did you use as a starting point for the character and what was your guidance as you built the character?
I think the way Michiko grew as a character was based on my observation of women, and men, in Tokyo, but all kinds of women, not just hostesses. There’s a lot of people TO observe in Tokyo, for one thing, but I like to talk and interact with people as much as I can. Michiko is a “typical” character in that her experience parallels the shift in Japan from a manufacturing society, which is where Michiko grew up, to an information and service society, which is how she makes money. I wondered how that shift affected women? Is it easier for women to adapt to economic changes than men, or harder? Michiko is working class in origin, growing up above a factory, but she turns herself into something else altogether through her own efforts. She’s tough and resilient, which is how I see most Japanese women, and yet still very feminine in traditional ways. She has no hesitation to compete in a man’s world, and to do it on her own terms. Like many characters, once she was created, everything followed from that.
The novel takes place in Tokyo. Why did you choose a train station in Japan as the setting to your novel?
Trains are one of the things I love most about Tokyo, but they are also these huge masses of steel shooting through a very densely populated city. Just as America is built around the car, Tokyo is built around trains. Suicides on the train lines, sadly, happen all too often.
I came upon the clean-up after a suicide one time years ago, and the image stayed with me.
Like every other commuter, I have been stuck waiting on a train or a platform when a suicide shuts down the entire train system. It’s so shocking because usually everything runs on time. So, I guess, if you transplant the American car chase to Tokyo, it becomes a train chase, or a chase on a train. I also like that as a setting because trains and train stations are great levelers. Everyone takes the train, together, equally. I also love trains and train stations because I can completely indulge in people-watching. It’s startling how many people you see in a day. Still, it’s never so lonely as in a crowd, and there’s always a crowd in Tokyo.
What is the next story that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next novel is called Japan Hand and Detective Hiroshi is again in the lead, together with Sakaguchi. They investigate the death of a long-time Japan specialist who helped negotiate the complicated relations between Japan and America, including the US military bases in Japan. That novel should be out by December of this year or early 2018. The next one after that is called Thai Girl in Tokyo and will be out in spring of 2018. I’ve finished writing those both, so they’re now being edited and polished.
Pages: 348 | ASIN: B071DPXP7M
June 16, 2017
Review and Recensione by Advice Books in Italian, too!
JUNE 12, 2017
I must admit that I am very happy when authors ask me to review their masterpieces. Behold, this is just the case in which I reviewed a real, great, unforgettable and extraordinary novel. Although I do book promotion, it does not always happen that I read so well written novels (beware: I am not saying this because I am doing book promotion, but because it is the truth). Well, after introducing this my first opinion, I highly recommend to read this book titled The Last Train , a mystery novel written by Michael Pronko. The author is an acclaimed American writer who teaches English in Tokyo, the underground, multicultural and mysterious city where the novel is set.
Through this novel, I understood many secrets and things of our modern world. The Japanese city of the book is underground and gloomy, it is a city under the hurry of people who must take a train to go to work. The Last Train brings us to Tokyo of the white collars, businessmen, entrepreneurs and wealthy people who strangely commit suicide just on the platform of the train, at the main station in Tokyo.
These people live only to get rich, make money and never have spare time to look their loved ones in the eyes, not even the main character of the book, namely detective Hiroshi Shimizu, a perfect combination between a skilled policeman who lived and worked in the United States and with an excellent English and a modern Japanese who is summoned at the office of his boss Takamatsu in Tokyo to investigate about the death of a foreign businessman called Steven. The latter was found dead under the train, maybe killed by a woman or maybe not, maybe one of the many foreign men who committed suicide in Tokyo. The alleged murderer could be a black hair Japanese girl called Michiko, a character who captured my attention along with the one of Hiroshi.
Michiko is the rich daughter of the rich owner of a Japanese factory. One day, the father of this female character dies because of a car accident. He was hit by a run car driver. From this stage, the novel suggests and inspires many questions to readers. Could Michiko kills many businessmen to revenge the death of her father? Or there is another inner and hidden reason who pushes wealthy men to suicide at the station while the train is running at a high speed? I was really impressed by the descriptions of the book, from the first to the last page, from the first pages in which the slaughtered corpse of the first victim Steven is wrapped in a bag by the Japanese policemen, up to the funeral of the same foreign businessman, where also the character of Michiko appears while she is praying in front of the Japanese shrine where secrets, lies and truth are together to veil corruption and lust.
I was also greatly impressed by the high capacity to depict a perfect modern and underground Japanese environment, that, at last, is the same background of our modern civilization. Tokyo is immersed in a game of glitters and spotlights where high heeled teenagers ( with fake eyelashes) give leaflets to passengers, at the station, outside the restaurants, where everything is made only to be sold, without emotion and meaning. Under the dimness, instead, inside night clubs, twisted and bored businessmen pay a high amount of money to be urinated by naked and sensual cubists.
The investigation of Hiroshi and his boss Takamatsu also concerns these perverse clubs to look for the killer of the dead businessman. After the missing of Takamatsu, Hiroshi is more and more involved in an intricate, upsetting and expensive market of real estate, where the boundaries between suicide and homicide are too blurred to be easily disentangled. Yes, The Last Train is a great mystery novel and the Japanese character is an excellent Asian version of Sherlock Holmes. The novel is highly recommended and suitable for translation into Italian. The style of writing is excellent because the author is an English teacher who was able to describe and create living characters and a real and modern environment. The skyscrapers and apartments in Tokyo the author described are not only this, but a superb dizziness of great literature. My vote is five stars. Impossible to give less.
https://www.advicesbooks.com/review-of-the-last-train-by-michael-pronko/
and in Italian!
https://www.advicesbooks.com/recensione-the-last-train-di-michael-pronko/
Recensione The Last Train di Michael Pronko
JUNE 13, 2017
Vi siete mai chiesti quali siano i vizi e le perversioni degli uomini di potere o come spendano i loro soldi, quelli dell’alta finanza o magari quelli che godono di sostanziose rendite mensili che i comuni mortali possono solo, lontanamente, sognare? Ecco, se volete trovare risposte a queste domande, vi invito a leggere l’ultima fatica letteraria dello scrittore americano Michael Pronko, autore del primo volume della serie poliziesca “The Last Train ”. L’opera, per il momento, è disponibile solo in inglese, ma invito caldamente, vivamente e caramente, tutti gli editori italiani ad acquisire i diritti per tradurre il romanzo in italiano e per distribuirlo in Italia. Il romanzo, un giallo in piena regola, ambientato in una Tokyo moderna e spietata, racconta le indagini e la vita di un poliziotto giapponese che ha lavorato per anni negli States: Hiroshi Shimizu.
Quando questo detective nipponico viene convocato a Tokyo dal suo capo Takamatsu, per indagare su una strana catena di omicidi o suicidi di uomini d’affari stranieri alla stazione ferroviaria della città, al lettore viene mostrata tutta la crudeltà e spietatezza della civiltà moderna, ormai fondata solo sul denaro, sulla logica degli affari e sui vizi degli uomini di potere. Sono proprio questi ultimi che vengono misteriosamente assassinati e gettati sotto il treno in corsa, mentre si stanno recando a lavoro, al loro solito lavoro, dove in pochi secondi possono guadagnare cifre da capogiro. I loro corpi vengono fatti a pezzi sotto le rotaie, mentre controllori e macchinisti sono incapaci di frenare e di evitare la morte violenta delle vittime. Omicidi? Suicidi? Questa la domanda che assilla il personaggio principale del romanzo, Hiroshi, un detective moderno, ma con l’intuito e l’arguzia di uno Sherlock Holmes alla vecchia maniera.
Un testimone ha notato, in lontananza, una donna, proprio mentre un uomo d’affari americano veniva spinto sotto le rotaie del treno. Sfortunatamente, per la cultura giapponese, è improbabile che una donna si trasformi improvvisamente in un’assassina. Nella ricerca del colpevole, però, Hiroshi e il suo capo sono costretti a cercare anche nei meandri della mente femminile, incrociando personaggi inquietanti, seducenti e misteriosi, come la bella Michiko, figlia del proprietario di una fabbrica giapponese ucciso da un’auto in corsa. La donna è cresciuta con un padre dedito solo agli affari, un capo alla guida di moltissimi operai dove il lavoro viene prima di tutto.
La ragazza , stranamente, assiste al funerale della prima vittima gettata sotto un treno, l’americano Steven, un uomo d’affari che potrebbe essere stato punito per una brutta faccenda di spionaggio industriale. Tratteggiando uno sfondo prettamente moderno e caotico, come può essere quello della metropoli di Tokyo, l’autore ci conduce in tutte le grandi contraddizioni e storture dell’epoca moderna, dove il denaro non è più un mezzo, ma solo un fine, dove anche le anime, non solo le persone, sono sempre, costantemente in vendita, così come lo sono le adolescenti con i tacchi alti e le ciglia finte che il detective Hiroshi incontra fuori dai locali e dai centri commerciali. Giovanissime e ipertruccate, queste adolescenti sono impegnate ad ammiccare ai passanti e a distribuire volantini dove si vende di tutto, anche serate in compagnia di donnine pagate per allietare potenti annoiati e viziati dall’eccesso del loro denaro.
Questi ultimi, infatti, sono i clienti più remunerativi di night club nipponici dove cubiste nude vengono pagate a peso d’oro semplicemente per urinare addosso a questi fantomatici uomini di potere. Il capitolo che descrive questo vizio, mi ha particolarmente impressionata, così come l’intero romanzo, perché mi ha messa di fronte ad una realtà che non conoscevo, ovvero quella dell’alta finanza, di un mondo perverso dove girano troppi soldi, tanti vizi e poca umanità. “ Ecco come spendono il loro schifoso denaro gli uomini di potere” , mi son detta mentre leggevo l’edizione inglese del libro. “Invece di gestire saggiamente le loro rendite ed i loro guadagni, si permettono di pagare anche 30 mila euro per farsi pisciare addosso da donnine nude, mentre i comuni mortali si dannano per arrivare a fine mese!”.
Il romanzo presenta uno spaccato realistico di un modo troppo corrotto, vizioso e globalizzato. Per questa capacità creativa di trasformare la realtà in finzione letteraria, ritengo che quest’opera sia assolutamente da tradurre in italiano e da leggere. Invito gli editori italiani a contattarmi per avere maggiori informazioni sull’autore. Michael Pronko è un insegnate di inglese americano che vive e insegna a Tokyo. I suoi romanzi hanno già riscosso un ottimo successo di critica e pubblico negli States. Sono certa, che con una traduzione in italiano, The Last Train, ovvero L’Ultimo Treno 
, otterrà lo stesso successo anche Italia. Tradurre per credere!
The Last Train Review by Self Publishing Review
Review: The Last Train (Detective Hiroshi Series Book 1) by Michael Pronko
James Grimsby June 15, 2017 Book Reviews, Latest Book Reviews ★★★★
Hiroshi Shimizu could be mistaken for one of any number of the faceless salarymen in Tokyo. With a stable desk job and a wage that gives all the small luxuries one can expect to enjoy from it, he can swallow his past regrets and the warm hazy memories of not so long ago. But Hiroshi isn’t just any old desk jockey; he’s a detective, specializing in white-collar crime – a serious problem with the inhumanly-efficient paperwork fever dream of modern Tokyo. And things are about to get a lot more complicated.
When Hiroshi’s mentor calls in a favor in investigating the gruesome murder of an American businessman, Hiroshi is pulled into a the fringes of the clean-cut society he’s used to. With unlikely allies and danger lurking around every corner, Hiroshi is about to find himself in deeper than he ever imagined…
The Last Train is a new detective thriller – and the start of an upcoming series – by American author Michael Pronko. Born in Kansas and having settled in Japan after several years of travel, Pronko has written several books on his personal experience of Japanese life, including the fascinating autobiographical essays on the culture in titles including Beauty and Chaos: Slices and Morsels of Tokyo Life and Motions and Moments: More Essays on Tokyo. Pronko has shown a panache for cutting to the heart of what makes Tokyo life so unique, in particular, and both informs and refracts out those core truths through his essays.
It’s no surprise to find that his first published fictional work would focus on the city – this time an exploration of the seedy underbelly of crime, in addition to the woes of the white collar world and the vibrancy of life in the cultural epicenter of Japan – and that his deep affinity for the city would translate into such an awe-inspiring read. Pronko truly knows how to use the setting in the read, exploring the many facets of the city to maximum effect. The book is colorful without being overdone. One might expect any American-written story involving a sumo wrestler as a significant figure might lapse into some dreadful stereotypes and poor attempts at weight-based humor, but not so here.
Pronko’s writing does suffer at times with some slight affectation, though there’s no point where the meaning isn’t immediately obvious. Rather, what seems to be a quirk of Pronko’s writing style is a slight abruptness and the odd sentence that comes across as jarringly direct. This may be due to the more direct nature of Japanese speakers and writers showing on the edges of Pronko’s English than an overt flaw in the novel. As one of the few criticisms that can be really found in the book, it should be an indicator of the novel’s quality.
The Last Train is a gripping read that’s not without its quirks, and leaves you really wanting to dig into the next book in the series, with two new books slated for release, currently titled Japan Hand and Thai Girl in Tokyo. This modernized throwback to the oft-forgotten Japanese detective story and classic noir is a thoroughly enjoyable start to a promising new detective series.
http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/2...
June 9, 2017
June 8, 2017
Booklife Critic’s Report
BookLife Prize – 2017
Plot/Idea: 10 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 10 out of 10
Character/Execution: 10 out of 10
Overall: 10.00 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot: This story grips the reader from the very beginning with its creepy and eerie premise, original story line, and rage-filled killer with icy determination.
Prose: Well written and engaging throughout, the book achieves a perfect balance of action and description. The descriptions of Tokyo and Japanese culture are particularly memorable.
Originality: The author provides a distinctive and fast-paced plot that holds the reader’s attention from beginning to end.
Character Development: The author does a superb job of developing both his major and minor characters.
Blurb: Gripping and suspenseful, this fast-paced thriller unfolds on the streets of Tokyo, where a clever and cold-blooded killer exacts revenge.
Reader Views Review of The Last Train
THE LAST TRAIN
Michael Pronko
Raked Gravel Press (2017)
ISBN 9781942410126
Reviewed By Michel Violante for Reader Views (5/17)
Article first published as Book Review: ‘The Last Train’ by Michael Pronko on Blogcritics.
“The Last Train” by Michael Pronko begins late one evening with a beautiful, long haired brunette holding up and guiding an overweight drunken man at least twice her age, as they walk down the street toward the Tamachi train station in Tokyo. The next day, Hiroshi Shimizu, liaison between the Tokyo Police and their overseas counterpart, was summoned to report to the crime scene of an apparent homicide at the Tamachi station.
Upon arrival, he is shown an unrecognizable body. Shimizu was able to determine that it was a foreigner due to the blonde hair, but it wasn’t until he did some digging that he found out the man was Steve Deveaux from Bentley Associates, an International consulting and investing firm in Nishi-Shinjuku. So begins Shimizu’s investigation, which leads the reader through a complex plot, filled with intrigue and awesome investigative tactics.
Pronko is definitely a master of detective writing, and this novel reflects those skills at his best! Although I can’t say his plot was a suspenseful one for me as the reader learns “who did it” early on, his writing style kept me hooked to all the intriguing facts of the case, as did the investigation tactics used by the main character to unravel the case. The descriptions are spot on painting perfect pictures of the setting loud and clear within my mind.
The characters and dialogues were real and genuine, pushing the plot forward while making the story credible and alive. The author’s extensive knowledge of Japan’s culture is evident throughout, as he bestows the reader with vividly descriptive experiences through his fine attention to detail and masterful writing skills. I can honestly say that I felt I was watching a movie in my mind while reading this book.
Overall, I found this to be an extremely entertaining story, and I am just going to say it: “The Last Train” by Michael Pronko is a five-star detective read, the first in the series. It is unique, intriguing, and will hook the reader from beginning to end. I highly recommend it to all mystery lovers!
http://readerviews.com/reviewpronkothelasttrain/
http://blogcritics.org/book-review-the-last-train-by-michael-pronko/
June 7, 2017
Foreword/Clarion Review of The Last Train
Reviewed by Shana Creaney
June 6, 2017
The Last Train is a well-paced and absorbing mystery, with quick action and a look at urban life.
In The Last Train by Michael Pronko, Detective Hiroshi Shimizu and the Tokyo homicide unit go on a thrilling hunt for a murderer of rich men. Theirs is an utterly page-turning adventure.
Having just moved back to Japan after studying abroad in America, Hiroshi works as an analyst and translator for the Tokyo police force. An older detective from the homicide division, Takamatsu, takes Hiroshi under his wing, teaching him about working on the police force as well as about having fun in urban Japan.
Together, they begin working on a case: the murder of an American businessman. They discover a connection to the cases of several other businessmen who were thrown in front of speeding trains.
The victims all have three things in common: real estate deals, consistent attendance at escort clubs, and having last been seen with a tall woman in the middle of the night. The mystery grows deeper and darker, until the question of who the real victims are arises. Hiroshi must learn to trust his instincts to answer it.
Throughout the story, Hiroshi goes through a large degree of believable character growth and development. He learns about his job, and he begins to feel reconnected to Japan and Japanese culture while still maintaining the lessons he learned in America. By the end of the novel, Hiroshi feels like a stronger, more capable character.
The plot moves quickly. Despite being complex for the detectives, the mystery unravels clearly and succinctly for the reader. This does not draw away from the tension and suspense, however. Pronko manages to achieve balance expertly. Intrigue remains high the entire time, as the detectives get closer and closer to finding out the truth behind everyone’s lies.
Each of the characters, even the tertiary ones, have a life to them: everyone is interesting, unique, and has something to offer the narrative. Pronko’s descriptions of Tokyo, Roppongi, and the surrounding areas are lively and evocative, and the cultural setting is easy to follow, no matter how familiar a reader is with Japan going in.
The novel is heavy with dialogue, which sometimes slows down the action. The same investigative questions are asked time and again as the characters meet new suspects and witnesses.
This is a work with dark undertones; it deals explicitly with murder, rape, and corruption, but does so seriously and honestly.
The Last Train is a well-paced and absorbing mystery, with quick action and a look at urban life.
Review from Indie Reader
by Michael Pronko
June 5, 2017/in Fiction, Indie Book Reviews, Mystery/Thriller /by IR Staff
Verdict: Lyrically written, with plenty of suspense, THE LAST TRAIN is a novel that aims to please, and can’t really help but do so.
Suicide by train is an all too common event in Tokyo, but the death of a Western businessman named Steve Deveaux raises suspicions. Closed-circuit cameras show a woman with him, well-dressed and native-born Japanese by the looks of her, who seems to have pushed him in. Who exactly this woman is, and why she did what she did, is left to Hiroshi Shimizu, a detective who speaks fluent English and once lived in the United States. Assisting him is Akiko, a young woman with a sharp eye and a desire to burst through the glass ceiling; and Sakaguchi, a former sumo wrestler. Together they explore yakuza-owned hostess clubs and Shinto shrines alike, as they track down a crafty and elusive killer.
Michael Pronko’s THE LAST TRAIN is a story of Japanese-American cultural exchange, of Tokyo’s very strange seedy underbelly, and of the futility of trying to find one person in the world’s largest city. Hiroshi is a classic mystery novel detective through and through, his feelings on the case often hard to disentangle from his personal life. All the characters are quite unique, especially the story’s ostensible villain, the murderer. Fierce and vengeful, she shines through the text, and while the reader might never quite root for her, her portrayal is surprisingly sympathetic.
Where THE LAST TRAIN loses out is in how formulaic it can be. While it’s true that pretty much everything has been done in the realm of the mystery novel, this book seems to hit a lot of familiar terrain. From the Orphean journeys through a city’s underworld to a climactic chase at the end, not a lot of boxes are left unchecked.
Still, at the end of the day, THE LAST TRAIN is a heartfelt, thoughtful ode to a strange and beautiful city, in the way that so many classic detective novels are. Lyrically written, with plenty of suspense, this a novel that aims to please, and can’t really help but do so.
~Charles Baker for IndieReader
May 25, 2017
Review from BestThrillers.com
by BestThrillers Staff on May 25, 2017 in Crime Thriller Books, Mystery Books, New Book Releases, Thriller Book Reviews, Thriller Reviews
The Bottom Line: Set in Tokyo, this exotic crime thriller is a lightning-fast chase to the finish line that you won’t soon forget.
Mystery novels are known for far-flung locations, but Tokyo isn’t often on the map. With The Last Train, Michael Pronko takes his adopted hometown and uses it as the setting for this unconventional take on the whodunit, which turns the genre on its ear and focuses not on the who, but the lightning-fast chase to the finish line.
It’s been a tough few days for Detective Hiroshi Shimizu, who recently lost his girlfriend and gets put on the case of an American businessman found under a bullet train. Suicide? Not so fast. According to security footage, there may be more to the story. Michael Pronko has written numerous works of nonfiction about Tokyo and Japan, but in this first work of fiction, his knowledge of the area, social mores, and the Japanese culture really shine. Together, Detective Shimizu and his partner, Detective Takamatsu, go from seedy Roppongi clubs, sumo wrestling dojos, small factories, and the back alleys of Tokyo to find out the man under the last train was involved in more than just business transactions. Together, the detectives enter the high-stakes world of real estate, information trafficking, and huge sums of money.
And just how does Michael deftly twist the mystery genre around? Readers find out who did it early on, but the rest of the book plays out like a fast-paced chase sequence that’ll leave hearts pounding and pages turning. It’s a unique experience to follow a story in what seems like a backwards gait, but the author’s easy language and the disorientation of Tokyo’s neon lights and crowded streets only add to the journey.
Readers looking for a truly escapist read will find it in The Last Train, which truly takes readers on a high-speed romp.
May 24, 2017
Review from Kirkus Reviews
TITLE INFORMATION
THE LAST TRAIN
Michael Pronko
Raked Gravel Press (348 pp.)
$15.99 paperback, $5.99 e-book
ISBN: 978-1-942410-12-6; May 5, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
In Pronko’s (Motions and Moments: More Essays on Tokyo, 2015, etc.) first foray into thrillers, a Tokyo detective investigates a death by train that may be just one in a series of murders.
It seems white-collar crime is Detective Hiroshi Shimizu’s specialty. His fluency in English makes him ideal for chasing down foreigners who’ve ripped off investors, among other things, and working with departments overseas. But he’s still a part of the homicide branch, so lead Detective Takamatsu calls Hiroshi to the scene at Tamachi Station, where a male foreigner’s mangled body lies on the tracks. Security cameras caught an earlier glimpse of a woman near the victim, but it’s unclear if his death was murder, suicide, or accidental. Evidence on the deceased leads the investigation to the various night clubs in Roppongi. Based on a theory that the unidentified female is a hostess (and a perfect cover for Takamatsu’s favorite pastime of drinking excessively), the detectives frequent the clubs. Hiroshi and his new assistant, Akiko, meanwhile, look into previous suicides by train, ones that might not be suicides at all. Discovering a link between the vics draws Hiroshi closer to a woman whose plan could put the detectives in a speeding train’s path. Pronko’s early introduction to the possible killer fosters sympathy with her perspective and back story. But there’s still mystery and suspense. Her motive isn’t initially apparent, and readers will surely anticipate a murder every time she strikes up a conversation with a man. Tokyo is welcoming without being exoticized; its foods are delicious but sometimes practical. Ramen noodles, for example, are excellent hangover comfort food. Pronko, for good measure, adds tasty metaphors: an inevitable hangover makes Hiroshi’s eyeballs feel “like they were roasted in salt.” Supporting characters occasionally steal the spotlight, especially Akiko, who excels at research (when paperwork proves essential to the case’s resolution), and Detective Sakaguchi, a former sumo wrestler.
An absorbing investigation and memorable backdrop put this series launch on the right track.
Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78744 indie@kirkusreviews.com
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michael-pronko/last-train2/
