What do you think?
Rate this book
Shinjuku Shark #2
The Poison Ape: A Shinjuku Shark Novel
Detective Samejima works alone...because no one will work with him. Shunned by his peers, scorned by his superiors, and feared by the yakuza, "The Shark," as he is called, works the dangerous Shinjuku section of Tokyo.
This second installment of the popular Japanese series finds The Shark embroiled in a conflict among a professional Taiwanese killer, called "The Poison Ape"; the Taiwanese detective who pursues him; and the hard-hearted boss of the Taiwanese mafia. At Shinjuku, the already treacherous streets of which will semm like an esplanade compared to the battlefield they will become if war breaks out between the Japanese and Taiwanese mafias.
The Shinjuku Shark series carries with it an atmosphere unique to Tokyo, which has been a selling point for such pop phenomena as Gwen STefani's entourage of Harajuku Girls, films like Lost in Translation , and the Edgar-nominated Out by Natsuo Kirino.
This second installment of the popular Japanese series finds The Shark embroiled in a conflict among a professional Taiwanese killer, called "The Poison Ape"; the Taiwanese detective who pursues him; and the hard-hearted boss of the Taiwanese mafia. At Shinjuku, the already treacherous streets of which will semm like an esplanade compared to the battlefield they will become if war breaks out between the Japanese and Taiwanese mafias.
The Shinjuku Shark series carries with it an atmosphere unique to Tokyo, which has been a selling point for such pop phenomena as Gwen STefani's entourage of Harajuku Girls, films like Lost in Translation , and the Edgar-nominated Out by Natsuo Kirino.
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Arimasa Osawa
167 books11 followersThe 12th president of the Mystery Writers of Japan (2005-2009)
Arimasa Osawa has received the Eiji Yoshikawa New Writer Award, the Japan Myster Writers Association Award, and the Naoki Prize for his Shinjuku Shark novels. Many of his other hardboiled works have also been awarded prizes and adapted to the screen.
Arimasa Osawa has received the Eiji Yoshikawa New Writer Award, the Japan Myster Writers Association Award, and the Naoki Prize for his Shinjuku Shark novels. Many of his other hardboiled works have also been awarded prizes and adapted to the screen.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 12, 2019
Fast-paced action, complex characters, this book is a great improvement over its predecessor. Strong recommend for fans of crime fiction. GREAT sequel.
The plot revolves around a hit man in Tokyo who is extracting revenge on elements of the Japanese criminal underworld. Caught into this drama are the Japanese police, tasked with keeping a fragile peace in Shinjuku, and the sympathetic bar hostesses, whose lives in the margins are the emotional hook for the story. On top of this you have the international intrigue of Taiwanese police and gangs, and their own complex relations with their counterparts in Japan.
This book loses a couple of points on some translation issues in bringing Taiwanese names and places into English, but it is hardly a distraction for the crime fiction fan.
The plot revolves around a hit man in Tokyo who is extracting revenge on elements of the Japanese criminal underworld. Caught into this drama are the Japanese police, tasked with keeping a fragile peace in Shinjuku, and the sympathetic bar hostesses, whose lives in the margins are the emotional hook for the story. On top of this you have the international intrigue of Taiwanese police and gangs, and their own complex relations with their counterparts in Japan.
This book loses a couple of points on some translation issues in bringing Taiwanese names and places into English, but it is hardly a distraction for the crime fiction fan.
September 2, 2014
Oberkommisar Samejima ist ein Mann, den sich eigentlich niemand zum Feind wünscht. Er schert sich weder um den Ehrenkodex von Japans Mafia »Yakuza« noch um die Bereitschaft vieler seiner Kollegen wegzusehen, wenn es um deren Geschäfte geht.
Mord, Korruption, dunkle Machenschaften und geheime Absprachen sind für ihn unvereinbar mit seinem Dasein als Polizist. Mit seinem Verhalten macht er sich oftmals nicht nur Freunde und es kostet ihn schließlich sogar seine Karriere.
Abgeschoben nach Shinjuku - in das härteste Polizeirevier Japans - bringt ihm sein hartes und kompromissloes Verhaltne bald den Spitznamen "Der Hai von Shinjuku" ein.
Bei der Observierung einer illegalen Spielhölle in Shinjuku kommt Samejima auf die Fährte eines taiwanesischen Profilkillers, der einen Bandenboss, welcher bei der japanischen Mafia untergeschlüpft ist, um jeden Preis zur Strecke bringen will.
Samejima macht sich ebenfalls auf die Suche und gerät dabei nicht nur einmal sprichwörtlich zwischen die Fronten.
Der Schreibstil hat mir schon recht gut gefallen und besonders die Tatsache, dass sich ein Großteil des Schreibstils und der Erzählweise auf die japanische Polizeiarbeit bezieht.
Manchmal habe ich allerdings auch das Gefühl gehabt,Samiejima zu schütteln und zu schütteln, bis er einsieht, dass er nicht einfach immer drauf losstürmen kann.
Seine Methoden waren manchmal etwas... sagen wir anders, aber allgemein hat es einfach zu dem Charakter gepasst, welcher ihm vom Autor verpasst wurde.
Das Showdown ähnliche Ende ist dem Leser zwar von Anfang an klar, aber Arimasa Osawa versteht es seine Leser bis dahin bei Laune zu halten. Mit Spannung, genug Fachwissen und einer Spur Humor konnte mich Arimasa Osawa mit seinem Roman überzeugen und ich persönlich möchte auf jeden Fall mehr über den eigenewilligen Ermittler und seine manchmal noch eigenenwilligeren Ermittlungsmethoden lesen.
Mord, Korruption, dunkle Machenschaften und geheime Absprachen sind für ihn unvereinbar mit seinem Dasein als Polizist. Mit seinem Verhalten macht er sich oftmals nicht nur Freunde und es kostet ihn schließlich sogar seine Karriere.
Abgeschoben nach Shinjuku - in das härteste Polizeirevier Japans - bringt ihm sein hartes und kompromissloes Verhaltne bald den Spitznamen "Der Hai von Shinjuku" ein.
Bei der Observierung einer illegalen Spielhölle in Shinjuku kommt Samejima auf die Fährte eines taiwanesischen Profilkillers, der einen Bandenboss, welcher bei der japanischen Mafia untergeschlüpft ist, um jeden Preis zur Strecke bringen will.
Samejima macht sich ebenfalls auf die Suche und gerät dabei nicht nur einmal sprichwörtlich zwischen die Fronten.
Der Schreibstil hat mir schon recht gut gefallen und besonders die Tatsache, dass sich ein Großteil des Schreibstils und der Erzählweise auf die japanische Polizeiarbeit bezieht.
Manchmal habe ich allerdings auch das Gefühl gehabt,Samiejima zu schütteln und zu schütteln, bis er einsieht, dass er nicht einfach immer drauf losstürmen kann.
Seine Methoden waren manchmal etwas... sagen wir anders, aber allgemein hat es einfach zu dem Charakter gepasst, welcher ihm vom Autor verpasst wurde.
Das Showdown ähnliche Ende ist dem Leser zwar von Anfang an klar, aber Arimasa Osawa versteht es seine Leser bis dahin bei Laune zu halten. Mit Spannung, genug Fachwissen und einer Spur Humor konnte mich Arimasa Osawa mit seinem Roman überzeugen und ich persönlich möchte auf jeden Fall mehr über den eigenewilligen Ermittler und seine manchmal noch eigenenwilligeren Ermittlungsmethoden lesen.
May 16, 2015
A sequel to ‘Shinjuku Shark.’ In this, Samejima teams up with Guo, an assistant inspector from Taiwan to track down Poison Ape (aka Du Yuan) who is essentially a killer for hire who is after Ye Wei, a head of a gang in Taiwan, after he betrayed him, and in the course of tracking him down, the yakuza begin to flip out and start a mini war with the Chinese and Korean people.
Although there was the odd thing that I had little interest in, and I would have preferred the ending to be from Samejimas POV, I found this book quite interesting and much better than ‘Shinjuku.’ I kind of hope this becomes a movie (unless it is. In which case, anyone know where I can find it?), and I hope they translate the next book in the series before I go blind or die… They probably won’t though :(
and this might be a SPOILER, but why did they have to kill him?! Was it really necessary?!
Although there was the odd thing that I had little interest in, and I would have preferred the ending to be from Samejimas POV, I found this book quite interesting and much better than ‘Shinjuku.’ I kind of hope this becomes a movie (unless it is. In which case, anyone know where I can find it?), and I hope they translate the next book in the series before I go blind or die… They probably won’t though :(
and this might be a SPOILER, but why did they have to kill him?! Was it really necessary?!
July 31, 2016
Sensitive, grisly, culturally interesting. Book cover by the awesome Chip Kidd. Translation by the ever awesome Deborah Iwabuchi. You can check out her opus here: https://ihatov.wordpress.com/publicat.... And even more here: https://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Iwabuc.... And the best one here: http://minamimuki.com/. I kept looking, because one of my favorites is Beyond the Blossoming Fields, a biography of the first Western style female doctor in Japan--she had to be tough as nails and it drove her over the edge.
September 18, 2014
Apparently there are more books in this series in Japanese than just Shinjuku Shark and The Poison Ape, but I can see why only two were translated into English. There was no mystery involved in this installment featuring a highly trained Taiwanese assassin for hire out wreaking havoc in the Japanese underworld as he seeks personal revenge. The story seemed a bit flat and predictable, but it might still be an easy and worthwhile read for Japanophiles.
June 6, 2015
Sho with a big breast? Doesn't sound like the Sho-kun I know. Well, maybe if you throw in a fishnet stocking :-) This is so not a review of the book. It just reminded me how much I missed Sho.
Here Samejima-san seemed to lost some of his sharp teeth. Or maybe the Taiwanese was too good that I'd better switch to Taiwanese thriller.
Here Samejima-san seemed to lost some of his sharp teeth. Or maybe the Taiwanese was too good that I'd better switch to Taiwanese thriller.
December 8, 2009
japanese pulp fiction. it's like reading a b-movie. but there's something about the setting and the tone that's different from US pulp.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews