Hokkaido Popsicle

Billy Chaka #2

by Isaac Adamson

After an altercation with the director of Wildman for Geisha! -- a movie based on ace reporter Billy Chaka's life -- Chaka finds himself in Hokkaido on mandatory vacation. Trouble starts when the elderly porter of the Hotel Kitty stumbles into Billy's room and dies. That same night, the lead singer of Japan's most popular rock band turns up dead in a sleazy love hotel in Tokyo. Billy Chaka goes to Tokyo to cover the story for Youth in Asia magazine and soon finds out there's more to the rocker's apparent drug overdose than meets the eye. A Beatles-obsessed record executive, a mute DJ, two giant kickboxing twins with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music, a Swedish stripper working at the Purloined Kitten Club -- each play a part in the hard-boiled hilarity that ensues as Billy Chaka discovers that the rock star and the elderly hotel porter just might share a very strange link.

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Mystery, Humor, Crime, Asia, Science Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Isaac Adamson is the author of COMPLICATION, nominee for the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.

He also wrote TOKYO SUCKERPUNCH, DREAMING PACHINKO, and other Billy Chaka mysteries.

Isaac lives in Portland with his wife and children.

You can follow him on Twitter at @isaacadamson or find him on Facebook.

Reviews

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent introduction to Isaac Adamson for me! Hilarious adventure, a mystery that kept me guessing, tension that kept me on the edge of my seat even while the over-the-top characterization kept the story just on the edge of anime without falling into it entirely. I love Billy Chaka in all his heroic cynicism and denial of his emotional brokenness. I want to know a real Billy Chaka!

But I'm not going to lend him my car.

And I promise not to ever make him ride in an elevator. I'll walk the stairs with him. (Um, if he goes first...)

After reading this one I immediately went out and bought Tokyo Suckerpunch and Dreaming Pachinko. Highly recommend all three, but this one has a special place in my heart, maybe because everything in Billy Chaka's world was new to me when I first read it...

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, fun read. Once again I'm a little annoyed by 1) the inconsistencies in how the Japanese words are portrayed (like using "tsu" sometimes but "tu" other times) and the oddness of the characters' names and 2) poor proofreading where words are sometimes missing entirely.

None of that stopped me from enjoying it, though, and I'll soon be on to book 3.

[Jerjonji · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is THE book I wish I'd written- that I wish I'd known I wanted to write- that I knew enough to write- that gives me severe writer's envy on every single page. I find myself wanting to read bits of it aloud to others...For example from pages 32-33...

"Tokyo, my belobed Tokyo.
My love for Tokyo is one of those boozy, bare-knunckle kind of loves that makes normal people uneasy. A gritty love like a kung fu noir written by Tennessee Williams... Tokyo wasn't so much a vity as fractal explosion..."

Full of Japanese pop culture insider references, the tale pops and fizzles like Pop-Rocks in a bottle of Coke. The characters require great scrutiny to determine if they mock/imitate loosely a real human, and the mystery while not the primary motive for reading the book nicely connects the free flowing read. More of an adventure than going to a J-glam Vamps Concert in DC (in July if things work out), it's one that I can't help wishing I been on the trip with the writer!

Off to order everything else this writer has written... Haven't felt this way about a writer since I first read "Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second Billy Chaka novel, "Hokkaido Popsicle" shows considerable improvement over the first. Adamson is finding his own voice here, mixing American gonzo influence with the Murakami pastiche of the first novel. The characters are a little more garish and grotesque, and the sometimes delicate, subdued tone Adamson pursued in the first novel is replaced with brighter colors, faster action and a more tongue-in-cheek sensibility. Though I love Murakami as much as anyone else, slavish imitation often comes across as just that, imitation. The uptick in quality here continues over the somewhat stranger last two books in the series.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far it's pretty fun - murder mystery set in Japan, lots of funny gonzo stuff. The author has a lot of cultural knowledge of Japan and shows it off. I'm not quite halfway through and i think I've got most of the mystery solved - I'm hoping that i don't have to wait until the end for the protagonist to catch up with me...

update:

There were still a few surprises by the end - overall pretty enjoyable, with lots of great atmosphere to make up for a lack of depth for some of the characters.

[Ion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like these books because its a different taste for me. I usually don't read anything like this. But I like the fast crime solving beat that this book has. Plus it sated my Japanese fix. Billy Chaka is a character that I want to be like, cool, sophisticated, kick-ass, like one of those cool cats from the 1950's and '60's films. The writing style lets you follow the story until you think you've solved the mystery only to find out you were wrong. I like the thrills and the no nonsense attitude of the book. A good break from the normal mainstream sorts of books.

[Mathias · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the basic meat and potatoes review just read my review on Tokyo Suckerpunch. Instead of centering around the Japanese film industry this one centers on the Japanese music industry. I love the Handsome Tigers characters. That was a funny addition. Boy Band by day, violent baseball themed henchmen by night. There is an excellent few pages exploring why rock stars break their guitars on stage. Good light-hearted quick read to pass the time on a long trip or to break up the monotony when reading a series, or a breather between heftier reads.

[Two-fisted History · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2006, I walked into one of those random Discount Book Stores that pop up in random locations and random times like some kind of Gypsy Bookstore.

In one of the piles, we discovered this pink-covered book with the title, 'Tokyo Suckerpunch' Of course this must be a sign; two Nihonophiles discovering a book with a beaconic cover. We each picked a copy, and I read it in a couple days. Thus began my love of Billy Chaka.

I highly recommend 'Hokkaido Popsicle' and the other books in the Billy Chaka series.

[Наташа · Rating 4 out of 5]

Знакомые журналистские будни смекалистого дядьки, идеализированные до неприличия, когда можно действительно попасть в крутую переделку, поумничать перед мафией и безнаказанно послать к черту редактора. Сюжет закручен лихо и динамично, действительно напоминает, что-то от тарантино и не отпускает до самого конца. После такого хочется почитать еще что-то в том же духе, бойкого и отдохновенного с крошечной долей своеобразной уличной философии.

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

One the funniest, most ridiculous scenes I've ever read takes place in this book and it involves animatronic tigers singing Beatles songs.

This is my favorite, but as with all the Billy Chaka books, so long as you can keep the character straight, it's a really fun book, and Adamson's humor is consistent, his metaphors apt and hilarious throughout the series.

[Barree · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Billy Chaka adventures. This book is a little more down to earth than the first book but it still delivers the same hard boiled neo-noir style mixed with sake.

Isaac Adamson's Japan is the stuff American Otaku's dream of. Neon washed streets teeming with yakuza, mystery and of course kicks and punches.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

ah, the japanese. they're so quaint. isaac adamson's books blow that simple sentiment into exciting, funny, gripping, noiresque detective stories and i can't get enough of them. this one's my favorite. and as usual, the narration is where the charm is. his fish-semi-out-of-water perspective sells the books.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of the Billy Chaka comedy/adventure books set in Japan, featuring an unwitting American journalist hero. I liked this one the most because he's investigating the murder of a famous rock star, and it delves into the dark underbelly of that world.

[Brandon Autry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good sequel to Tokyo Suckerpunch. The editing is a little better and the story is just as funny/ridiculous.

[Kayleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never knew where it was going to go.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issac Adamson writes a fun and fluffy story fill with enough Japanese cultural references to keep you intrigued.

[Frederick Gault · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to laugh so hard I almost soiled myself! Funny, absurd, and deeply amusing.

[Brendan Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of the novels in the Billy Chaka series are fantastic. I can't express adequately enough how much you should read them. Do it now!

[Ashleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Pop-culture roller coaster of awesome. With murder.

[Moushumi Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Billy Chaka and I adore it. Bought it at a sale and I read it again and again. The adventures of a reluctant detective. Sam Spade meets Japanese manga.

[Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is great and the stories are fun but the main char is too much of a Mary Sue to completely like. 3 1/2 stars.