Dreaming Pachinko

Billy Chaka #3

by Isaac Adamson

Tokyo, July 2001: Hard-boiled reporter Billy Chaka is back in the neon metropolis interviewing a has-been pop singer turned pachinko fanatic for Youth in Asia magazine. Looks like an easy assignment until he witnesses a beautiful young woman suffer a seizure in the Lucky Benten pachinko hall. When she is later found dead beneath the expressway, Chaka becomes embroiled in an apparent blackmail plot involving a Ministry of Construction official, a brash nineteen-year-old girl, a shadowy entity known only as "Mr. Bojangles," and four silent figures who have a penchant for showing up uninvited inside Chaka's hotel room.

As the bodies pile up and the mystery deepens, Chaka must untangle the lies, obsessions, and seemingly supernatural events that link the dead woman to a forgotten, bloody incident from the desperate closing days of World War II. Spellbinding and hilarious, Dreaming Pachinko will take you on a surreal thrill- ride through the city of the future -- a place where no one can escape the past.

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Mystery, Humor, Crime, Contemporary, Paranormal

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

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

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite of the Billy Chaka books. It's just so weird and fantastic. It's almost more an urban fantasy at some points than it's a mystery, but it's really a very good mystery. And there's a history lesson in it too. A really cool and weird history lesson. And this is the one with the Man In White right? Where it says at the beginning of the book to the effect of "The Man In White is a creation of the author, if you see him you should seek help" right? I love that one if that's not this one. But I love this one too, all the Billy Chaka books are good. Really good.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this 3.5 stars if Goodreads allowed. This is the best book in the series so far. I can see why they asked Christopher Moore to blurb the book - it's a similar brand of wacky adventure + absurd humor, with a strong hardboiled detective novel bent. This was a lot of fun.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in high school, and really liked it at the time. It's well written, and an exciting who-done-it set in Japan with lots of pop-culture thrown in.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 3 in this series just flew by. I read it in a day and a half - a real feat with a 1-year-old. These books are definitely not perfect, but they're kind of addictive.

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious page-turner that brought me out of my "readers block" of recent years. The way I rate things is always based on how much I enjoy them.

[Paul McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had been awhile since I read a book in this series, but it was easy to get right back in.
Interesting mystery with some WWII history thrown in.

[Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, read my Tokyo Suckerpunch review for a review on the basic premise in this series.

This one focuses on the gaming industry in Japan and unfortunately it never mentions JRPGs. The gambling gaming industry. Mainly a washed up musician who is now addicted to pachinko. This one was pretty forgettable and marked the end of my buying and reading the Billy Chaka novels. It was entertaining enough that I still finished it quickly since all the humor and such from the first books was still intact. At this point though the mysteries themselves got a bit stale and it lost me on the subject matter. Considering Billy writes for Youth in Asia magazine you would think he would find himself getting involved with video games, anime, horror cinema as opposed to interviewing a washed up pop star. Seems like there were more entertaining places to have gone that would have been more in keeping with the first two.

I have to say also, these are hard to find in bookstores. Going to the SAME Barnes and Noble I've found them moved from the Literary Fiction section to the Mystery section several different times.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Billy Chaka, journalist for teen magazine
SETTING: Tokyo
SERIES: #3 of 4
RATING: 3.25
WHY: Billy Chaka is a journalist on assignment in Tokyo for a teen magazine called "Youth in Asia". He is putting together an article on "Fallen Stars", and his subject is a former singer named Gombei Fukugawa. Fukugawa has become a pachinko addict; during the interview at the local pachinko parlor, a nearby woman goes into seizures. After her release from the hospital, she is found drowned. Chaka takes an interest in the goings on and finds himself in a situation where the bodies are piling up. I like his sense of humor, and Adamson's does an awesome job of portraying the Tokyo cultural and physical setting. Otherwise, the book is average.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I just wish I had read Adamson's first two books before reading this one, but it was still really good. I will be reading his other books at some point. I liked this book because I too was a gaijin (foreigner) in Japan and so I understand a lot of the protagonist's troubles with not fitting in and not being trusted. I think if you have lived in Japan for a time then you should read this book. I wasn't a fan of mystery thrillers before reading this book, but now I'm not adverse to them. I'm really looking forward to reading Adamson's other books.

[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 'Dreaming Pachinko' and the other books in the Billy Chaka series.

[Jerjonji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adamson is my current favorite modern writer. All four of his books gave me severe writer's envy and the images he paints will never leave my brain. Dreaming Pachinko is no different from his others- with vivid, real characters stuck in impossible situations, you can't help loving them- even if you don't want to! These were "must have" books for me and I think I'll need a hard cover set so I can loan these out!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took this book up to our cabin in 2009 to read, but the events of life saw to it that I didn't get to read it until now. I studied Japanese history as an undergrad, so the modern world of Tokyo is a mystery to me. Adamson's tale was entertaining, and chock full of all those sorts of little pop culture details that were really interesting to read. Add in a mystery and a touch of history, and maybe a supernatural event or two, and the result was a fine read.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though Isaac Adamson walked a fine line in his last two books between slavish Haruki Murakami worship and mere homage from a devoted fan, here he toes the line almost perfectly, blending his increasingly unsubtle, American style gonzo noir with supernatural magic realism in the Murakami mode. All the essentials are here- a vaguely omniscient figure, an eerie hotel, mysterious deaths- but this is a tribute more than a ripoff, and probably the strongest entry in the Billy Chaka series.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

if japan is anything like how isaac adamson's novels depict it, i'm in. his protagonist looks at surface and underground japanese culture with cool, outsider eyes, and sees it as half yakuza action flick and half rubbery manga. and half touristy travel guide. that may seem like one too many halves, but it would make sense if you've read them.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent modern mystery with a touch of the supernatural. I really really liked this book. I also enjoyed unraveling the mystery with Billy Chaka and at no time did I feel this book was too predictable nor that I knew more than the narrator. I thoroughly enjoy stories like that. I totally recommend this.

[Barree · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of the same fun from Adamson and Billy Chaka but this time Adamson decides to take us to school a bit and give us a lesson in Japanese WWII history.

This one has a bit of a slower pace but I still found the history interesting.

[Charles Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun sleuth novel set in Japan and featuring a journalist from a teen magazine. I found it in the "Oddball" section in a local bookshop, but it definitely a mystery novel. If this is your poison of choice, this will be an interesting addition to your library.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third Billy Chaka adventure stands out because of the dark Japanese WW2 history woven into the usual humorous detective plot.

[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!