An absorbing investigation and memorable backdrop put this series launch on the right track.
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.Pub Date: May 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-942410-12-6
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Raked Gravel Press
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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