The Last Train - (Detective Hiroshi) by Michael Pronko (Paperback)

About the Book

In thisTokyo-based thriller, when an American businessman turns up dead, Hiroshi teams up with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi to scour Tokyo's sacred temples, corporate offices and industrial wastelands to find the woman driven to murder.

Book Synopsis

Winner Shelf Unbound Best Independently Published Book 2018
Solo Medalist Winner New Apple Awards for Excellence 2017
Winner Crime Fiction Beverly Hills Book Awards 2017
Winner Best Mystery Book Excellence Awards 2017

Detective Hiroshi Shimizu investigates white collar crime in Tokyo. When an American businessman turns up dead, his mentor Takamatsu calls him out to the site of a grisly murder. A glimpse from a security camera video suggests the killer might be a woman. Hiroshi quickly learns how close homicide and suicide can appear in a city full of high-speed trains just a step--or a push--away.

Takamatsu drags Hiroshi out to the hostess clubs and skyscraper offices of Tokyo in search of the killer. Hiroshi goes deeper and deeper into Tokyo's intricate, perilous market for buying and selling the most expensive land in the world. He teams up with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi to scour Tokyo's sacred temples, corporate offices and industrial wastelands to find out why one woman was driven to murder.

After years in America and lost in neat, clean spreadsheets, Hiroshi confronts the stark realities of the biggest city in the world, where inside information can travel in a flash from the insiders at top investment firms to street-level punks and teenage hostesses, everyone scrambling for their cut of Tokyo's lucrative land deals.

Hiroshi's determined to cut through Japan's ambiguities--and dangers--to find the murdering ex-hostess before she extracts her final revenge--which just might be him.

More at: www.michaelpronko.com

Review Quotes

"A five-star detective read. It is unique, intriguing, and will hook the reader from beginning to end." Reader Views

"For anyone who loves crime and cop novels, or Japanophiles in general, this is a terrific thriller." Blue Ink Review

"This exotic crime thriller is a lightning-fast chase to the finish line that'll leave hearts pounding and pages turning." Best Thrillers

"A well-paced and absorbing mystery, with quick action and a look at urban life, an utterly page-turning adventure." Foreword Reviews

"Mystery readers will relish the progress of a detective torn between two cultures, the reader of Japanese literature will truly appreciate the depth of background." Midwest Book Review

"Tokyo comes to vivid life in this taut thriller, an unrelenting portrayal of a strong female character and the heart-pounding search to find her." Publishers Daily Reviews

"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." IndieReader