| 9781250110480 |
| 1250110483 |
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Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Old Colorado City Library | Book | OBRE | Fiction | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Newly reinstated to the Homicide Division and transferred to a precinct in Tokyo, Inspector Iwata is facing superiors who don't want him there and is assigned a recalcitrant partner, Noriko Sakai, who'd rather work with anyone else. After the previous detective working the case killed himself, Iwata and Sakai are assigned to investigate the slaughter of an entire family, a brutal murder with no clear motive or killer. At the crime scene, they find puzzling ritualistic details. Black smudges. A strange incense smell. And a symbol--a large black sun. Iwata doesn't know what the symbol means but he knows what the killer means by it: I am here. I am not finished.
As Iwata investigates, it becomes clear that these murders by the Black Sun Killer are not the first, nor the last attached to that symbol. As he tries to track down the history of black sun symbol, puzzle out the motive for the crime, and connect this to other murders, Iwata finds himself racing another clock--the superiors who are trying to have him removed for good.
Haunted by his own past, his inability to sleep, and a song, 'Blue Light Yokohama,' Iwata is at the center of a compelling, brilliantly moody, layered novel sure to be one of the most talked about debuts in 2017.
Author Notes
Nicolás Obregón is a British-Spanish dual national and grew up between London and Madrid. He has worked as a steward at sports stadiums, an editor in legal publishing and a travel writer, falling in love with Japan while on assignment for a magazine. Blue Light Yokohama is his first novel.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
After a tantalizing prologue, Obregón maintains a high level of suspense throughout his superior fiction debut, an intricately constructed whodunit that doesn't sacrifice depth of characterization for plot. One day in 1996, policeman Hideo Akashi and his wife are riding a cable car in the Nagasaki Prefecture when a woman attempts to open the car door. After stabbing the attendant who tries to stop her, she succeeds in opening the door and jumps out. Akashi manages to grab her by the arm, but after seeing a tattoo on her wrist of a large black sun, he lets her plummet to her death. Fifteen years later, Akashi, a respected Tokyo police inspector, jumps to his death off a bridge. Akashi had been investigating the murders of the Kaneshiros, parents and two children, who were butchered in their home by a killer who removed the father's heart. The case passes to Inspector Iwata, who notices a drawing of a black sun on the ceiling of the bedroom where one of the victims was found. While the complex mystery itself will keep readers turning pages, the book's real strength is Iwata, a compellingly tormented lead, whose demons don't prevent him from doggedly pursuing the truth. Agent: Daniel Kirschen, ICM Partners. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Inspector Kosuke Iwata has been transferred to Tokyo Homicide, and it appears from the start that he has been set up to fail. He is assigned a case involving the ritualistic murder of an entire family. The previous detective committed suicide. The story was inspired by an actual unsolved crime in 2000. The author includes some of the haunting curiosities from that event and adds the cultlike element of the image of a large black sun. These are not the first, nor the last, killings by the Black Sun Killer, and Iwata must determine how the victims were connected before he can identify the dark forces at work. Iwata is a man beset by many devils of his own. He is obsessed with the song Blue Light Yokohama, and lines relating to two troubling backstories about his earlier life are frequent, at times distracting from what is otherwise a compelling narrative. This moody noir by debut author Obregón succeeds on many levels, although the ending seems just a bit too upbeat for the genre.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal Review
A detective with a troubled past plus a serial killer are often ingredients for a been-there-done-that thriller. Not so with Obregón's tense, atmospheric Tokyo-set debut, which pulses with a dark energy all its own. Newly reinstated homicide cop Iwata is partnered with another inspector who makes it clear that she wants nothing to do with him (and neither does the Tokyo brass). Luckily, or not, the pair soon catch a gruesome case that requires their full attention: the murder of an entire family with ritualistic overtones, the particularly strange symbol of a black sun left at the crime scene. The victims had held a plethora of secrets, none of them good. A stalker had the teenage daughter in (presumably) his sights. The father was being harassed at work. And the killer isn't done. Iwata suffers from his own private torment-from nightmares that plague the little sleep he gets-to the near-constant repetition of the titular song in his head. VERDICT This gritty story, in what will hopefully become a new series, has roots in American noir yet fully embraces its Japanese setting, establishing Obregón as a fresh, up-and-coming voice in crime fiction. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
