Isaac Adamson

Isaac Adamson starts his latest book off with a refresher course in the definition of the word "complication', which also happens to be the title of the book. It is also a guidepost for the reader, for in this novel, set mostly in Prague, in various points of time, every single definition comes into play.

The main story line has Lee Holloway, a rather unassuming fellow, who, when cleaning out the detritus of his father's estate, finds a letter which indicates that the disappearance of Lee's show more younger brother Paul, in the Prague floods five years earlier, may have more mystery involved. (Side note: Two years after the death of my mother, I'm still clearing her estate and the detritus of her life. That Lee could dispose of just about everything so easily made me quite jealous.) Lee abandons his job at the Grimley & Dunballer Recovery Solutions, and heads off to meet Vera, who wrote the letter at The Black Rabbit, a pub in Prague.

From here the tale becomes curiouser and curiouser, and like Alice down the rabbit hole, things are not always what they seem. There's the basic story line of Lee and Vera, which takes more twists and turns than a Gordian knot, Communist era spies and interrogations, Rumpelstiltskin (or a gangster bearing the same name), alchemy, black magic (complete with John Dee and Edward Kelly), and the eve of the Nazi invasion of Prague, all centered around The Rudolf Complication, a fabled timepiece, built for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, which runs both backwards and forwards, and grants eternal life.

It's a lot of threads to keep straight, but somehow it all works without derailing the reader's brain. The plot movements are like clockwork -- if the timepiece is The Rudolf Complication, that is, filled with fascinating twists, side-bits, and palindromes. There were moments in the book that just grabbed me for the detail or the phrasing. In hindsight, those moments were ones that gave me clues to unraveling some of the plot, thought I was not able to piece it all together to the end. And what an end. Wow. Complication is fascinating, entertaining, quirky, enlightening, and surprising. This book keeps the reader on all ten toes until the very end. show less

A silly, fun little book with frequent excursions into the side alleys of Japanese pop culture, narrated by an amusingly hardboiled journalist with a weakness for geishas. In short, it's excellent brain candy, though some of the plot twists are jerkily unconvincing. Also, the "immortal geisha" sub-plot smacks of some joke allusion to an unknown Lafcadio Hearn ghost story. But whatever. It's the kind of a book that throws everything against the wall to see what sticks -- but it's successful show more often enough to make it worth the minimal investment of reading time. show less

-Tokyo 2001: Hard-boiled reporter Billy Chaka is back, He is 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 below an 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. show more 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 WWII. This was a better 2nd attempt from Adamson though still not great. His knowledge of Japan is obvious, though he does show his cultural familiarity less in this book. He seems to have done some research into history as well, which is what lifts the book. His protagonist is still a bore and the premise and background of that protagonist is absurd as ever. Some Japan fatigue, familiar to anyone non-Japanese that has lived there, appears in the writing, adding a new level of depth previously not found. Not a keeper but encouraging. show less

-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 show more 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. Meanwhile, on the cover of an unpublished rock magazine, a photograph of Yoshi reveals a curious bird tattoo on his shoulder, matching a symbol found on the night porter's ID card, which is then tied to a mysterious organization called the Phoenix Society, which dabbles in "cryonic suspension." The second book from Adamson is interesting only for its shift in tone. The over the top zaniness and self-satisfaction of the first book is giving way to the jaded, disillusioned Asia-hand of the third. While it is interesting, it makes for a very unorganized read. The hero is still incredibly unlikable and the smug references and one-upmanship of the Asia-centric references annoying to those who can relate to them. The mixed tone makes the book more grating than the first installment just because it is completely lost as to what it wants to say and be. show less