Dreaming Pachinko

-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. 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 show more 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

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.

The back says, "spellbinding and hilarious," which it sort of was. I found it a bit wearisome after a while because the whole air of parodying hard-boiled detective novels gets repetitive. I keep it in my library because it's deliciously atmospheric.

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.

3rd novel in the Billy Chaka series. Still seems a bit moodier than I hoped for, but at least the paranormality is integrated into the plot again. It had seemed less important in the second book, which'd disappointed me.

In Tokyo to interview a washed up popstar, billy witnesses a young girl have a grand mal seisure. After the paramedics take her away he becomes involved in the case when he sees the girl on the news the next night after she jumps off a bridge to commit suicide.