Tokyo Suckerpunch : A Billy Chaka Adventure

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 often enough to make it worth the minimal investment of reading time.

A silly, fun little adventure of a 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. It's the kind of a book that throws everything against the wall to see what sticks -- but it's successful often enough to make it worth reading.

Billy flies to his beloved Tokyo to meet a film maker friend, only to wait all night at the bar alone. He soon finds the reason he was stood up is his friend was killed in a fire. Billy finds himself chasing clues and a mysterious beautiful geisha, while being tailed by the yakuza and a weirdo cult.

Good, good stuff. Exciting, hardboiled, just barely supernatural. Should be a manga. Upcoming movie starring Tobey Maguire (Spiderman).

A really fun series and Adamson knows Japan well.

A good, fun, quick, light read.