Just finished Dreaming Pachinko, the third Billy Chaka novel
by Isaac Adamson. I'd read Hokkaido Popsicle last year and
liked it. The covers are in very noticeable bright neon
colours with bold graphics.
Billy Chaka, American writer for Asian Youth pop culture
magazine, always seems to get mixed up in mysterious deaths,
and, of course, solves the mysteries ahead of the police. In
this book, he saves a young woman having what seems to be an
epileptic fit, only to find out that she's committed suicide
a couple of days later.
As in Hokkaido Popsicle, we get a tour of modern Japanese
culture, but in this one the shadow of the past hangs over
everything, so there is a concentrated history lesson on the
bombing and reconstruction of Tokyo.
Interesting main characters, interesting background, fast
plot, ending with about a million unanswered questions and a
major dose of the supernatural. Kind of ruined it for me. The
author threw in so many angles to the story that it wasn't
possible to wrap all the ends up neatly, so he has Chaka
simply say, "I guess I'll never know what happened" about
many of them. I'll probably give Adamson another chance, but
I was seriously disappointed by what seemed like a lack of
discipline.
Despite the loud, fast-moving, neon-bright setting of Tokyo,
there is a dark, foreboding atmosphere: ghosts of the past,
mysterious strangers, national and personal tragedy. Noir, or
near enough for me.
Karin
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