Crime-books-set-in-Japan

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17 top crime books set in Japan

Watch the trailer for Blue Light Yokohama

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THE GRIPPING STORY OF LIES AND MURDER HAUNTING THE DARKEST CORNERS OF TOKYO, SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE 2020 OLYMPICS . . . 
 
'Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this' Sunday Times Crime Club 
 'Masterpiece' JEFFERY DEAVER 
 'A stunning achievement' CRIME TIME, BOOK OF THE MONTH 
 ________ 
 
 He is a completely unremarkable man. 
Who wears the same black suit every day. 
Boards the same train to work each morning. 
And arrives home to his wife and son each night. 
 
But he has a secret. 
He likes to kill people. 
________ 
 
Exiled detective Kosuke Iwata is asked back to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo. 
 
An English exchange student has been murdered, the Olympics are just days away and those high up want this case closed fast. 
 
But Kosuke Iwata is not a man to be hurried. What he doesn't realise is that out there is a killer so apparently unremarkable he's impossible to find . . . 
 ________ 
 
 Praise for Nicolás Obregón: 
 
 'Masterpiece' Jeffery Deaver 
 
 'I'm awestruck' A. J. Finn 
 
 'A dark, brutal ride' Anthony Horowitz

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this

The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy

Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless efficiency and won't allow the reader a moment's respite. A stunning achievement that should raise the author's profile to crime's Premier league or there is no justice in this world

An outstanding novel from start to finish, possibly the best book I've read this year. An entrancing thriller that lures you into the dark secrets of the neon streets of Tokyo. Riveting

Harrowing and gripping. An astute police procedural . . . Switching between LA, Mexico and Tokyo both Iwata's present and past are cleverly interwoven in a truly heart-rending climax

Fresh and convincing . . . the dialogue is worthy of the great chronicler of LA's dark side, Raymond Chandler. But really, Obregon's writing has a unique flavour all of its own, wherever his books are set

Sins as Scarlet is a searing LA crime story, as poetic as it is brutal, as tender as it is disturbing

Thanks to the excellent Iwata, you get a gripping mystery with a real conscience

In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly, Sins as Scarlet lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary stuff: a diabolically clever police procedural, a wrenching character study, and a merciless chronicle of a city in decay. I'm awestruck.

A. J. Finn, author of international bestseller

A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA

Masterpiece - that's the only way to describe Sins as Scarlet. Obregón's brilliant novel is, at once, a classic noir, a psychological thriller and a riveting examination-sometimes dark, sometime moving to the point of tears--of life in a less-than-angelic Los Angeles

Evocative, perceptive writing

This bleak, richly descriptive and haunting thriller walks of the wild side of Los Angeles

A brace of cutting-edge themes are threaded into the abrasive narrative . . . It is a combustible mix, but as in the earlier Blue Light Yokohama, the author has the full measure of his difficult material. With his vividly evoked Mexican and LA settings [he] delivers a pacey, page-turning thriller, but the underlying seriousness gives real texture. Iwata is a richly drawn, conflicted hero, and this is another savage journey into the dark heart of America

Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability

With just weeks to go before the Olympics and the world's eyes firmly fixed on Tokyo the body of young British student, Skye Mackintosh, is discovered in a love hotel. 
 
 Tokyo's Homicide Department enlists the help of Kosuke Iwata. But it isn't long before he discovers the darkness in the neon drenched streets as Skye, like so many others, had her own secrets. 
 
 Lies and murder haunt a city where old ghosts and new whisper from its darkest of corners and the truth is always just out of sight. . .

Sins As Scarlet

'In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly' A. J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window 
_____________ 
 
Former homicide detective Kosuke Iwata is on the run from his past . . . 
 
Five years ago, he lost his family. Now he may have found his redemption. 
 
Living in LA and working as a private detective, he spends his days spying on unfaithful spouses and his nights with an unavailable woman. 
 
Still he cannot forget the family he lost in Tokyo. 
 
But that all changes when a figure from his old life appears at his door demanding his help. 
 
Meredith Nichol, a transgender woman and his wife's sister, has been found strangled on the lonely train tracks behind Skid Row. 
 
Soon he discovers that the devil is at play in the City of Angels and Meredith's death wasn't the hate crime the police believe it to be. Iwata knows that risking his life and future is the only way to silence the demons of his past. 
 
Reluctantly throwing himself back in to the dangerous existence he only just escaped, Iwata discovers a seedy world of corruption, exploitation and murder - and a river of sin flowing through LA's underbelly, Mexico's dusty borderlands and deep within his own past. 
_____________ 
 
 
'A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA' Anthony Horowitz 
 
Lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary . . . I'm awestruck' A. J. Finn, author of international bestseller, The Woman in the Window 
 
'Masterpiece . . . you will love every minute' Jeffery Deaver 
 
'A pacey, page-turning thriller' Financial Times 
 
'Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability' Mail Online

Harrowing and gripping. An astute police procedural . . . Switching between LA, Mexico and Tokyo both Iwata's present and past are cleverly interwoven in a truly heart-rending climax

Sins as Scarlet is a searing LA crime story, as poetic as it is brutal, as tender as it is disturbing

Thanks to the excellent Iwata, you get a gripping mystery with a real conscience

In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly, Sins as Scarlet lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary stuff: a diabolically clever police procedural, a wrenching character study, and a merciless chronicle of a city in decay. I'm awestruck.

A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA

Masterpiece - that's the only way to describe Sins as Scarlet. Obregón's brilliant novel is, at once, a classic noir, a psychological thriller and a riveting examination-sometimes dark, sometime moving to the point of tears--of life in a less-than-angelic Los Angeles

This bleak, richly descriptive and haunting thriller walks of the wild side of Los Angeles

Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability

Praise for Blue Light Yokohama

A twisty, highly entertaining thriller that pulls us into the heart of an unconventional hero as he fights corruption in the gritty, glittering world of Tokyo

Sunday Times bestseller, Black-Eyed Susans

Former homicide detective Kosuke Iwata is on the run from his past . . . 
 
Five years ago, he lost his family. Now he may have found his redemption. 
 
Living in LA and working as a private detective, he spends his days spying on unfaithful spouses and his nights with an unavailable woman. 
 
Still he cannot forget the family he lost in Tokyo. 
 
But that all changes when a figure from his old life appears at his door demanding his help. 
 
Meredith Nichol, a transgender woman and his wife's sister, has been found strangled on the lonely train tracks behind Skid Row. 
 
Soon he discovers that the devil is at play in the City of Angels and Meredith's death wasn't the hate crime the police believe it to be. Iwata knows that risking his life and future is the only way to silence the demons of his past. 
 
Reluctantly throwing himself back in to the dangerous existence he only just escaped, Iwata discovers a seedy world of corruption, exploitation and murder - and a river of sin flowing through LA's underbelly, Mexico's dusty borderlands and deep within his own past.

Blue Light Yokohama

Inspired by a blistering real-life murder, Blue Light Yokohama's INSPECTOR IWATA is perfect for FANS OF JO NESBO'S HARRY HOLE. 
 
THE MURDERER'S IN YOUR HOUSE . . . 
A family of four are found murdered in their own home. A painted black sun is left dripping, as the killer walks away in broad daylight. 
 
THE FIRST DETECTIVE DIED TRYING TO SOLVE IT . . . 
He was said to have committed suicide by throwing himself off Tokyo's famous Rainbow Bridge. 
 
THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING . . . 
Inspector Iwata and his partner must find a murderer who is only just beginning. He knows time is running out and the menacing black sun means one thing, the killer will never stop. 
 
'Outstanding' SUNDAY EXPRESS, THE MOST AWAITED BOOK OF 2017 
 
'Strong . . . promises to be an excellent series' Guardian

'An outstanding debut' The most awaited books of 2017, Sunday Express 
 
Based on a real-life murder Blue Light Yokohama is set among Tokyo's glitteringly busy streets, where a family of four were killed in their own home. The first detective died trying to solve it. Now it is up to Inspector Iwata to unravel the truth . . .

Taut and atmospheric with twists galore

Julia Heaberlin, author of Sunday Times bestseller

Poetic, chilling and mesmerizing storytelling

Ragnar Jónasson, internationally bestselling author of

This beautifully written debut takes readers on a captivating and atmospheric journey around Tokyo with plenty of twists to keep them gripped until the epic conclusion

With its Japanese setting and characters, Blue Light Yokohama offers up a bold and refreshingly different take on the serial killer tale

Obregón is a bright, sophisticated new voice in crime fiction: his writing sings at you, reverberates, makes you consider more than just the urgent clamour of his novel's well-hewn murder plot. In Inspector Iwata, he has created a quiet, troubled hero whom readers will be sure to follow from one disturbing, atmospheric story to the next

Obregon's full-bodied prose is by turns gritty and poetic, and it's consistently energetic. Given the terrific chemistry between the two lead detectives, here's hoping this debut novel kicks off a new series

Obregon balances the key components of modern detective fiction seamlessly... Blue Light Yokohama is nicely done for a first book; it's nicely done, period

With a labyrinthine plot and a likable protagonist, Blue Light Yokohama is a strong beginning to what promises to be an excellent series

Inspector Kosuke Iwata, newly transferred to Tokyo's homicide department, is assigned a new partner and a secondhand case. It's complicated and grisly - a family of four murdered in their own home by a killer who painted a hideous black sun on the ceiling before he left in broad daylight - and Iwata's progress is thwarted in the unlikeliest of places. 
 
 Fearing corruption among his fellow officers, tracking a killer he's sure is only just beginning his career and trying to put his own life back together, Iwata knows time is running out before either he's taken off the case or there are more killings . . .

Nicolás Obregón

With a nod to the classic film Witness, The Sugar Man finds hardbitten cop Dakota Finch on the trail of a serial killer hiding in an insular religious community back in a place – and a past – she thought she had left behind. An unflinching and mesmerizing small town crime story.

How exquisitely rare to read a novel as original as Nicolas Obregón’s latest: a profoundly spooky thriller soaked in honey and horror, sugar and shivers, from a storyteller far too bold to write an ordinary sentence. Every turned page feels like a step taken closer towards something deep, dark, and irresistible. For readers of folkloric suspense (think The Wicker Man or Lucy Foley’s marvelous The Midnight Feast), for fans of flinty, fascinating heroines, for anyone who admires rich, risky world-building on the scale of Twin Peaks — take a trip to Nectar. This is a good one.

Brooding and intricately woven, The Sugar Man delivers a rich tapestry of characters and a deliciously claustrophobic small town setting. Addictive and oh so clever, this book is a masterclass in plotting and I inhaled it in two greedy gulps.

Ali Land, bestelling author of Good Me Bad Me

With The Sugar Man, Obregón delivers a deft and riveting mystery that I genuinely struggled to put down. This one will haunt me for a long time.

Nail-bitingly compelling and utterly engrossing, The Sugar Man keeps you turning the pages as worlds, pasts and secrets collide.

A dark read of serial killers and cults

Praise for Nicolás Obregón

Dakota’s world broke in two the day her best friend Flora was murdered – and Dakota has never been able to confess her own dark secret about that day. 
 
Years later, and now a detective, Dakota is struggling to hide her trauma. At a crossroads, she is taken aback to be assigned a case back in her home town. A case that has uncanny echoes of Flora – and a connection to the same nearby Amish-like community, whose faithful flock might just be hiding a murderer. 
 
Dakota’s job needs her to unmask a serial killer. But her heart just needs to finally find out what happened to her best friend…

Nicolás Obregón

Books by Nicolás Obregón

Series by Nicolás Obregón

Inspector Iwata

Articles featuring Nicolás Obregón

17 top crime books set in Japan

Watch the trailer for Blue Light Yokohama

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