Tokyo Kill

Lancet’s second novel featuring Tokyo-based PI Jim Brodie falls short of the high standard set by his debut, 2013’s Japantown. Brodie agrees to take the case of Akira Miura, a 93-year-old former soldier, who freely admits he committed war crimes as a young man on duty in China during Japan’s occupation in the years before WWII. In recent weeks, Miura claims, several of his surviving fellow soldiers have been murdered in a series of home invasions, and he wants Brodie to investigate as well as provide protection. Miura suspects a vigilante Chinese triad is behind the killings, but Brody quickly figures out something else is at stake. As the case progresses, Brodie encounters a series of sneering, interchangeable bad guys in a plot that consists of scene after confrontational scene involving knife fights, poisonings, and martial arts showdowns with little supporting structure in between. Repetitive, aimless dialogue doesn’t help. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Sept.)