About this item
Best of Debut of the Year Suspense Magazine WINNER of the Barry Award for Best Debut Novel Optioned for TV by J.J. Abrams Warner Bros. In this sophisticated international thriller The New York Times Book Review, an American antiques-dealer-turned-reluctant-private-eye must use his knowledge of Japanese culture to unravel a major murder in San Franciscobefore he and his daughter become targets themselves. San Francisco antiques dealer Jim Brodie receives a call one night from a friend at the SFPD an entire family has been senselessly gunned down in the Japantown neighborhood of the bustling city. As an American born and raised in Japan and part-owner of his fathers Tokyo private investigation firm, Brodie has advised the local police in the past, but the near-perfect murders in Japantown are like nothing hes ever encountered.
About the Author
THE SPY ACROSS THE TABLE will be the next book in Barry Lancet's award-winning, international suspense series featuring Jim Brodie. The series opened with JAPANTOWN, which won the Barry Award for "Best First Mystery Novel" and was selected as a "Best Debut of the Year" by Suspense Magazine and several mystery/thriller roundups. TOKYO KILL, the second book in the series, was a finalist for a Shamus Award for "Best Novel of the Year." The third book in the series, PACIFIC BURN, covered, among other things, the controversial nuclear meltdown in Japan, after the horrendous quake and tsunami.
Lancet is an expat Californian who makes his home in Tokyo, though he visits the States often. His connection with Japan began more than twenty-five years ago with a short exploratory trip from his California home to Tokyo. Five years later his visit turned into a long-term stay in the Japanese capital, a thriving metropolis he found endlessly fascinating.
Lancet landed a position at one of the country's top publishing houses, and in twenty-five years he developed numerous books across many fields but mostly on Japanese culture--including art, crafts, cuisine, history, fiction, Zen gardens, martial arts, Asian philosophy, and more. All of which were sold in the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. The work opened doors to many traditional worlds, lending a unique insider's view to his own writing.
One incident in particular started him on his present course of writing, and led to JAPANTOWN and the Jim Brodie series. Early on during his return to Japan, Lancet was directed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to come down to the stationhouse for a "voluntary interview." The MPD proceeded to interrogate him for three hours over what turned out to be a minor, noncriminal infraction.
The police grilling evolved into one of the most intensive psychological battles of cat-and-mouse Lancet had faced up to that point in his stay in Asia, and caused him to view many of his experiences, past and future, in a whole new light. The encounter was also instrumental in shaping Lancet's approach to his novels.
