From Publishers Weekly
Osawa's popular Japanese police procedural series makes its U.S. debut with this translation of the first volume. Maverick detective Samejima has made enemies on both sides of the law. Unwilling to compromise his principles, the young policeman refuses to turn a blind eye to the corruption engendered by the Yakuza, a powerful organized crime syndicate, and finds himself stuck patrolling Tokyo's grimy Shinjuku district and increasingly isolated on the force. That ostracism forces Samejima to launch his own probe when an elusive sniper begins targeting his fellow officers, using an unconventional weapon to kill them in pairs. While some rough sections of exposition disrupt the narrative flow, Samejima's compelling struggle to find the truth and the startling revelation of the killer's motive will leave most readers eager for the next book in the series to become available.
(Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Seventeen years after it launched a series of books and films in Japan, the debut of crusading Tokyo detective Samejima gets its first English translation. Too bad it's such a stilted one. But past the bamboo thicket of exposition about police politics lies a decent yarn about this lone shark's hunt for a master gun maker who may be responsible for a series of cop killings in the city's Shinjuku entertainment district. Because Samejima refused to accommodate the Yakuza and ignore abusive colleagues, his once-promising career has stalled, and no one will be his partner. The only reason he hasn't been drummed out: he holds a whistle-blowing letter that could embarrass the force. Since Samejima's too stubborn to quit, he's given a free hand to crack down on crime wherever he finds it. But when he refuses to set aside his gunsmith stakeout and follow up other leads in the cop-killing case, the departmental shunning metastasizes into open hostility. With everythingincluding the life of his rock-singer girlfriendon the line, Samejima delivers a rousing potboiler finish. Sennett, Frank
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