In Tokyo, a young woman works for a shadowy crime gang, luring businessmen and then getting compromising photos of them; when a rival gang makes an appearance, she plays a dangerous game pitting one against the other in Fuminori Nakamura's The Kingdom.
On the surface, this is a hard-boiled noir in the vein of Red Harvest (which begat Yojimbo, which begat A Fistful of Dollars, and on and on). But this is Nakamura, whose novels ooze and seep, creep and crawl, creating high levels of dread. Grinding, inescapable fate of the type Cornell Woolrich ate for breakfast is the standard fare.
Nakamura's novels are unsettling, to say the least, often with uncomfortable subject matter, but if you are interested in going down an inky-black road The Kingdom may be his most accessible novel that I've read to date.
I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana and read it quickly.
On the surface, this is a hard-boiled noir in the vein of Red Harvest (which begat Yojimbo, which begat A Fistful of Dollars, and on and on). But this is Nakamura, whose novels ooze and seep, creep and crawl, creating high levels of dread. Grinding, inescapable fate of the type Cornell Woolrich ate for breakfast is the standard fare.
Nakamura's novels are unsettling, to say the least, often with uncomfortable subject matter, but if you are interested in going down an inky-black road The Kingdom may be his most accessible novel that I've read to date.
I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana and read it quickly.
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