Title: Tokyo Traffic
Subtitle: A Detective Hiroshi Mystery
Author: Michael Pronko
Publisher: Raked Gravel Press
Pages: 404
Genre: Crime/ Thriller
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Pacific Book Review
This is the latest in a series of novels highlighting the exploits of Detective Hiroshi Shimizu, a Japanese police officer that speaks English as well as his mother tongue, is trained in accounting, usually works international crimes, and almost always winds up in the thick of mayhem, murder, and more. This episode is no exception. It’s one that starts fast and doesn’t let up on its breakneck pace until bodies (both living and dead) are strewn all over the place.
The action begins in a film studio where pornographic movies are being made. An actress, the director, and a man connected to the government turn up dead while a young Thai girl named Sukanya escapes from the studio and makes a run for it in a city, Tokyo, that’s totally alien to her. She has taken with her a computer that can compromise too many villains and they plan to get both it and her back, regardless of the cost.
Sukanya’s flight to elude her pursuers sends her on a wild journey through the city. Simultaneously, Detective Hiroshi and his cohorts, a massive ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi, and the wisecracking Takamatsu, search for the killers from one end of the fabled town to another. While they’re at it, a story of human trafficking unfolds funded by the elusive world of crypto currency. Running down numbers as well as bad guys is right in Detective Hiroshi’s wheelhouse, so intellect as well as energy is put in play to pull a number of loose ends together.
Crime stories are frequently dependent on having criminals who are as interesting as the police who pursue them. The author fills that bill in this case with a evildoer from Thailand who’s into multiple nefarious operations, an ex-con from Japan who’s looking to improve his lot in unlawful enterprises, and a trio of thugs who sometimes give The Three Stooges a run for their money.
Writer Michael Pronko does a first-rate job of interweaving primary and secondary plots without slowing his narrative. In addition to imbuing his characters with idiosyncratic traits that bring them to life on the page, he’s also particularly adept at creating action sequences that bring a cinematic quality to car chases, shootouts, and hand-to-hand combat. Pronko’s work feels imminently credible because he’s such an accomplished chronicler of Tokyo itself. His uses of neighborhoods, streets, and sections of the city from gleaming high-rises to teaming underbelly, drop readers right into the middle of one of the world’s most interesting metropolises. Crime and mystery fans should definitely get to know Detective Hiroshi and the town he calls home. One way to do that is to put the pedal to the metal and drive right into the middle of Tokyo Traffic.
