Unknown Male

'Doesn’t get any darker or more twisted than this’ Sunday Times Crime Club

Nicolás Obregón author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:28th Nov '19

£14.99

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Unknown Male cover

Inspector Kosuke Iwata returns to Japan after ten years to confront the ghosts of his past, and catch a dangerous killer.

THE GRIPPING STORY OF LIES AND MURDER HAUNTING THE DARKEST CORNERS OF TOKYO . . .

'Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this' Sunday Times Crime Club
'Masterpiece' JEFFERY DEAVER
'A stunning achievement' CRIME TIME, BOOK OF THE MONTH
--

He is a completely unremarkable man.
Who wears the same black suit every day.
Boards the same train to work each morning.
And arrives home to his wife and son each night.

But he has a secret.
He likes to kill people.
--

Exiled detective Kosuke Iwata is asked back to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo.

An English exchange student has been murdered, the Olympics are just days away and those high up want this case closed fast.

But Kosuke Iwata is not a man to be hurried. What he doesn't realise is that out there is a killer so apparently unremarkable he's impossible to find . . .
--

Praise for Nicolás Obregón:

'Masterpiece' Jeffery Deaver

'I'm awestruck' A. J. Finn

'A dark, brutal ride' Anthony Horowitz

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this * Sunday Times Crime Club *
The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy * NB Magazine *
Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless efficiency and won't allow the reader a moment's respite. A stunning achievement that should raise the author's profile to crime's Premier league or there is no justice in this world * Crime Time, Book of the Month *
An outstanding novel from start to finish, possibly the best book I've read this year. An entrancing thriller that lures you into the dark secrets of the neon streets of Tokyo. Riveting * The Courier, Book of the Week *
Praise for Nicolás Obregón * - *

Harrowing and gripping. An astute police procedural . . . Switching between LA, Mexico and Tokyo both Iwata's present and past are cleverly interwoven in a truly heart-rending climax

* Daily Express *
Fresh and convincing . . . the dialogue is worthy of the great chronicler of LA's dark side, Raymond Chandler. But really, Obregon's writing has a unique flavour all of its own, wherever his books are set -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Express *

Sins as Scarlet is a searing LA crime story, as poetic as it is brutal, as tender as it is disturbing

* Tim Weaver *

Thanks to the excellent Iwata, you get a gripping mystery with a real conscience

* Sunday Sport *

In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly, Sins as Scarlet lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary stuff: a diabolically clever police procedural, a wrenching character study, and a merciless chronicle of a city in decay. I'm awestruck.

-- A. J. Finn, author of international bestseller * THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW *

A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA

* ANTHONY HOROWITZ *

Masterpiece - that's the only way to describe Sins as Scarlet. Obregón's brilliant novel is, at once, a classic noir, a psychological thriller and a riveting examination-sometimes dark, sometime moving to the point of tears--of life in a less-than-angelic Los Angeles

* JEFFERY DEAVER *

Evocative, perceptive writing

* Sunday Time Crime Club *

This bleak, richly descriptive and haunting thriller walks of the wild side of Los Angeles

* Peterborough Telegraph *
A brace of cutting-edge themes are threaded into the abrasive narrative . . . It is a combustible mix, but as in the earlier Blue Light Yokohama, the author has the full measure of his difficult material. With his vividly evoked Mexican and LA settings [he] delivers a pacey, page-turning thriller, but the underlying seriousness gives real texture. Iwata is a richly drawn, conflicted hero, and this is another savage journey into the dark heart of America * Barry Forshaw, Financial Times *

Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability

* Mail Online *

ISBN: 9780718189952

Dimensions: 240mm x 162mm x 36mm

Weight: 629g

400 pages