Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein and premiered by HBO

January 9, 2023January 9, 2023Leave a comment

Superb!!!

Tokyo Vice is an American crime drama television series created by J.T. Rogers and based on the 2009 book of the same title by Jake Adelstein. It premiered on April 7, 2022, on HBO Max. It stars Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe in lead roles. In June 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.

The TV series Tokyo Vice was based on the novel ‘Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan’
by Jake Adelstein. It is said to be based on a true story. It is filmed on location in Tokyo, Japan. This HBO Max series is a work of pure genius! Exciting, informative, atmospheric, great music and script, great pace, intriguing, beautifully crafted and produced…..I could go on and on. I watched the whole series and then watched it gain straight away. I am considering a third viewing. Actually that’s not completely true …I’ve just started my third viewing!

It’s only fault is that there is only one series …so far! A second series is in production thankfully! I cannot wait until it is released!

The HBO series is set about twenty years ago. An American named, Jake Adelstein moves to Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese and begins to work in a major Japanese newspaper, becoming their first foreign-born journalist. He struggles at the start until he begins to develop contact within the Tokyo police. His investigative journalism leads him into the dark world of the Japanese yakuza. Then his life becomes entwined with a Yakuza enforcer called Sato. What follows is a fascinating portrayal of a torrid series of events.

The actor Shō Kasamatsu plays Sato. His portrayal is absolutely brilliant. A mix of James Dean, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen with a Japanese twist.

The acting throughout the HBO Max show is superb with magnificent performances by Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein, Hideaki Itō as Jin Miyamoto, a vice squad detective, Rachel Keller as Samantha Porter and Ken Watanabe (a firm favorite of mine) as Hiroto Katagiri, who is a wily detective in the organized crime division. They are just a few of the incredible cast. But for me, Shō Kasamatsu and his character Sato steal the show. Played with such intelligence and truth to make the whole series gripping.
Even if you think that this thriller detective series is not for you – give Tokyo Vice a chance and you will not be sorry!

Photo by Jase Bloor on Unsplash

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

January 4, 2023January 4, 2023Leave a comment

Agatha Christie is the Queen of crime fiction. A superb writer who set the bar for crime, mystery and thriller writers to come such as Dashiell Hammett, Peter James and Brad Thor. The detective novel, Death on the Nile, was published first in 1937 to great acclaim.

Death on the Nile features the Belgian (not French) detective Hercule Poirot. The action occurs in Egypt and mostly on a steamer called the Karnak on the River Nile.

On holiday in Egypt, aboard a boat which is sailing along the Nile on a tour, Hercule Poirot is contacted by socialite Linnet Doyle. Linnet asks that he try to stop Jacqueline de Bellefort from stalking her. Jacqueline was a former friend. Linnet had married Jacqueline’s ex-fiancé, Simon Doyle. Jacqueline had not taken it well. Poirot does not work for Linnet thought he does try to speak to Jacqueline and make her see reason.

One morning, Linnet is found dead. She was shot in the head and her valuable pearls had disappeared. And so starts one of the most famous crime novels ever written. It has elegance, dramatic locations, history and intrigue while being peppered with misdirection. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie is a superb mystery detective fiction novel. Well worth a read.

The novel, Death on the Nile, was made into a film in 1978 starring Peter Ustinov. It was again made into a film starring Kenneth Branagh and was released in 2022.

Photo by the supremely talented XAVIER PHOTOGRAPHY on Unsplash

Unsplash is a great site for top level photography.

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

February 25, 2022February 25, 2022Leave a comment

Freida McFadden, fiction writer, is the author of the psychological thriller, The Locked Door.

A father killing women brutally in the basement of the house. His young daughter, oblivious and floors above but eventually the police come knocking. It’s not long before the father is banged up in jail permanently.

Eventually the daughter grows up and becomes a top surgeon. She tries to forget her past and hides the fathers crimes. Nobody knows about him.

However, one of her patients is murdered. Bad as that is, she is shocked to find that the murder was a copycat of her serial murderer fathers crimes.

Is she being set up for the crimes of the father? Someone must know!

A perfect thriller with an incredible twist. Fiction at its finest!

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022Leave a comment

The new thriller by #1 bestseller authors Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny has been a raging success.

A new administration takes control in the USA. The Presidents choice for Secretary of State comes as a shock. It’s one of his political enemies.

A string of terrorist attacks start a terrifying ball rolling. A swirling mess of Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and the thirst for nuclear weapons in a highly volatile region creates a nightmare scenrio.

The new American administration is rocked to it’s core but can it recover?

The novel is clever, well plotted, intelligent and gripping. It is definitely on my premier reading list.

State of Terror is available as an audiobook, paperback, e-book, hardcover and Audio CD.

Other great political thriller writers are James Patterson, Catherine Coulter, Ido Graf and Jack Carr.

Image by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Fighter in Lingerie by Penelope Sky

November 17, 2021November 17, 2021Leave a comment

Penelope Sky is the Californian author who has turned her writing into an online and offline sensation. She is a USA Today Bestselling Author and also a New York Times Bestseller Author who has sold more than a million copies of her books which are now being translated into multiple languages. A parallel could be drawn with the other successful women’s author of the Fifty Shades of Grey books, E L James.

The lingerie series of books, fifteen at the present count have been hugely successful and are propelling this talented author into the fast lane.

Fighter in Lingerie follows the obsession of a vicious crime lord, Bosco Roth, and his infatuation with a frightened woman. She is scared but he is not the type of person to give up easily.

The lingerie series is… Well worth a read!

Photo by Samuele Giglio on Unsplash