A high-tech American government spy unit orders a Japanese-descended cop/psychic troubleshooter to telepathically monitor and control a Chinese bureaucrat.

Kohno’s third installment of a paranormal-espionage series features “Yonsei” hero Jim Sato, a fourth-generation Japanese American lawman. Jim’s psychic powers increase when he’s paired with attractive, blond telepath Gilda Dobrowski (their close personal/professional bond is tolerated uneasily by his wife, Judy). Devoted to safety, duty, and the American way, Jim is nonetheless keenly aware of the racism ingrained in United States society, even at the covert defense/intelligence/ESP warrior agency StarCenter, which occasionally summons former Marine Jim and civilian Gilda for tasks. Now, the agency’s lab has an advanced computer, UB-X-00 (“Yuubee” to its proud creator). Top spy masters, eggheads, and the White House scheme to use the technology, assisted by Jim and Gilda, as a long-distance assassination weapon against America’s enemies. But after a test fails, the White wonks settle on destabilizing rival superpower China by remotely influencing a Communist insider to commit some rash act. The target: Wei Fangui, a minor Beijing intelligence bureaucrat, who is open to mental suggestion. Spending days infiltrating Wei’s head, Jim comes to respect the liberal-minded, widowed, single father, who has endangered himself by romancing a woman linked to the persecuted Falun Gong sect. But to the StarCenter bosses, Wei is just another “Chinaman” (the epithet gets repeated mercilessly) to be exploited and/or destroyed. Will Jim dare to defy the cruel mission plan? This material obviously trends close to the heart of the Japanese American author, who abandons the pulp-action trimmings of previous novels in the series to dwell at length on interior monologues and geopolitical, personal, and private ponderings—in many passages, this story may remind readers of the literary spycraft thrillers of John le Carré. While Wei concludes that monolithic Marxism is just another foreign devil ideology imperialistically imposed on China’s Confucian soul, the U.S. itself hardly has the moral high ground; the nation is being wracked by race riots, and Jim’s own nisei family suffered the wretched World War II internment camps courtesy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. A succinct page count compensates for the somewhat repetitive arguments, and Kohno, like his hero, finds a way out of the dilemma that is emotionally satisfying, if low on gunfire and explosions.

A thoughtful, absorbing SF tale that offers Chinese and American skulduggery and paranormal intrigue.

A cop and a psychic try to stop a rogue Russian agent in Kohno’s first paranormal thriller in a series.

There’s a psychic terrorist on the loose in the environs of Franklin, Oregon. At least, that’s what psychic consultant Gilda Dobrowski tells police detective Jim Sato. Jim and Gilda worked together on a case a few years back, and he admires her abilities, but he doesn’t know what to make of a warning that Gilda has supposedly received from the terror suspect: “Beware the Final Solution.” With Jim’s permission, Gilda uses his body to channel the terrorist, a former KGB agent who identifies himself as Sergei Verenich. He states that he wants to take revenge on the United States for the CIA’s actions during the Cold War. But if the pair can follow his clues and find him before his plan goes into action, they can save millions of lives. Jim and Gilda are sent on a wild chase after the psychic villain, who manages to pull off deadly bombings and other attacks in Oregon and elsewhere. As the pair race to stop him, they can’t help but wonder why Sergei chose them for this mission. Kohno’s blend of the classic crime-caper format with telepathic characters makes for an intriguing fictional world. However, for a novel that’s so interested in psychological profiles, the characters are disappointingly underdeveloped. There are some good lines, as when Jim rejects one of Sergei’s possible motivations: “Old Oedipus is dead and gone and Freud along with him. We’re talking about power and authority, not sex churning away in the subconscious.” More often, though, characters speak like they’re in a bad action movie, right down to a stereotypical rendering of police officers’ accents in the city of New Orleans, which Jim and Gilda visit later in the story. The writing’s inconsistent quality sometimes lessens the impact of more subtle threads, such as how Jim, who’s Japanese American, faces difficulties doing his job because of others’ bigotry. A lot happens in terms of plot, but rarely does any of it feel substantial, which prevents this offbeat genre mashup from fully coming to life.

A paranormal crime novel that doesn’t rise to the level of its ambitions.

This paranormal sequel features the further adventures of crime-fighting psychics.

The terrorist Abdul Ahmad is targeting Americans around the world, most recently blowing up a passenger jet with over 300 people aboard. Small-town cop (and recently awakened psychic) Jim Sato is stewing over the latest attack when he gets a visit from his former rival, Allen Kosovich of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The American government wants Ahmad assassinated, and the combined attempts of the intelligence community have failed. Seeing no other option, the DIA wants to recruit Jim and his psychic associate, Gilda Dobrowski, for the top-secret Project StarMind. Jim and Gilda are reluctant to join the shadowy program—and even more so to participate in an assassination mission—but if someone doesn’t stop Ahmad soon, the American people will lose faith in their government’s ability to protect them. With the assistance of the DIA’s technology, Jim and Gilda become even more powerful “Snoopers” (to use the agency lingo) than they were before. Their quest to bring Ahmad to justice will take them around the world, physically and mentally. Terrorists are tricky enough, but can the psychic partners fully trust their new federal allies? Kohno’s prose is filled with enticing images, even if the syntax is often clumsy or lurching: “When it was dark,” Jim and Gilda “left their room, caught a cab in front of the hotel and made their way to Roppongi and entered a brightly lit district of myriad lights that was already luring a crowd of revelers in for a wild, free time of abandon when all inhibitions were shed.” The thriller has many intriguing dimensions, particularly telepathy, which the author employs to dramatic effect. But there’s a stiffness to the characters that keeps them from ever feeling quite real. The sexual tension between Jim and Gilda is more a contrivance than an actual force in the novel, as is their friction with their handlers. Ahmad is a rather uninspired villain, and though the tale concludes in a cliffhanger, some readers may not be inclined to return for the next installment.

An imaginative but messy supernatural thriller.

A Japanese American’s thoughts in the late 1970s drift into the past in Kono’s novel about aspects of existence and identity.

Greg Sonoda lives in Redondo Beach, California, in 1979 with his wife, Caroline, and their two sons, Brian and Craig, but he often thinks of his time in an internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming, during World War II. He also dwells on an heirloom that was stolen from the family’s home during their time in the camp—a Masamune blade with mythic origins. Greg describes himself as “culturally rough around the edges,” and Kono shows this tension by alternating between scenes of Greg’s daily life and memories of his time in postwar Japan. In both timelines, Greg reflects on questions of identity and religion, repeatedly questioning God’s existence. During a 1970s vacation to Micronesia, these reflections give way to a harrowing fight for survival when the family is stranded for months on an uninhabited island. They eventually return home safelybut find their lives changed by their new notoriety and a continuing, magical attachment to the island where they were marooned. The family sword also finds its way home just as Greg’s existential ponderings start to drift toward the possibility that curses and demons may be present in his family members’ lives. Kono conjures some haunting and beautiful imagery—especially on the island—while leading up to the book’s strange, unexpected conclusion. However, the novel’s two narrative modes feel complementary and frustratingly at odds, by turns. Kono moves between Greg’s thoughtful reactions to concrete realities of family life, work, and even investments and a more detached, dreamlike narrative of the shipwreck and its aftermath. The unusual pacing and magical realism that dominate the book’s second half are reminiscent of the works of Haruki Murakami. However, it also makes Greg’s story feel like two different works rather than a cohesive whole. Still, the author achieves some engaging insights along the way, especially in Greg’s detailed and startling first-person perspective on the Japanese American experience during the 1940s.

An uneven but often compelling fictional journey into questions of faith.