SILENT THUNDER

by Peter Tasker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1992

Imperialist Japanese corporate warriors wielding awesome economic weapons threaten the shaky stability of the new world order. Financial strategist and Orient resident Tasker (The Japanese, 1988) pits a seedy Tokyo p.i. and a couple of disaffected employees against the rogue capitalists in this top-notch first novel. Mori is the only name given for the p.i. hired by the parents of an apparent suicide to look into the story behind their son's defenestration. The late Mr. Hara had every reason to live: a Tokyo University diploma, superb financial skills, a respectable marriage, a top position with the country's largest and most powerful securities firm. Suicide seems senseless. Mori, who was himself on the fast track until he was derailed by political activism in the Sixties, quickly discovers that Mr. Hara was at odds with his brother-in-law, Mr. Yoshimura, a nasty fellow with apparent ties to the Yakuza, Japan's organized criminals. Mr. Yoshimura works for a hotshot electronics firm headed by a brilliant and monstrously ambitious young fascist with ties to the charismatic founder of Hara's firm. Meanwhile, Mori's investigation is too effective for the comfort of the industrial and commercial moguls looking to use the balance of payments to tip America into the dustbin, and they send him some unmistakably threatening signals via their thugs. But Mori won't be signaled, and even when the Yakuza snatch his songstress girlfriend, he won't be stopped. The brooding, flashing, hyperdense Tokyo of serialized manga comic books, soulless sex, and samurai economics shares top billing with the very attractive investigator--in this fresh and very clever thriller.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 288

Publisher: "Kodansha--dist. by Farrar, Straus & Giroux"

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992

Categories: FICTION