Tokyo resident Barry Lancet’s book “JAPANTOWN” was named “Best Debut of 2013” no less than three times, and has been nominated for a Barry Award for Best First Novel, selected as a Best Debut of Year both by Suspense Magazine and renowned mystery critic Oline Cogdill, and optioned by J. J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions (with Warner Bros) for a TV drama. To date, foreign rights have been sold to eight countries.
Fresh off this exciting debut, and with the second book in the series just out, author Barry Lancet will talk about Japanese culture, his long tenure as an American in Tokyo, how he parlayed his inside information about Japan into a popular mystery-thriller series, and more. Here is a short run down of his books:
JAPANTOWN (Simon & Schuster), the first novel in the Jim Brodie series, opens with the perfect murder in San Francisco’s Japantown, with only one clue no one can read—an obscure Japanese kanji character. The SFPD call in Japan expert Jim Brodie, who traces the lead from the dark streets of the City by the Bay to even darker—and more dangerous—corners of Japan.
TOKYO KILL, the next book in the series, starts when an elderly Japanese WWII vet begs Brodie to stop the killing of his old army buddies at the hands of Chinese Triads in Tokyo. The story takes the Japan expert along a road of danger that includes a secret wartime massacre, a long-lost treasure, and a modern-day killing—with the next target pinned to Brodie.
Barry Lancet moved from California to Tokyo in his twenties, where he has lived for more than two decades. He spent twenty-five years working for one of the country’s largest publishers, developing books on dozens of Japanese subjects from art to Zen—all in English and all distributed in the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world.
His unique position gave him access to many inner circles in cultural, business, and traditional fields most outsiders are never granted. Early in his tenure in the Japanese capital, he was hauled in by the police for a non-criminal infraction and interrogated for three hours, one of the most heated psychological encounters he had faced in Japan to that point. The run-in fascinated him and sparked the idea for a thriller based on his growing number of unusual experiences in Japan. Lancet is still based in Japan but visits the States frequently. He is at work on the third novel in the Jim Brodie series.
Click on the following links to see more on Barry Lancet:
AUTHOR WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
SIMON & SCHUSTER AUTHOR PAGE
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