In Association with Amazon.com

Dreaming Pachinko

Tokyo, July 2001 -- Hardboiled reporter Billy Chaka is back in the neon metropolis interviewing a has-been pop singer turned pachinko fanatic for a one page feature in Youth in Asia magazine. Looks like an easy assignment until he witnesses a beautiful young woman suffer a seizure in the Lucky Benten pachinko hall. When she is later found dead in murky canal beneath the expressway, Chaka becomes embroiled in an apparent blackmail plot involving a powerful Ministry of Construction official, a brash nineteen year-old girl, a shadowy entity known only as Mr. Bojangles and four silent figures who have a penchant for showing up uninvited inside Chaka's room at the bizarre Hotel Cerulean. As the bodies pile up and the mystery deepens, Chaka must untangle the lies, obsessions, and seemingly supernatural events that link the dead woman to a forgotten incident that occurred during the desperate closing days of WWII. Dreaming Pachinko is a tense, funny and often surreal thrill ride through the city of the future, a place where no one can escape the past.

PRAISE FOR DREAMING PACHINKO

"Isaac Adamson paints an ultra-modern Tokyo that contrasts with its enigmatic history like neon against a dark sky. The characters resonate, the mystery engages, and the rich narrative takes us on a vivid tour through a culture that few of us will ever see. You can't ask for more than that from storyteller. "
-Christopher Moore
author of Lamb and Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story

"[Dreaming Pachinko] blends noir atmosphere with broad satire; Adamson turns what might have been a fairly straightforward mystery into a splendid romp, an offbeat adventure with wacky characters, oddball dialogue, plenty of laughs, and style to spare. This over-the-top, delightfully weird series is well on its way to making the jump from cult favorite to mainstream success."
--Booklist May '01 2003

"Like its predecessors, this third Billy Chaka crime novel is an exuberant mix of urban noir and anime-style action, salted with cheeky humor... Chaka flashes his trademark deadpan, Chandleresque wit and suffers a constant barrage of inventive physical injuries at the hands of both friends and enemies. Adamson sticks close to the hybrid formula he has perfected; his fans will find this a familiar but welcome addition to his oeuvre."
--Publisher's Weekly

"Noir light: charming, funny, satisfying."
--Kirkus Review

"Dreaming Pachinko" is full of vibrant images straight out of Tokyo and characters that are so 3D that your mind's eye will be bursting by the time you finish the last chapter. Every thing from a hotel receptionist with a handle bar mustache nicknamed "The Walrus" to a house that's so postmodern it makes the Cowboy-bebop world Adamson paints more lifelike while still retaining a wonderfully cinematic feel...Adamson's witty commentary and quirky character intermix with classic pulp fiction components to make a punky style all its own. "
--hybridmagazine.com

"Adamson describes Chaka's Tokyo in ways that make us see the paradox of a city that exists halfway between a thickly tradition-laden past, and a shockingly Neon-Chrome future. This Tokyo is exotic, unfathomable, and decidedly non-Western. Itís almost science fiction, almost pre-Blade Runner...put aside the wit, and the great descriptive voice and youíre still left with a good old fashioned Whodunit. Dreaming Pachinko can be highly recommended to anyone."
--cinescape.com

"A Dream of a hardboiled noir thriller...Chaka is a hero Generation X should love. Dreaming Pachinko is a fastball right down the middle, exciting and smart, puckish and suspenseful. Adamson should be read on beach blankets and anywhere else discriminating readers lie, sit, stand, hang, or squat."
--asianreporter.com

"an imaginative and fun and at times very wild ride through modern, formless, neon Tokyo. A great tale."
--japanvisitor.com