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Hokkaido Popsicle

After an altercation with the director of Wildman for Geisha!—a movie loosely based on Billy Chaka’s life--Billy is in Hokkaido on mandatory vacation. He’s staying at the Hotel Kitty when the eldery Night Manager stumbles into Billy’s room one night and dies. Meanwhile, miles away in Tokyo, the lead singer of Saint Arrow, Japan’s most popular rock band, has just been found dead in sleazy love hotel.

When Chaka goes to Tokyo to cover the story, he soon finds out there’s more to the rocker’s apparent drug overdose than meets the eye. A Beatles-obsessed record executive, a mute DJ, two giant kickboxing twins with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music, a Swedish stripper working at The Purloined Kitten club—all will play a part as Billy Chaka discovers that the rock star and the Night Manager just might share a very strange link.

chosen for Powell Books "14 Favorites" (Spring 2002)
chosen as one of NewCity Chicago's Top 5 Books of 2002

PRAISE FOR HOKKAIDO POPSICLE

"The plot is rock solid, the punny dialogues sound like a noir version of a screwball comedy
and the atmosphere is pure fun. An entertaining blend of mystery and mischief."
-- Booklist

"A whirlwind of implausible but entertaining subplots, Billy Chaka's adventures are as
vibrantly hypnotic as the best Japanese anime. Adamson's wild, witty whodunit deftly
sends up the genre while providing extreme doses of excitement."
-- Publisher's Weekly

"Two parts noir to one part MTV, this twisty mystery is spiked with teen pop culture and wicked wit ...
Add to the mix the weirdo cast...and readers have a fast-paced, wildly entertaining, fresh brand of
mystery that will draw them in as surely as the Hotel Kitty attracts cats."
--School Library Journal

"The plot of this whodunwhat is secondary to the cartoon cityscape of Tokyo and the richly
rendered goofballs who inhabit it. Adamson works in the noir tradition of detective fiction but
with a Day-Glo brush."
-- NewCity

"...Adamson, as he did in his book Tokyo Suckerpunch, evokes an animated Tokyo-as-Toontown that is simultaneously vivid, vibrant, gaudy and in glorious decline. It's a big adventure, but Adamson's teen rag writer takes it all with a shrug."
--Time Asia

...well-written, observant and funny. Isaac Adamson does a high-wire act, balancing silliness
with credibility."
--Asian Review of Books