Crime and mystery: hard-boiled crime, noir fiction
Tachyon Publications Cold In July
Book Synopsis
£13.77
Tachyon Publications Of Mice And Minestrone: Hap and Leonard: The
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£14.24
Akashic Books Nairobi Noir
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£14.36
Zando Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery
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£999.99
Soho Press Inc The Long-Legged Fly
Book SynopsisAs much a classic detective story as it is a literary masterpiece, The Long-Legged Fly introduces us to Lew Griffin: tough, smart, and living in a corner of society where life is fought for as much as it is lived.In steamy New Orleans, black private detective Lew Griffin has taken on a seemingly hopeless missing-person case. The trail takes him through the underbelly of the French Quarter with its bar girls, pimps, and tourist attractions. As his search leads to one violent dead end and then another, Griffin is confronted by the realization that his own life has come to resemble those of the people he is attempting to find.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc Moth
Book SynopsisLew Griffin, now fifty years old, has abandoned his former career as a New Orleans private investigator for the safety of teaching. But his old life draws him back. One of the very few lights from Lew Griffin’s dark and violent past has flickered out. His one-time lover, LaVerne Adams, is dead—and her daughter, Alouette, has vanished into a seamy, dead-end world of users and abusers, leaving behind a critically fragile premature infant daughter. Griffin is determined to keep his distance from the dangers of the New Orleans night. But his inescapable obligation to an old friend keeps bringing him back like a moth to a flame.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc Black Hornet
Book SynopsisWith this flashback novel to Lew Griffin’s past, James Sallis takes readers to 1960s New Orleans, a sun-baked city of Black Panthers and other separatists. A sniper has fatally shot five people. When the sixth victim is killed, Lew Griffin is standing beside her. Though they are virtual strangers, it is left to Griffin to avenge her death, or at least to try and make some sense of it. His unlikely allies include a crusading journalist, a longtime supplier of mercenary arms and troops, and a bail bondsman.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc Eye of the Cricket
Book SynopsisFinding people is what former private investigator Lew Griffin excels at. The terrible irony is that the exception is his own missing son. Dreams, memories, and reality run together to form his own darkest night. Lew Griffin is a survivor, a black man in New Orleans—a teacher, a writer, and an ex-detective. Having spent years finding others, he has lost his son—and himself in the process. Now a derelict has appeared in a New Orleans hospital claiming to be Lewis Griffin and toting a copy of one of Lew’s novels. Learning the truth is a quest that will take Griffin into his own past as he tries to deal with the present: a search for three missing young men.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc Bluebottle
Book SynopsisWeaving Griffin's search for identity-one of the recurring themes in this magnificent series of novels-with a sensuous portrait of the people and places the define New Orleans, James Sallis continues not only to unravel Griffin's past but to map his future . . . and our own.As Lew Griffin leaves a New Orleans music club with an older white woman he has just met, someone fires a shot and Lew goes down. When he comes to, he discovers that most of a year has gone by since that night. Who was the woman? Which of them was the target? Who was the shooter? Somewhere in the Crescent City—and in the white supremacist movement crawling through it—there's an answer. But to get to it, he is going to have to work with the only people offering help, people he knows he should avoid.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc Ghost of a Flea
Book SynopsisThe mystery of private investigator Lew Griffin is revealed in the conclusion of this critically acclaimed, groundbreaking series. In his old house in uptown New Orleans, Lew Griffin stands alone in a dark room, looking out. Behind him on the bed is a body. Instead of speaking, he reflects on his life—his failing relationship, his missing son, the fact that he hasn’t written in years—and how the two of them ended up there. In a novel as much about identity as about crime, the answers to Lew’s personal mysteries begin to become clear in the series’ brilliantly constructed climax.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc The Traveller and Other Stories
Book SynopsisA darkly glittering collection of Northern Irish noir by Stuart Neville, Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning author Since his debut novel, the modern classic The Ghosts of Belfast, was published a decade ago, Stuart Neville has written nine other critically acclaimed novels and achieved international recognition as one of crime fiction’s great living writers.Now for the first time Neville offers readers a collection of his short fiction—twelve chilling stories that traverse and blend the genres of noir, horror, and speculative fiction, and which bring the history and lore of Neville’s native Northern Ireland to life. The Traveller concludes with the long-awaited eponymous novella, the companion piece to The Ghosts of Belfast and Collusion. Complete with a foreword from Irish crime fiction legend John Connolly, this volume is the perfect indulgence for fans of ghost stories and noir, and is a must-have for devotees of Neville’s prizewinning Belfast novels.
£15.26
Soho Press Inc The Thief (Deluxe Edition)
Book SynopsisA literary crime masterpiece that follows a Japanese pickpocket lost to the machinations of fate. Bleak and oozing existential dread, The Thief is simply unforgettable, and is now reissued in a brand new deluxe edition with an introduction by Duane Swierczynski, an afterword by the author, and discussion questions.The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn''t even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections . . . But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can''t refuse. It''s an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.
£14.41
Soho Press Inc After the Lights Go Out
Book SynopsisA harrowing and spellbinding story about family, the complications of mixed-race relationships, misplaced loyalties, and the price athletes pay to entertain—from the critically acclaimed author of Three-Fifths Xavier “Scarecrow” Wallace, a mixed-race MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, is facing the fight of his life. Xavier can no longer deny he is losing his battle with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), or pugilistic dementia. Through the fog of memory loss, migraines, and paranoia, Xavier does his best to stay in shape by training at the Philadelphia gym owned by his cousin-cum-manager, Shot, a retired champion boxer to whom Xavier owes an unpayable debt.Xavier makes ends meet while he waits for the call that will reinstate him after a year-long suspension by teaching youth classes at Shot’s gym and by living rent-free in the house of his white father, whom Xavier was forced to commit to a nursing home. The progress of Sam Wallace’s end-stage Alzheimer’s has revealed his latent racism, and Xavier finally gains insight into why his Black mother left the family years ago. Then Xavier is offered a chance at redemption: a last-minute high-profile comeback fight. If he can get himself back in the game, he’ll be able to clear his name and begin to pay off Shot. With his memory in shreds and his life crumbling around him, can Xavier hold on to the focus he needs to survive? John Vercher, author of the Edgar and Anthony Award–nominated Three-Fifths, offers a gripping, psychologically astute, and explosive tour de force about race, entertainment, and healthcare in America, and about one man’s battle against himself.
£14.40
The New York Review of Books, Inc Nightmare Alley: Movie tie-in edition
Book SynopsisNow a major motion picture from Academy Award–winning director Guillermo del Toro and starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Toni Collette.Nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best PictureNightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.
£15.26
The New York Review of Books, Inc Skeletons in the Closet
Book Synopsis
£14.41
Soho Syndicate Death Claims
Book SynopsisCELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF DAVE BRANDSTETTERDeath claims investigator Dave Brandstetter enters a world thespians and booksellers as he uncovers the true story behind the death of a rare book dealer in this noir-spun masterpiece of California crime fiction. Since a burning accident that left him painfully disfigured, John Oats, a well-liked collectible book dealer, has been self-isolating at his beach house in Arena Blanca, California. An avid swimmer, John Oats had taken to night swimming to hide his injuries from daytime beachgoers. When his body is found one morning smashed against the rocks at the treacherous point near the house, the authorities rule it “Death by Misadventure.” Insurance companies don’t much care for verdicts like that and therefore Medallion Insurance, the policy holder for Oats’s substantial life insurance policy, sends out its best investigator, Dave Brandstetter, to poke holes in the story. The night Oats died there was a dangerous storm along the coast, and Brandstetter finds it hard to believe that the bookseller, a lifelong swimmer, would have gone out. As his investigation reveals more of John Oats’s sad story Brandstetter learns that the motives for murder are many. But Brandstetter has his own problems to deal with. Still mourning the death of his partner, Rod, Dave is navigating his own twilight world of grief. His new lover, Doug, is also grieving, and the two men must come to a reckoning of whether their love is an ersatz stand-in for their lost partners or something more.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of
Book SynopsisCELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF DAVE BRANDSTETTERThe murder of a conservative police chief in a fishing village north of Los Angeles sends death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter into the no-man''s land between cops and activists in this brilliantly plotted mystery, which perfectly captures California in the mid-1970s. A small-town Chief of Police with reactionary politics and national ambitions, Ben Orton struck fear in the hearts of anyone who fell out of line in his little fiefdom of La Caleta. Most recently that has included gay rights activists pushing for the hiring of a police officer from their community. When big Ben is found in his backyard bludgeoned to death by a large terracotta pot, the police arrest the outspoken gay owner of a local nursery. Orton had a life insurance policy that brings death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter north to pry. As far as Dave can tell, the cops did almost nothing to investigate Orton’s death and what evidence they did compile doesn’t seem to add up. Dave quickly learns that the pool of suspects is much deeper than the police reported. Ben Orton may have seen himself as a pillar of the community but what many in La Caleta saw instead was a violent man whose commitment to enforcement didn’t always also include room for the law. With an ailing father in the hospital and a relationship headed toward the rocks, a very distracted Brandstetter finds himself making more wrong moves than right while those on the other side of the thin blue line are making it painfully obvious his presence is not wanted.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate Skinflick
Book SynopsisCELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF DAVE BRANDSTETTERDeath claims investigator Dave Brandstetter navigates the opposing realms of evangelical Christianity and the porn business while tracking a lost girl in late 1970s Los Angeles. Lon Tooker certainly fits the profile: big, strong, a Marine Corps veteran, and recently the target of evangelical crusader Gerald Dawson?s wrath. Tooker?s adult toys and pornography store on the local skid row has recently become the target of Dawson?s church men?s group and their destructive masked raids on ?un-Christian? businesses. When Dawson is strangled to death by someone of Tooker?s size and ability, the police see a smut-peddler with a motive. Case closed. But death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter doesn?t like it. By all accounts Tooker is a softy incapable of such a crime. Actual evidence is nonexistent and assumptions many. And Dave particularly doesn?t care for assumptions based on someone?s sex life. But Dave is also navigating new personal territory. His father?s death has left him bereaved and for the first time in a long time without a job. Dave quit the insurance company his father built and has struck out on his own as a private investigator. Add in his breakup with his recent partner and he?s a man unencumbered. It?s the late 1970s and Dave may be aging a bit but he?s still handsome, wealthy, and recently in possession of a new convertible Triumph. Looks like it?s not all hard work.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate Gravedigger
Book SynopsisCELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF DAVE BRANDSTETTERA cult leader named Azrael perpetrates a brutal mass murder and afterwards a slimy lawyer is trying to claim the life insurance policy for his missing daughter; it''s the early ''80s in Los Angeles and private investigator Dave Brandstetter has a new love in his life as exciting as this case is dreadful. Two years ago Charles Westover disgraced himself and his family when he was disbarred for bribery. Westover’s daughter Serenity, disgusted with her once beloved father, ran away to a cult founded by a mesmerizingly handsome young man, a self-appointed messiah going by the grimly grandiose name of Azrael. The whereabouts of Serenity pass unknown for years until the police raid Azrael’s compound and discover that the cult leader lived up to his ghastly “Angel of Death” moniker. Thinking his daughter has been murdered, Charles Westover claims her life insurance, and then he too vanishes. Insurance companies don’t like to cut a check without a body and especially don’t like cutting a check to someone who is also missing. Hired as a private investigator for Banner Insurance, David Brandstetter quickly finds himself in a complicated maze of lies and hidden histories. And Dave suspects that, just like in the labyrinths of old, there will be a monster at the end of it. It''s not all bad times and extreme hazard for our man Dave. A passionate romance has entered his life with the reappearance of Cecil Harris, a handsome young African American investigative reporter for the local news station looking to get to the bottom of a different kind of story.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate Nightwork
Book SynopsisDave Brandstetter, a California private investigator specializing in death claims, uncovers a toxic conspiracy while working a case in a neighborhood plagued by violence and inequality. Gifford Gardens has seen better days. As white families move away to the suburbs to flee the flooding and neglect, the city in turn cares less about fixing the problems. What was once a nice neighborhood has become a slum and a violent battleground for rival gangs. Paul and Angela Myers are among the white families that remained. With the economy in a downturn and wages frozen, Paul takes a job long-haul truck driving. The freight he moves around is strictly “no questions,” but Paul is an honest man and begins to wonder about what he has become a part of. One night, Paul's truck flies off a cliff and explodes in midair. Did he fall asleep at the wheel, or was he murdered? Paul’s life insurance company hires renowned private investigator Dave Brandstetter to look at inconsistencies with the accident. While digging into Paul's past, Dave will uncover a haunting connection between Paul’s untimely death and the happier years in the declining neighborhood of Gifford Gardens. Meanwhile Dave and his lover, reporter Cecil Harris, have settled in together quite cozily. Cecil has recovered from the injuries he received helping Dave on his previous case, but the psychological damage is still present. Dave can’t help wondering if he will ever be able to protect Cecil from his dangerous line of work.
£11.71
Soho Syndicate The Little Dog Laughed
Book SynopsisWhile investigating a suicide, Dave Brandstetter discovers a dead reporter''s final scoop.Adam Streeter has covered international crises from Siberia to Cambodia. When disaster strikes, he grabs his battered typewriter and hops on a plane, hurling himself into danger wherever the story demands. He is brave, talented, and internationally renowned - so why would he turn a pistol on himself? Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter has seen enough suicides to know that a journalist this successful would never take his own life. Suspecting treachery, he digs into Adam''s last story - an unpublished investigation into the whereabouts of a vanished South American strongman, called El Carnicero, the Butcher - and Adam''s death shows every hallmark of his bloody style. To finish Adam''s investigation, Dave will have to make like a war correspondent and leap into the line of fire.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate Early Graves
Book SynopsisThe brutality of the AIDS epidemic and a nation''s growing homophobia set the stage for a serial killer targeting gay men in Los Angeles and it isn''t long before Dave Brandstetter finds himself in the killer''s path.Dave Brandstetter''s afternoon does not begin well: His ex-boyfriend picks him up at the airport, and the ride home - in bumper-to-bumper Los Angeles traffic - is one long argument between them. The insurance investigator''s day gets worse when he finds a man - bloody, rain-soaked, and ice cold - lying on his porch, killed by a stab wound while Dave was out of town. There is a serial killer loose in Los Angeles, and this man is his sixth victim. Like the others, he had already been marked for death - by the unforgiving plague known as AIDS. Someone is targeting sick men in the city, and Dave''s search for the killer leads him into the dark side of gay Los Angeles, where death comes without warning and life is a fearful dream.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate Obedience
Book SynopsisThe death of a Vietnamese immigrant brings former death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter out of retirement. As an insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter built a reputation unraveling suspicious deaths. Now, well into middle age, he has decided to retire for the sake of Cecil, the young TV reporter who loves and cherishes him, and has too often risked his own life for Dave?s work. But retirement does not come easily. Dave never did it for the money. He always had that. Nor did he tirelessly work cases in hopes of chasing renown. It was always the pursuit of the truth that drove Dave. He enjoyed the truth?s habit of coming into direct conflict with bigotry, allowing him to surprise the small-minded along the way. It doesn?t take much arm twisting, then, to get Dave back in the saddle when an old friend in the public defender?s office asks him to help Andy Flanagan, a shiftless young man accused of murdering a Vietnamese businessman to defend the Old Fleet ? a shantytown of houseboats that has been earmarked for development. Beneath the surface of this oil-slicked slum lurks an international conspiracy so appalling that Dave will regret postponing his retirement.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate The Boy Who Was Buried This Morning
Book SynopsisWhile investigating a suicide, Dave Brandstetter discovers a dead reporter''s final scoop. Journalist Adam Streeter covered some of the most dangerous stories of the last quarter century, ranging from Cambodia to Siberia and anywhere troubled in between. Fearless, dashing, and more than a little resourceful, Streeter was renowned as much for his virtuosic writing as the shocking reality of what he uncovered along the way. Why would someone who lived so purposefully and with such demonstrable bravery turn a pistol on himself? Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter has seen enough suicides to know this isn?t one. Suspecting treachery, he digs into Adam''s last story ? an unpublished investigation into the whereabouts of a vanished South American strongman, called El Carnicero, the Butcher ? and finds that Adam''s death shows every hallmark of his bloody style. Dave quickly realized that some very powerful people would like him to drop the case. Dave?s own lover, Cecil, would like to see him take it easy for once. But Cecil knows Brandstetter is not so unlike the man whose death he?s investigating. The truth, to someone like Brandstetter or Streeter, is worth the ultimate price. As he attempts to finish Adam?s story and get to the bottom of the journalist?s death, Dave will find more than a few people willing to make him pay it.
£13.50
Soho Syndicate A Country of Old Men
Book SynopsisDave Brandstetter’s best days are behind him, but for the sake of a frightened child, Dave takes on his very last case. The wear and tear of a life spent pursuing the truth into harm’s way is catching up with Dave. In fact, it has already caught him. The aged death claims investigator is old enough for his body to hurt even without all the compiled injuries he’s sustained throughout his career. Yet when presented with a puzzle-like mystery, Dave can’t help but be drawn in. Walking on the beach, a friend finds a bedraggled child who claims he has witnessed a murder. The victim is a drug-addicted pop star, and the obvious suspect is the dead man’s ex-girlfriend—a drug addict whom the child saw standing over the body, gun in hand. In the final installment of Joseph Hansen’s groundbreaking series, Dave looks for justice once more, hoping that he will also find a lasting measure of peace. Over the course of twelve novels spanning four decades of American culture—from the 1960s to the late 1980s—Joseph Hansen gave readers one of the truly great heroes of detective fiction.
£12.59
Guernica Editions,Canada Julebord: The Holiday Party
Book SynopsisShould chief investigator James Wiley Redding of the Norwegian Police suspect that any of the doctors working in the small rural hospital of Godshus, located where a fjord meets the North Sea, might be linked to the gruesome discovery made on a December morning after their annual Julebord (holiday party)? Much more whodunit than a diversified nordic noir novel, Julebord is laced with what life is like to work in a small rural hospital, where things and humans occasionally get dirty. Not merely a piece of - at times - a bit upmarket crime fiction, the story brings to the realization that in today's small global village we are linked to each other in some way - whether we want to be or not and cannot hide from the events that affect us all.
£20.66
Titan Books Ltd Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray
Book SynopsisCelebrating Ray Bradbury's centennial, a deluxe illustrated commemorative collection of his finest crime stories -- tales as strange and wonderful as his signature fantasy.Time travelers...dark carnivals...living automata...and detectives? Honoring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, renowned author of Fahrenheit 451, this new, definitive collection of the master's less well-known crime fiction, published in a high-grade premium collectible edition, features classic stories and rare gems, a number of which became episodes of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER, including the tale Bradbury called "one of the best stories in any field that I have ever written."Is it murder to destroy a robot if it looks and speaks and thinks and feels like a human being? Can a ventriloquist be incriminated by the testimony of his own dummy? Can a time traveler prevent his younger self from killing the woman they both loved? And can the survivor of a pair of Siamese twins investigate his own brother's murder? No other writer has ever rivaled the imagination and narrative gifts of Ray Bradbury, and the 20 unforgettable stories in this collection demonstrate this singular writer's extraordinary range, influence and emotional power.Trade Review"20 worthy tales in this diverse collection of crime stories from Bradbury (1920–2012) ...This tribute volume should appeal to more than just Bradbury fans." -Publishers Weekly"He could do the hard-boiled strut with the best of them, then enhance it with what the editor calls 'the emotional fire of his prose'....All told in an intense, poetic language that leaves disturbing echoes." -Booklist"These are all clever, engaging, eerie stories, filled with unexpected twists and informed by a sensibility that can only be called Bradburian." -Los Angeles Review of Books "KILLER, COME BACK TO ME features some of Bradbury’s oldest writing and some of his best. I can’t give you a better recommendation than that for putting this collection on your must-read list right now." -BookReporter “Another hit for the Hard Case Crime series and a stunning cover to go with it!” 5* - Jessicamap Reviews“Creepy, suspenseful, and showcasing a vast range, Bradbury’s crime stories should be read, whether you are a Bradbury fan or love crime novels with a horror edge. “ -The Crime Review “Terrific stories. Really invaluable for Bradbury fans and crime fiction scholars alike...” -Atomic Junkshop"There are faint hints in several of these crime stories of the sort of fantasy that would eventually become Bradbury’s trademark. Each story lures us in with familiar crime settings, only to surprise us with unexpected elements and equally unexpected twists....This is essential reading for all Bradbury fans – especially those unfamiliar with his crime fiction....The same kind of thrill that came with the first reading of Bradbury’s Martian stories, as well as the stories that cover the body of the Illustrated Man, and all the other wonderful science fiction/fantasy tales, is relived in these memorable stories of murder and other crimes." -Bookgasm
£29.99
IFWG Publishing Australia Heads, You Lose
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£13.49
Two Dollar Radio Whiteout Conditions
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£13.49
Gray & Company Publishers The Ashtabula Hat Trick
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£15.15
Gray & Company Publishers Speaking of Murder: A Milan Jacovich Mystery
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£15.15
Editorial Periferica Secretos Inútiles
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£21.99
Editorial Periferica Saide
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£18.34
Penguin Random House SEA Mami Suzuki: Private Eye
Book Synopsis"I'd travel with Mami Suzuki anywhere in Japan." —Naomi Hirahara, author, Clark and Division Single mother and straight-talking private eye Mami Suzuki takes cases the Kobe police have little time for and proves that quick wits and compassion solve mysteries faster. Beneath the sheen of its orderly streets and obedient populace, all is not well in the port city of Kobe. Business is as brisk as the Haru-ichiban spring breeze for Mami Suzuki, a hotel clerk by day, a private investigator by night. Who's stealing from Japan's biggest pearl trader? Where's the master sushi chef and why are his knives missing? How did the tea ceremony teacher's brother really die? And what does an island of cats have to do with a pregnant Shinto shrine maiden? From Kobe wharves to the rugged Japan Sea coast, the subtropics of Okinawa, and a remote island community in the Seto Inland Sea, each new adventure ends with a universal truth-that there are two sides to every story of misfortune.
£13.95
