by Barry Lancet
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, known locally as Saint Mary’s Cathedral, can be found at Geary and Gough and is an impressive piece of San Francisco architecture. Not to be confused with the Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral.
The sculpture by Bay Area artist Peter Voulkos can be found on the corner of Bryant and Seventh Streets.
As for Washington, DC, the Freer Gallery of Art is a branch of the Smithsonian museum group and has a number of exemplary pieces of Japanese art. Its collection, in tandem with that of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, is varied, extensive, and intriguing. The museum is on my short list of must-sees every time I’m in town. A visit offers an exotic trip through the cultures of many countries, all under a single roof.
The Kennedy Center hosts dozens of events each year, and has had Kabuki-related events as well as exhibitions of Japanese art. While the exterior description of the Center is accurate, I took some liberties with the layout of the theater.
At the White House, the practice of borrowing paintings from the National Gallery of Art, also in Washington, DC, is one way for those in residence to live with art from recognized masters.
One of the irresistible things about being a writer is having a built-in reason to visit so many great places, with the added benefit of meeting so many interesting people. All these are experiences I find endlessly fascinating, and I am extremely grateful to be able to have them. Attempting to bring to life some of what I encounter for readers around the world is, for me, a great pleasure. I hope you enjoyed the ride.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FIRST and foremost, I wish to thank Robert Gottlieb, my agent at Trident Media Group, for his stout support. Also at Trident, I am grateful for the efforts of Erica Silverman, Mark Gottlieb, and the rest of the staff.
At Simon & Schuster my editor, Amar Deol, immediately embraced the book with enthusiasm and sincerity. And my thanks to the rest of the staff, including Kathryn Higuchi, Carly Loman, and Beth Maglione, as well as freelancers David Chesanow and James Walsh.
A number of other people provided access, insights, or assistance. For a behind-the-scenes look at stage design for television, and for filling me in on some of the differences between television and theater backdrops, my heartfelt gratitude goes out to Jill Haber, assistant paint foreman. The same for Gerald Gates, the paint foreman on-site. Both Jill and Gerald have long-running careers in Hollywood.
For recommending the restaurant Mr. Pollo after I explained the culinary and espionage needs of the ever-cautious Zhou, I am indebted to Susan Tunis, mystery fan, event coordinator, and bookseller at BookShop West Portal in San Francisco. And an additional nod for suggesting I add Saint Mary’s Cathedral to my list of potential church sites.
For assisting in my search for admirable Kabuki robes, thanks are due to Shigeyoshi Suzuki.
For finding the time to read a first draft of this book during a sometimes impossibly hectic schedule and for then giving above and beyond, my thanks to friend and fellow author Anthony Franze.
For reading behind me on the cultural front, thanks are due to longtime Japanese-to-English translator and friend Gavin Frew.
For making sure all was clear and stowed away on the Marine front, my gratitude to Colonel Joseph N. Mueller (USMC, Ret.). And additional thanks to Boyd Davis, owner of Next Chapter Books in Canoga Park, California, for introducing me to Joe.
For guiding me through the intricacies and technicalities of an operating airport, I am indebted to Ken Babione, airport operations supervisor at Bishop Airport, in California.
For providing transporation, entertaining conversation, and a near visionary instinct for finding parking in San Francisco on my romp through the city for this book, my thanks to Mike Salo.
For hours of general conversation about good food, drink, and more, a tip of the hat to Robb Satterwhite, longtime American expat and proprietor of Bento.com.
For invaluable additional guidance on the ground in Seoul, a special shout-out to Sungkil “Peter” Ahn.
For giving me a line and a hint of youthful “attitude” from her young niece that worked perfectly for Jenny, I wish to thank Catherine Diann of Southwest Airlines.
For help along the way, I also wish to express my gratitude to Jeff Stern, Wade Huntley, Susan Rogers Chikuba, Mio Urata, Marc Lancet, Annette DeBow, and the rest of my family scattered throughout California, Hawaii, and Japan.
And last, and equally appreciated, for generously offering to travel around his adopted city of Kyoto and photograph sites where scenes in the third Brodie book, Pacific Burn, unfolded, my deepest gratitude to expat Irishman and writer Michael Lambe.
Want more Jim Brodie? Check out Japantown, Tokyo Kill, and Pacific Burn available now from Simon & Schuster.
An American antiques-dealer-turned-reluctant-private-eye must use his knowledge of Japanese culture to unravel a major murder in San Francisco—before he and his daughter become targets themselves.
Japantown
* * *
Tokyo Kill finds antiques dealer-turned-P.I. Jim Brodie pitted against an elusive group of killers after a long-lost treasure with a murky and dangerous history.
Tokyo Kill
* * *
Jim Brodie barely escapes a sniper's bullet that sets him on a collision course with the CIA, FBI, Dept. of Homeland Security—and a legendary killer operating on both sides of the Pacific.
Pacific Burn
* * *
ORDER YOUR COPIES TODAY!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© BEN SIMMONS
Barry Lancet’s Japantown, an international thriller, won the prestigious Barry Award for Best First Mystery Novel and was selected by both Suspense Magazine and mystery critic Oline Cogdill as one of the Best Debuts of the Year. His second book, Tokyo Kill, was a finalist for a Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel of the Year. The third entry in the Jim Brodie series, Pacific Burn, explored, among other things, the tragic aftermath of the Fukushima quake-tsunami disaster and the subsequent cover-up. Although there are recurring characters, the books are independent of each other and can be read in any order.
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 noncriminal 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 mystery-thriller series based on his growing number of unusual experiences in Japan.
Lancet is based in Japan but makes frequent trips to the United States.
For more information, please visit http://barrylancet.com or look for Barry on Facebook and Twitter (@barrylancet).
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ALSO BY BARRY LANCET
Japantown
Tokyo Kill
Pacific Burn
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition June 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-4767-9491-4
ISBN 978-1-4767-9493-8 (ebook)
