With three previous novels under his belt, former Kodansha International editor Barry Lancet has made a name for himself as an author by tapping into the niche of thrillers set in Japan. During a recent event at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) in the Yurakucho Denki Building in Central Tokyo, The Gaijin Ghost had an opportunity to meet the author, hear him speak, and obtain an advanced reading copy of his latest page-turner, The Spy Across the Table, which is due out in the states one week from today.
Up until now, Lancet has dealt in book titles that conjured a sense of exotic location, whether it be a country or district (Japantown), a city (Tokyo Kill), or a whole region (Pacific Burn). Interestingly enough, while The Spy Across the Table breaks from this tradition to offer a slightly more generic thriller title, Lancet said during his talk at FCCJ that this was the first title of his that his publisher actually liked and did not want him to change.
The Yurakucho Denki Building.
What the four aforementioned books have in common is that they’re part of a series of standalone adventures in the perilous P.I. career of one Jim Brodie (always referred to by his full name, or his last name, but preferably his full name). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Brodie’s exploits — at least where a travel blog like this is concerned — is the extent to which they function as a travelogue and a primer on Japanese culture.
Incidentally, today marks the 50th anniversary of Sean Connery’s fifth outing as James Bond, You Only Live Twice (“the one where Bond goes to Japan.”) The Bond film series has long since exhausted most of its original source material; but imagine if, all throughout Ian Fleming’s novels, Bond had been using Tokyo as his base of operations instead of London. And imagine if Bond were a private eye instead of a secret agent.
The Hotel New Otani Tokyo, which doubled as the headquarters of Osato Chemicals in You Only Live Twice (1967).
That gives you a basic comparison for Jim Brodie, Lancet’s reluctant protagonist, who would prefer to focus on his antique dealings, but who always seems to find himself getting drawn into danger. At FCCJ, Lancet spoke about how he endeavors in his writing to intermingle “the high and low.” And indeed, even at a murder scene, Brodie’s thoughts are never far from an antique dealer’s reference points. Without letting it bog down the action too much, Lancet manages to weave in little asides on things like woodblock prints or tea bowls.
That accounts for the “high” aspects. As for the low, with Japan usually figuring in as a backdrop, Brodie’s murder investigations often bring him up alongside a variety of colorful characters, including tough-talking Chinese hoodlums, who comically snag their knives on the inside of their pockets, and gangsters named Habu (after the Okinawa snake, a deadly pit viper), who patronize gay bars because it’s the last place the police would look for them.
A habu snake in the Habu Park at Okinawa World.
Of course, Brodie runs afoul of assassins, too. In this respect, the character somewhat mirrors Robert Langdon from The Da Vinci Code and other Dan Brown potboilers. Alas, no albinos, but in some cases, there are disguises involved.
Consider how, at the beginning of Japantown, Brodie the Japan expert is brought in, almost like a symbologist, to interpret an obscure kanji character left behind as a clue at the scene of a brutal slaying. While there’s nothing so elaborate as a cadaver posed like the Vitruvian Man at the Louvre in Paris (a la The Da Vinci Code), an entire family has been slain on the streets of San Francisco.
While Chinatown is probably more famous, there’s also a Japantown district in San Francisco.
Soon, Brodie is thrust into a larger web of intrigue, which leads him to a summer festival in a remote Japanese village, where he tangles with an ancient order of assassins (“They’re ninjas, just say it!” quips one Amazon reviewer.)
People who live in Japan, whether they’re native to this country or just long-term foreign residents, might have a chuckle over some of the scenarios Brodie finds himself in. In the same way that a comic book movie like The Wolverine (2013) manages to work in a yakuza fight at Zojoji Temple, a chase through a pachinko parlor, and another fight atop a speeding bullet train — all in just a few short minutes of screen time — Lancet is not afraid to rebuff local snobbery in favor of famous landmarks and other bits of “Cool Japan” that tourists would consider essential.
Yet his set pieces are nothing if not memorable. Whether it be a fight aboard a water bus on the Sumida River, a fateful encounter atop the lookout deck of Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto, or a crash course in the perils of pufferfish poison at a restaurant in Asakusa, the continuing saga of Jim Brodie is the stuff of airplane books, or “tray-table tomes,” as Time Magazine would call them. Perfect for an inbound flight to Japan ...
A water bus on the Sumida River, as seen from the Azuma Bridge, near Tokyo's Asakusa district.
The main hall of Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto.
The main hall, under renovation in April 2017. The renovation project is scheduled to be completed just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
A plate of thinly sliced fugu, otherwise known as pufferfish or blowfish, at a restaurant in Tokyo.
Lancet seems to be writing more for a foreign audience, anyway. His books have yet to be translated into Japanese, and the stories do hop around to different locations so that the action isn’t limited to the Land of the Rising Sun.
For its part, The Spy Across the Table begins with a chase through the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Very soon Jim Brodie finds himself scooped up in a limousine by the First Lady of the United States. Later, he has to deal with a Chinese master spy who goes by the mononym of Zhou (“one of the most dangerous men alive.”)
Despite its pedestrian title, this may actually be Lancet’s best book. Certainly, it’s Jim Brodie’s most globe-trotting adventure. Writers often talk about raising the stakes, and by looping in the President and senior government officials, The Spy Across the Table raises the stakes about as high as they can go. There’s one particularly tense standoff at the American Embassy compound in Tokyo—and that’s before Brodie goes behind enemy lines in China and the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone).
The Gaijin Ghost's only foray into Mainland China thus far has been a 72-hour visa-free transit stay in Shanghai circa 2013.
Then, the book takes a terrifying turn. Brodie often finds himself in life-threatening situations, but through these novels, there’s a sense in which he has all the angles covered and is never in any real danger. It may be an unintended side effect of the first-person narration, but there are times when it almost feels like he’s boasting of his own martial arts prowess and has too much confidence in ridiculous ploys, like doing gymnastics in the shadows to give the illusion of multiple silhouettes and strength in numbers.
Fiction readers are trained to know that, however impossible the odds might seem, the hero will overcome them, and live to fight another day. Be honest: who among us hasn’t secretly wished that the aforementioned Dan Brown would just kill off Robert Langdon already? Forget the breathable liquid oxygen; just let him drown in that sensory deprivation tank.
Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously got tired of writing Sherlock Holmes and tried to kill the character off in “The Final Problem.” It makes you wonder if Lancet will ever take a stab at a novel outside the Jim Brodie series. With books like The Casual Vacancy and A Painted House, even the most successful authors, like J.K. Rowling or John Grisham, have tried to write outside the main genre they’re known for.
Until then, Japantown showed it, and now The Spy Across the Table has shown it again: namely, that the Brodie thrillers are at their best when their protagonist is in some out-of-the-way place, surrounded by hostile forces, and it really seems feasible that he might not make it out of this alive.
First edition cover of Japantown, published by Simon & Schuster.
Speaking of Japantown, the rights to that book were first optioned by J.J. Abrams, who was apparently interested in developing it for television. And considering how cinematic things have gotten in the new Golden Age of TV, it’s easy to see why Hollywood would come knocking on Lancet’s door.
The Brodie books feature plenty of descriptive fight sequences, and in a way, the hero’s begrudging nature as a participant in pulpy plots also brings to mind the Lee Child character Jack Reacher. So, it’s probably only a matter of time before some other studio snatches up the rights.
In the meantime, if you’re coming to Japan, any of the Jim Brodie thrillers might make for good reading material on the flight over. Through outlets like Audible and the iTunes Store, you also have the option of downloading audiobook versions. With Tokyo Kill and Pacific Burn, you can even listen to the voice of Scott Brick, famed audiobook narrator, deliver the stories in a deadpan style that matches the melodrama.
Images via Audible.com.
Japantown, Tokyo Kill, and Pacific Burn are available in paperback now from Simon & Schuster. The Spy Across the Table is due out in hardcover on July 20th, 2017.