Silent Thunder - Hardcover

Imperialist Japanese corporate warriors wielding awesome economic weapons threaten the shaky stability of the new world order. Financial strategist and Orient resident Tasker (The Japanese, 1988) pits a seedy Tokyo p.i. and a couple of disaffected employees against the rogue capitalists in this top-notch first novel. Mori is the only name given for the p.i. hired by the parents of an apparent suicide to look into the story behind their son's defenestration. The late Mr. Hara had every reason to live: a Tokyo University diploma, superb financial skills, a respectable marriage, a top position with the country's largest and most powerful securities firm. Suicide seems senseless. Mori, who was himself on the fast track until he was derailed by political activism in the Sixties, quickly discovers that Mr. Hara was at odds with his brother-in-law, Mr. Yoshimura, a nasty fellow with apparent ties to the Yakuza, Japan's organized criminals. Mr. Yoshimura works for a hotshot electronics firm headed by a brilliant and monstrously ambitious young fascist with ties to the charismatic founder of Hara's firm. Meanwhile, Mori's investigation is too effective for the comfort of the industrial and commercial moguls looking to use the balance of payments to tip America into the dustbin, and they send him some unmistakably threatening signals via their thugs. But Mori won't be signaled, and even when the Yakuza snatch his songstress girlfriend, he won't be stopped. The brooding, flashing, hyperdense Tokyo of serialized manga comic books, soulless sex, and samurai economics shares top billing with the very attractive investigator--in this fresh and very clever thriller. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Alternately a thriller, a whodunit and a soft-porn page-turner, this outstanding debut novel depicts Japanese power brokers who are attempting to wreck Western financial markets. The apparent suicide of an investment banker in Tokyo leads PI Mori to a secret "patriotic society" called Silent Thunder, which has colluded with Maruichi Securities to drive up the price of dollars in order to provoke a market free fall. At a covert mountainside meeting, Mori eavesdrops on a speech by top Thunderer Iwanaga-Sensei, who plans to reassert the primacy of Japanese culture and economically enslave the West. As Mori and others try to foil this insidious plot, they must venture into the world of high-stakes money-market trading (depicted in interesting, unintimidating detail) and make a risky attempt to tap Maruichi's central computer. A provocative subplot involves an American image-maker and a presidential candidate who are both deep in Iwanaga's pocket. British-born financial analyst Tasker has a fine grasp of the values and cultural contradictions of contemporary Japan. (One scene depicts the Silent Thunderers railing against Western obsession with pleasure while eating salami off the bellies of nude women.) Characters and dialogue ring true in a tale packed with plenty of spills and thrills. Paperback rights to Berkley.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.