Before I begin, let me say
I know the author and his wife very well. He did not give me this book –I paid
for it myself. So I hope to give an honest take here:
“Being a photographer at a
Tokyo newspaper is no walk in the park—unless you're Akio Tsukino and only get
assigned to shoot parades and park festivals. All that changes when a serial
killer starts chopping off heads in nearby Kofu. Akio maneuvers his way onto
the assignment in order to prove himself and get closer to enigmatic staff
writer Masami Sato. When the
investigation takes a supernatural turn, the unlikely partners find
themselves caught between solving the mystery and saving their own lives.”
While Headless starts out
awkwardly –it’s a debut of a new author and has some rough edges- it eventually
settles down become a competent thriller. The character of Akio is extremely
annoying, however, a bit of a narcissist, and at times unlikeable. Still he has
some enduring traits that fully don’t ruin the book for me. Meanwhile, Masami
Sato is certainly a modern feminist struggling to be accepted in a man’s world.
She is smart, sexy, and quite capable of getting her way when she needs to
–even if it seems to kill her soul to do it.
I don’t think the book is
a horror story or even a mystery, though both elements are present. It’s more
falls under the urban fantasy genre, especially when we meet up with Lowe’s
version of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Miyahara –and where Mount Fuji
seems to be this books version of the Hellmouth.
Still, I enjoyed the book.
It’s well paced and kept me turning the pages -I literally read it in a day-
but I had hoped for more explanation of what supernatural themes are about and
why they suddenly began to happen –if you’re going to suddenly have demons
running around modern Tokyo, one thinks that there should be a reason for it
other than a than the demon figured out how to escape Hell (shades of REAPER
here). I mean, we do get a brief glimpse into some of it, but I’m a bit
disappointed that Lowe never fully explored that aspect, as he spent way too
much time dealing with Akio arrogance and libido. To be honest, I liked and
wanted to spend more time with Masami’s thoughts than Akio –she’s clearly more
interesting. So is Miyahara for that matter, as it’s hinted he appears to be
something more than human as well.
Perhaps will get more
background information in the sequel?
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