Azabu Getaway

Michael Pronko

Sep 2022 · Detective Hiroshi Book 5 · Raked Gravel Press

About this ebook

Money isn’t everything. It’s the deadly thing.

After the murder of a high-flying executive in one of Tokyo’s wealth management firms, Detective Hiroshi finds himself investigating the financial schemes that secure the money of Tokyo’s elite investors. His forensic accounting gets sidetracked, though, by a second murder and the abduction of two girls from the home of a hotshot wealth manager.

The abducted girls are the daughters of an international couple who seemed to have it all—a large apartment in the high-end Azabu district, top schools for the children, and a life of happy affluence. Their life falls apart and they are swept up in threats and pursuits for reasons they cannot fathom.

Tracking the money and tracking the two daughters leads Hiroshi into Tokyo’s murky financial past and outside Japan’s borders as he discovers how overseas investments and tax shelters are really managed.

Hiroshi works with Sakaguchi and Takamatsu and others on the homicide team, including an assertive new detective, as they confront greed and violence in one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

Azabu Getaway is the fifth novel in the award-winning Detective Hiroshi series.

Ratings and reviews

Another interesting and complex book in the Hiroshi series, as always set around financial crimes with a murder or two thrown in. Pronko paints a fascinating picture not only of the characters in the story but also of Tokyo and Japan. I did get a bit lost in the details of the financial scam being run but the two lines of the story eventually joined and clarity occurred. A good read and well recommended.

The Detective Hiroshi Series: Sources: AuthorsXP dot com or ARCs from author. All the books are a bit wordy but still worth reading. See BookBub dot com for complete reviews. Azabu Getaway, #5 - Interesting and intriguing story lines with likeable characters blended with the Japanese language and culture. Detective Hiroshi and his fellow police officers, again, fight against the dark side of Japanese life, its criminal activities. 4*

Azabu Getaway (Detective Hiroshi Series Book 5) is a fast-paced, thrilling crime novel that gives readers an excellent mystery to follow and memorable characters they will want to get to know more about. Readers will enjoy the adventure they are taken on in Japan as the hunt for a killer takes the detective team into a world of wealth, greed, and violence.

About the author

Michael Pronko is a Tokyo-based writer of murder, memoir and music. He's published four novels in the Detective Hiroshi series, and three books of short writings about Tokyo life. Michael grew up in Kansas City, studied philosophy at Brown University, and then traveled for years, teaching in Beijing, finishing an MA in Education and another in Comp Lit before completing his PhD on film adaptations of Charles Dickens. As a professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuin University, he teaches seminars on contemporary novels, film, and culture. Michael runs the website, Jazz in Japan, which covers the jazz scene in Tokyo. During his 20-plus years in Japan, he has written about Japanese culture, art, society and politics for Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, and Artscape Japan. He has appeared on NHK TV and Nippon Television.