I downloaded this at the same time as Bullet Train. I didn't enjoy the style or humour of Bullet Train. I thought I would try this but again it wasn't for me. This time it was a DNF. Rather than not review it I have it a neutral 3*. I'm sure many will enjoy this book.

Three Assassins, and one man hell bent for revenge…

The trio of The Whale, Cicada and The Pusher. Hitmen for hire. Working mostly for the underground elements and in one more than regular case the political elite.

Enter Susuki, a man plagued by the death of his wife. Killed by a drunk, joyriding son of the head of the Japanese Mafia. Infiltraiting the system, gaining employment by the seedy underworld. Always on the lookout for his options, to complete his ultimate goal.

This book is effortless to read, the characters strong, and they fit into the plot seamlessly.

If you have never read any Japanese authors, I can recommed this book as a starting point for your journey into their sometimes warped style of thinking.

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.7/5.0

This was such a fast paced, tense, atmospheric and creepy read. Well written with a fantastic storyline that was engaging the whole way through and well developed characters that I respected and was also terrified off. I loved it, but I am very glad this is fiction and those three asasassins are not lying in wait,

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage for an ARC of this title. I was keen to try this author as I had heard good things about his first novel, Bullet Train.

The storyline focuses on the central character Suzuki’s desire for revenge for the murder of his wife as he crosses paths with three renowned assassins.

Their fortunes seem unrelated to begin, though eventually, they are drawn together as Suzuki is drawn into their worlds in his quest for vengeance.

The characters are well fleshed out, though I sometimes found that the story meandered, and that did not grip me. I can understand why other reviewers felt they lost interest, as this is a book you need to persevere with to fully understand its meaning.

It was good to try some Japanese fiction, but the style is quite different to my usual fare and I am unlikely to try more.

Not sure if I read the blurb wrong but I really can’t stand any supernatural bits in a book so this one wasn’t for me. There were also so many characters I lost count and some rather random additions that didn’t add anything much to the reading experience. .

Following the exploits of three different assassins and one man out to avenge the murder of his wife. All of this is in the dark under belly of Japanese society.

Thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this story, how each of them have a different method to deal with their victims: The Whale convinces his victims to take their own lives, The Cicada is a talkative and a deadly knife expert and The Pusher dispatches his targets in traffic accidents.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

This one worked better far for me than Bullet Train. It still had that element of weirdness, and this was a book where things were rarely as they seemed, leaving a lot of the story and it's events open to interpretation, but it felt a little more contained. Three Assassins is a much more introspective and contemplative book, losing some of the humour and the action-packed pacing of the Bullet Train, and instead taking a fascinating look at how the criminal underground works and how it can pull people into it's grasp, and impact on their lives and those around them and offering an interesting insight into what life and death can look like from that side of the track. I really enjoyed this one, and it left me with a lot of food for thought. It's certainly not a typical thriller, and if you were looking for a fast-paced, action packed thriller then this one might not be for you, but if you want to go with the flow and see a different side of a thriller then this makes for a great read.

Having read and enjoyed the previous translated novel by this author,. Bullet Train, I was keen to immerse myself in this one. Similar to Bullet Train in that there are multiple threads to the story and it again involving Japanese gangsters it initially seemed promising. I slowly lost interest, perhaps due to the many similarities between the stories and was not as gripped as I had been by the earlier novel. It's still a reasonably good read and does not require the reader to have any knowledge of the first book.
I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5 but have rounded up 4.
Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for my advance review copy.

Three Assassins explores the murky immoral world of the Japanese criminal underground.

There are several stories ongoing throughout the book, which follows Suzuki, a normal citizen who becomes embroiled while seeking revenge for the death of his wife. While doing so, he stumbles into the middle of a deadly dispute between numerous criminal groups, and faces a number of assassins who are each trying to do their work.

Although entitled Three Assassins, there are so many characters that it is difficult to keep a track of all of them, or what their involvement is. The main players are Cicado, who is hired to kill families; The Whale, who has a knack of 'persuading' people to commit suicide and The Pusher, who as his name indicates has honed the craft of pushing his victim into the path of fast moving vehicles. However, they each have a boss / bosses or a part of a criminal group who also rove around committing violent crime, and at the end of the book there is a a 'twist' where one of the main players - who we don't actually meet but is at the heart of it all - is killed by another unknown assassin. This may be leaving it open for another book, but it came from nowhere and I felt it needed more context.

Although fast paced, there is quite a bit of repetition. I have previously read the Bullet Train by the same author and noticed some of the same quirks - in Bullet Train one of the characters is randomly obsessed by Thomas the Tank Engine, and in this book someone is obsessed by a random singer who he quotes at any given opportunity. I don't know whether this is humour lost in translation, but I just found it annoying.

It is readable, and there is a lot happening, but just like Bullet Train I feel the author tries to have too much going on which just becomes confusing and dilates the action somewhat.

THEIR MISSION IS MURDER. HIS IS REVENGE.
Suzuki is just an ordinary man until his wife is murdered. When he discovers the criminal gang responsible he leaves behind his life as a maths teacher and joins them, looking for a chance to take his revenge. What he doesn't realise is that he's about to get drawn into a web of unusual professional assassins, each with their own agenda.
The Whale convinces his victims to take their own lives using just his words.
The Cicada is a talkative and deadly knife expert.
The elusive Pusher dispatches his targets in deadly traffic accidents.
Suzuki must take each of them on, in order to try to find justice and keep his innocence in a world of killers.

This is a wonderful addition to this thrilling series!
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building that adds so much to the story.
Such a thrilling read that I couldn't put it down.
Can't wait to read more of these.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary

This is a brutal tale of gangland murder in Japan. I found it exceedingly difficult to rouse my interest in it and gave up.

One of the most compelling and hard hitting but also most usual books to fall into my hands in 2021 was Bullet Train by Kotoro Isaka. While it won’t be long until we see the Hollywood interpretation of the story – set in Japan but with American actors - in late July UK readers don’t have to wait as long to get some more of Kotoro Isaka’s craft with the publication of Three Assassins.

Like Bullet Train, Three Assassins is a standalone novel, unlike the former, is clearly not set on a train. Yet there are some notable similarities. Isaka actually illustrates a lot of psychology in his novels, and both stories follow the reactions of different some decent, some sinister who have to adapt to different and unexpected situations. Throughout Three Assassins there is a regular returning theme of comparing humans to insects epitomised by the distasteful Cicada. Translated again by Sam Malissa, the dialogue in the story is very direct and blunt with very little hesitancy from all but the main character.

The story features a hapless main narrator called Suzuki who is by far the most likeable and dependable character in the story. For reasons that I won’t reveal Suzuki purposely involves himself with a criminal gang called Fraulein led by the powerful Terahara. Yet our new hero quickly finds himself the hunter of one professional killer with two others on his trail. A slight overlap between this book and Bullet Train occurs with mention of a mysterious and anonymous executioner known as The Pusher. He is discussed briefly by characters Lemon and Tangerine in the earlier novel before a quick cameo doing what he does best. The Pusher is known to pick off the victims he is contracted to kill by pushing them in front of oncoming traffic. When Suzuki is suddenly compelled by his insistent boss Hiyoko to follow and discover the identity and location of The Pusher, he is completely oblivious to the interest this has generated on the Tokyo criminal grapevine.

We encounter two other dangerous individuals in the course of their jobs who are also narrators to this story. A giant of a man, known only as The Whale is able to convince his victims to take their own lives using just his words. He’s the perfect hitman for anyone who wants to get rid of a partner or associate that they no longer need. While you would hate to meet him, you would perhaps dread even more to meet young and restless Cicada. He is a knife expert who never stops talking. Through the contracts arranged through his associate Iwanishi has no scruples about taking the lives of victims of any age – why have an arbitrary limit he insists. When they hear that that a man called Suzuki is on the trail of The Pusher on behalf of Fraulein, they are separately compelled to get to him first and eliminate their rival.

Suzuki does not share the same ruthlessness as the other characters in the story and even when he is sure he has discovered The Pusher, he is reluctant to reveal his location to Hiyoko. Yet when he agrees to meet her in safe location, the pace of the book develops significantly leading to a dramatic conclusion. There is an extensive history of crime fiction in Japan and while Isaka’s stories vary significantly from the locked door mysteries of his predecessors, cunning and craft of the key protagonists still remain as two of the significant characteristics. Three Assassins is a roller coaster of a read that you will not wish to miss.

I really enjoyed Bullet Train by the same author and Three Assassins just about lives up to it.

Suzuki is out to avenge the death of his wife and this unassuming, retired maths teacher becomes involved with the murky world of the assassin.

This is a thoroughly entertaining novel; it is fast paced, intriguing and a really different read. The characters are fascinating, the narrative is sharp and clever, the action is intense.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fast, easy, thriller prequel to Bullet Train.

While this translation is new, the events predate those in Bullet Train, as it centres around the criminal organisation Fraulein, or The Maiden, and the death of Terahara's son, as referenced in Bullet Train. I think the blurb was slightly misleading, "Suzuki must take each of them on, in order to try to find justice and keep his innocence in a world of killers." Suzuki doesn't really take anybody on, he just gets embroiled in various situations ranging from awkward to terrifying, after he attempts to take on Terahara, but from there he is largely a victim of fortune, and the machinations of the various assassins who cross his path.

I really loved Bullet Train, but Three Assassins felt a bit flat in comparison, I still enjoyed the writing style, and it was a very quick easy read, but, where you could see the various motivations for the killings in Bullet Train, the assassinations in this prequel, were just that cold-blooded contract killings, none of the hapless, or darkly comedic patchwork of deaths that were in Bullet Train, none of the desperation, calculation, or farce. Also, with the plot of Bullet Train entirely confined to that single journey, the pace, atmosphere, and the coming together of all of the characters was much more tight and understandable, you could get to grips with where everyone was, and how they were able to interact because they were confined to a few carriages. In contrast, Three Assassins rambles across Tokyo and many of the meetings or witnessed events felt very coincidental, The characters as well, despite being distinguishable by their individual signature assassination methods, were not really very different in other respects, they often spoke about the same events, or had similar doubts and feelings as each other, again, Bullet Train has much more extreme characters, and the easy location markers of the carriages, combined with the extreme personality traits - from being entirely hapless, to being coldly manipulative, to being a huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, made the individual viewpoints much easier to follow, and all likeable, or hateable in their own right. I wasn't really engaged with any one character from Three Assassins.

Despite the harsh comparison, I did like Three Assassins, I just didn't love it, and I think Bullet Train stands up well enough on it's own.

I absolutely adored Bullet Train a previous book from this author and Three Assassins doesn't disappoint.
The book unfolds with the story of Suzuki and his revenge and to find the person who murdered his wife.
The Three Assassins..'
The Pusher' who loves to shove people to their deaths.
'The Whale' has a special gift of convincing people to take their own lives.
'Cicada' a friendly chatty assassin that is very good with knives!
Suzuki gets to meet all three during his time in the criminal underworld where the man responsible for the death of his wife is hiding in plan sight as he is the son of the local mafia.
This book has some fantastic black comedy throughout and really does lift the more gruesome aspects.
Completely fast paced from start to finish.

Wow, what a ride! After the rollercoaster of Bullet Train, I was hoping for another thrilling read from Kotaro Isaka and he didn’t disappoint. Bullet Train was one of my favourite novels of 2021 with its confident, audacious plotting and its setting on a speeding train. No surprise that it’s soon to be ‘a major motion picture.’
Suzuki is an ex maths teacher out for revenge. The ‘idiot son’ of a local mobster family, the Terahawas, killed her in a hit and run accident and got away with it. He wants justice and has joined their dubious company ‘Fraulein’ in which he has to solicit passing women to sign up for what are euphemistically described as ‘beauty products’. In fact, he strongly suspects they are actually selling drugs but he bides his time. Then his manager, Hiyoko, orders him to kill a drugged young couple who are lying in the back seat of a car – can he do it?
Suddenly, the ‘idiot son’ intervenes in Suzuki’s life again. As he crosses the road towards them, a passing minivan runs him over. It looks like an accident but who is the man seen walking calmly away? Could this be the ‘The Pusher’ – the man who pushes people to their deaths? Suzuki seizes his chance and sets off after him.
But his fate is soon to be entwined with 2 other successful killers. The Whale, whose speciality is encouraging people to commit suicide by talking to them, and Cicada, a chatty assassin who is under the thumb of his manager and is an expert with knives.
As events take place over 2 days, they dance ever closer to each other but only one will survive.
And then there’s the ghosts which feature heavily. Two of the main characters are haunted. Suzuki by his dead wife and her sayings and the Whale is visited by the spectres of his victims. They have a habit of popping up whenever he feels pains in his body and tell him to ‘settle his accounts’. One turns up on a crowded train and another appears to have taken the place of his driver. He has no control over them. I found it to be a powerful theme of the novel.
Nothing is as it seems and the author pulls several effective rabbits out of hats as Suzuki, more than a little bewildered, stumbles through a bloody trail of corpses as he runs from The Whale and Cicada. He is completely out of his depth and all he can do is run…
I loved this novel – no chunks of back story or discussions about motives apart from the barest references. It’s action all the way and it’s refreshing to read a book that just takes you along with it. I spotted references to Macbeth and the three witches in the scenes with Tanaka and The Whale in the homeless shanty town. But I did wonder why an apparently successful, feared murderer was living there. I also enjoyed the little touches that emphasised that we were in Japan such as ‘5 middle aged women chatting animatedly about a big win in mahjong’ at a train station. There were also elements of black comedy throughout which lifted the atmosphere of killing and blood.
‘3 Assassins’ really flies along and I finished it in one sitting. The author really knew how to keep me on the edge of my seat. He doesn’t waste any time with back story – nothing is wasted as the reader follows Suzuki’s desperate attempts to find The Pusher before the other two find him.
It’s a good translation and like ‘Bullet Train’, it has a real cinematic quality so I wouldn’t be surprised to see on the big screen soon. Recommended.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

Suzuki is a simple teacher but when his wife is murdered he takes great measures to revenge her, at whatever the cost. He joins the criminal gang responsible and enters the world of assassins. Fast paced action and obviously a violent & disturbing, it follows Suzuki and the Three Assassins who each and their own individual style of murdering people. A good book.

This book is called Three Assassins but it could easily be called any number of Assassins as there were that many in the book. This is a full action novel in which the body count is very high.
Suzuki was a normal person going about his own business until his wife was cruelly killed by a hit and run driver who was the son of an infamous gangster. Revenge was then his sole objective as he sought out his wife's killer. To do this he became involved in an underworld organisation called Fraulein.
The action hots up in Suzuki's quest for revenge as he encounters three Assassins, The Whale, Cicada and The Pusher. Each has their own unique way of killing their targets. There are thrills and twists aplenty as the hunter becomes the hunted.
This book was a sure 4 star until the last chapter which seemed to peter out a bit and left me hesitant as to what I'd mark the review. I arrived at 3.5 and have subsequently rounded it up to 4 star.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in the promise of an honest review .

I was a prior reader of Bullet Train, which I thought was very good - very quirky and fun despite the amount of death!
This one picks up with more of the same - it's also very quirky and fun, despite the relatively dark nature, with a character getting bumped at regular intervals throughout this book.
Don't take it too seriously and you'll do just fine with this.
I thought Bullet Train petered out slightly and missed a trick with the finale.
This one also missed a trick slightly as the final 'duel' was all over rather quickly and perhaps a little dubiously (perhaps detail lost in translation!?).
Parts of the book involve one of the characters interacting with ghosts and a it had a supernatural feel to it in places. This I couldn't exactly follow at all times or get a proper feel for - again perhaps detail missing in translation or it could just be intentionally hazy.
However, overall this didn't detract from an enjoyable read. I was sorry to get to the end of it, which is always a good sign.
Many thanks for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this title. This is the second novel I have read by Kotaro Isaka , following on from Bullet Train and tells a similar story - though the characters are no longer confined to a high speed train. The characters of Suzuki, The Whale & Cicada, take it in turns to have a chapter devoted to them but it is inevitable that their different paths will cross at some point. Also in the background is the mysterious killer - the Pusher, who also has a role in Bullet Train. This is a very well realised book and is as filmable as Bullet Train - highly recommended.