Three Assassins: A propulsive new thriller from the bestselling author of BULLET TRAIN

by Kotaro Isaka

Sam Malissa (Translator)

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 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.


PRAISE FOR BULLET TRAIN:

'Unlike anything you're likely to have read before...white-hot with double-crosses' Financial Times

'Entertaining...high-speed...with lots of twists and turns...it has a Tarantino-meets-the-Coen-Brothers feel to it' The Times

Part high-octane thriller, part farce, this is an unusual and thoroughly enjoyable read' Guardian

The action accelerates up and down the ten carriages but the question is: who will get off alive? Daily Mail

• ISBN10: 1787303209
• ISBN13: 9781787303201
• Publish Date: 14 April 2022
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 March 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Harvill Secker
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[kentholloway]

An AMAZING book. Like many people, it was from watching the movie Bullet Train that put me onto this author. Since I saw the movie, I'm putting off reading the book because I don't want the reading experience to be tainted by memories of the movie. So, I chose Three Assassins to begin with.

As many have pointed out, the translation is a bit stilted. From my limited knowledge of linguistics, however, this is to be expected as Japanese is not an easy language to translate. Despite some clunky phrases here and there though, the overall experience was a refreshing, highly entertaining crime fiction read.

The book is more of a character study than an action novel. And trust me, there are so many interesting characters to study in this one. Each of the assassins in the story are a joy to 'watch' and learn their particular personality traits. The protagonist, Suzuki, is the cardboard 'Everyman' with which everything happens. The REAL stars of the show are the assassins and they were worth every moment of the read in my opinion.

I'm a very slow reader by nature. I have a tendency to read every word of a book. If I don't comprehend a sentence, I usually go back and re-read it. That's why it usually takes me so long to read a book. But this one, I finished in less than 48 hours. That is a sign of an excellent book for me. I simply couldn't put the thing down.

I'll be reading The Mantis as soon as it's out, then will tackle Bullet Train. Can't wait for the ride!