Tokyo by
Mo Hayder
pbk out February 05
(Bantam)
at £6.99
A real departure for Hayder, who with her first two novels, Birdman and The
Treatment, established herself as a writer of gripping and visceral thrillers. This is a
marvellously compelling read with the ominous story unfolding via the accounts of
two radically different central characters. Grey is a woman with an obsession, in
Tokyo trying to trace a piece of film from the Nanking Massacre of 1937. To support
herself she works as a nightclub hostess and shares decrepit and possibly haunted
accommodation with other travellers. Professor Shi Chongming, a Chinese man in his
seventies is a survivor of the massacre, teaching at Todai University. Grey believes
he can help her find the missing footage. The gradual revelation of the story of the
massacre and the horrific modern day secret connected to it, are truly shocking as is
the horrendous and heart-rending personal story that has informed Grey's life. The
rendition of Tokyo is exceptionally good - the setting and the culture conveyed in
confident and economic style so we never feel drowned by research. But the
humanity and the morality of this novel are what lift it way beyond shocker territory.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
Tokyo by
Mo Hayder
