Michael Pronko

A thriller set in Tokyo, detective Hiroshi Shimizu tracks a murderous woman bent on vengeance. After the murders of several international businessmen, Hiroshi follows the trail of evidence from the sleek hostess clubs of Roppongi to sacred temples, hidden yakuza headquarters and the city's industrial wastelands. The first in a series of Tokyo-based thrillers.

The Last Train

In Tokyo, your job can kill After a top-tier manager in Japan’s premier media company ends up dead in front of company headquarters, Detective Hiroshi enters the high-pressure, hard-driving world of Tokyo’s large corporations. Hiroshi quickly finds out the manager fell from the roof at the exact same spot as an employee suicide three years before. With little more to go on, Hiroshi can’t tell if the manager’s death was a guilt-ridden suicide, a careless accident, or a grisly personnel decision. The only certainty is that Japanese workplaces rely on “zangyo,” unpaid overtime that drives employees to quit—or to kill. Teaming up with his mentor Takamatasu, Hiroshi scours the off-record spending, lavish entertaining and unspoken agreements that keep Japan, Inc. running with brutal efficiency. Working overtime himself, Hiroshi probes the dark heart of Japanese business, a place he’s tried to avoid all his life. Tokyo Zangyo is the fourth in the Detective Hiroshi series.

Tokyo Zangyo

After the suspicious deaths of a seventy-something woman and a student recluse, Detective Hiroshi tracks down a gang of scammers who target retirees, robbing them of their pensions, life savings, and even the deeds to their homes. Hiroshi teams up with Detective Ishii, who’s been running a women’s crime task force. Together, they find out who has been ripping off the pensions, life savings, and deeds to homes in shitamachi, the older, eastern side of the city.

With his personal life on hold (almost), Hiroshi finds out how complex the traditional life of Tokyo still is. With old-school Detective Takamatsu and ex-sumo wrestler Chief Sakaguchi watching his back, he finds out who’s behind the scams, and who’s behind the scammers.

Shitamachi Scam

The Moving Blade

Azabu Getaway

Motions and Moments is the third book by Michael Pronko on the fluid feel and vibrant confusions of Tokyo life. These 42 new essays burrow into the unique intensities that suffuse the city and ponder what they mean to its millions of inhabitants. Based on Pronko's 18 years living, teaching and writing in Tokyo, these essays on how Tokyoites work, dress, commute, eat and sleep are steeped in insights into the city's odd structures, intricate pleasures and engaging undertow. Included are essays on living to size and loving the crowd, on Tokyo's dizzying uncertainties and daily satisfactions, and on the 2011 earthquake. As in his first two books, this collection captures the ceaseless flow and passing flashes of life in biggest city in the world with gentle humor and rich detail. "This book sparkles and succeeds as a love letter of sorts to Tokyo. The author's writing is a joy to read, with wonderful phrasing and vivid descriptions...As someone who knows very little about Tokyo, I loved this book. As someone who appreciates good writing, I loved this book." 4 out of 4 stars OnlineBookClub.org This is a memoir to be savored like a fine red wine, crafted with supreme care by a man who clearly has fallen in love with his adopted city -- and we are the beneficiaries of his lyrical reflections, making us want to visit and absorb the rich megalopolis of Tokyo for ourselves. Publishers Daily Reviews Each essay is like a self-contained explanation of one facet of life in the context of a grander conversation, and each one is a complete work in its own right... almost like a fictional novel of short stories and vignettes rather than a collection of essays. Ryan Jordan, Reader's Favorite With each new essay opening yet another window into life in this magnificent city, the book vividly captures the depth and beauty of Tokyo, bringing to life the city and the lifestyle. Faridah Nassozi, Reader's Favorite Each of his essays brought me closer and closer to an appreciation of the complex and complicated place Tokyo is, and the lifestyles of those who call it home. His writing style is conversational and smooth, and I found that after finishing one essay I was eager to dive into the next one right away. Jack Magnus, Reader's Favorite Praise for the first collection, Beauty and Chaos: Slices and Morsels of Tokyo Life "A clear-eyed but affectionate portrait of a city that reaches beyond simple stereotypes. An elegantly written, precisely observed portrait of a Japanese city and its culture." Kirkus Reviews "Beauty and Chaos is a spectacular read. Its essays are long enough to be cohesive and provocative while remaining short and sweet. The collection is masterful and unique." Stephanie Chandler, SPR Review "He notices the kinds of things that might be taken for granted by the Japanese and overlooked entirely by visitors." Rebecca Foster, The Bookbag Gold Award First Place for Cultural Non-Fiction (Reader's Favorite Awards 2015) Gold Award (Non-Fiction Authors Association 2015) Awards for the second collection, Tokyo's Mystery Deepens: Essays on Tokyo: Gold Award for Creative Non-Fiction (eLit Awards 2015) Silver Award for Travel Essay (eLit Award 2015)

More Essays on Tokyo

Motions and Moments

Running from a life she didn’t choose, in a city she doesn’t know, Sukanya, a young Thai girl, loses herself in Tokyo. With her Bangkok street smarts, and some stolen money, she stays ahead of her former captors willing to do anything to recover the computer she took. After befriending Chiho, a Japanese girl living in an internet café, Sukanya makes plans to rid herself of her pursuers, and her past, forever. Detective Hiroshi Shimizu leaves the safe confines of his office to investigate a porn studio where a brutal triple murder took place. The studio’s accounts point him in multiple directions at once. Together with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi and old-school Takamatsu, Hiroshi tracks the killers through Tokyo’s teen hangouts, bayside docks and crowded squares, straight into the underbelly of the global economy. As bodies wash up from Tokyo Bay, Hiroshi tries to find the Thai girl at the center of it all, whose name he doesn’t even know. He uncovers a human trafficking ring and cryptocurrency scammers whose connections extend to the highest levels of Tokyo’s power elite.

Tokyo Traffic

In Tokyo, murder’s easy to hide. Detective Hiroshi Shimizu investigates white collar crime in Tokyo. When an American businessman turns up dead, his mentor Takamatsu calls him out to the site of a grisly murder. A glimpse from a security camera video suggests the killer might be a woman. Hiroshi quickly learns how close homicide and suicide can appear in a city full of high-speed trains just a step—or a push—away. How do you find one woman in the biggest city in the world? Takamatsu drags Hiroshi out to the hostess clubs and skyscraper offices of Tokyo in search of the killer. Hiroshi goes deeper and deeper into Tokyo’s intricate, perilous market for buying and selling the most expensive land in the world. He teams up with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi to scour Tokyo’s sacred temples, corporate offices and industrial wastelands to find out why one woman was driven to murder. “A terrific thriller.” Blue Ink Review “An absorbing investigation.” Kirkus Reviews “Gripping and suspenseful.” Booklife “An utterly, page-turning adventure,” Forward Reviews After years in America and lost in neat, clean spreadsheets, Hiroshi confronts the stark realities of the biggest city in the world, where inside information can travel in a flash from the insiders at top investment firms to street-level punks and teenage hostesses, everyone scrambling for their cut of Tokyo’s lucrative land deals. Hiroshi’s determined to cut through Japan’s ambiguities—and dangers—to find the murdering ex-hostess before she extracts her final revenge—which just might be him.

Whether contemplating Tokyo's odd-shaped bonsai houses, endless walls of bottles, pachinko parlors, chopstick ballet or the perilous habit of running for trains, the essays in Beauty and Chaos explore Tokyo from the inside to reveal its deeper meanings and show why Tokyo is the most amazing, confusing city in the world. Starting with observations and ending with insights, these essays dig into the ever-present but overlooked slices and morsels of daily life in the world's biggest city. In turns comic, philosophic, descriptive and exasperated, the essays in this collection won acclaim in Japan from Tokyo readers. Beneath Tokyo's perplexing exterior, there's meaning to the frantic swirl. By untangling the contradictions of the city and opening inner connections, Tokyo emerges a fascinating place of chaotic commotion, but serene, human-scale beauty, too. If you're traveling to Tokyo, these essays open up the sense and significance of life in this fast-paced, high-rise megalopolis. If you've ever considered going to Tokyo, these essays will give you more reasons to go, and ways to consider the city when you're there. Originally published in Japanese, these concise, pointed essays are available in English for the first time. Part travelogue, part comparative culture, and all creative essay, Beauty and Chaos taps the mystery of Tokyo and lets the meanings flow. "e;Japanese who are used to Tokyo are caught off guard by his conclusions derived from careful observation, and are struck dumb...Tokyo, the city we are so careless of, suddenly starts to become glorious. It is a wonder!"e; Chunichi Shimbun (Newspaper) (translated from review of Japanese version)"e;Giving up the bias and seeing the city with completely different standards, you will see the unexpected, attractive face of Tokyo. This book is a guide for rediscovering Tokyo that lets us see the city with unique new features."e; Nikkan Gendai (Newspaper) (translated from review of Japanese version)Japanese version available from KADOKAWA Publishers as: a *aa E a aa a aa'ae-'aa(TM)aa zaaa a a -a -a ae'-)

Beauty and Chaos

What happens when large bugs get trapped on crowded Tokyo trains? How does allergy season affect Tokyo's millions? Ever wonder why Japanese love to take photos together or how everyone feels during rainy season? How is Tokyo made so compact and made as much from imagination as from concrete and steel? Longtime resident, writer and professor Michael Pronko shows just why Tokyo life is equal parts trial and joy. This collection offers up essential skills for living in the vastest, most crowded city in the world-sweating politely, suffering noise and glancing in mirrors--and muses over the minutest of daily details-window flowers, eye contact and small gestures of thanks. If you're traveling to Tokyo, these essays point you toward the undercurrents of life and if you've ever considered visiting Tokyo, these essays will give you more reasons to go. Tokyo's Mystery Deepens brings together essays from Pronko's monthly column in Newsweek Japan, which has remained highly popular with Japanese readers for the last ten years. Originally published in Japanese, these concise, pointed essays are available in English for the first time. As with the first collection, Beauty and Chaos, Pronko examines Tokyo as a city, a culture and an overpowering experience. Tokyo's Mystery Deepens taps into the enigmatic sides of Tokyo with humor, delicacy and a large dose of healthy confusion. Praise for Beauty and Chaos:"e;Japanese who are used to Tokyo are caught off guard by his conclusions derived from careful observation, and are struck dumb...Tokyo, the city we are so careless of, suddenly starts to become glorious. It is a wonder!"e; Chunichi Shimbun (Newspaper) (translated from Japanese version) "e;Giving up the bias and seeing the city with completely different standards, you will see the unexpected, attractive face of Tokyo. This book is a guide for rediscovering Tokyo that lets us see the city with unique new features."e; Nikkan Gendai (translated from Japanese version) Japanese version available from KADOKAWA Publishers as: a E a aa a aeZaaSae-aae*aa a zaaa a a -a -a ae'-)

Michael Pronko

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