A Dog in Water [Paperback]

Until pain, memory, resignation and fury are all subsumed by the one possible conclusion, a thing or two may just be worth doing. Thus a nameless former cop who should never have become a private detective awaits clients in a dingy office across the street from a Chinese restaurant.

Impeccably paced and snappily told, even when the truth grows murky, hard-boiled has never come as smooth and pure as in this choice distillation by way of Tokyo, Japan. Warning: No dogs, cute or otherwise, appear in this novel, in or out of water.

Legendary manga artist Kazuhiro Kiuchi (Be-bop High School) makes his English language debut as a novelist!Kazuhiro Kiuchi is the Joss Whedon of Japan, as he is a successful comic writer, novelist and screenplay writer. Since the late 80's Kiuchi has redefined urban fiction in Japan. He single-handedly introduced a nation that was obsessed with Yakuza tales to a new generation of troublemakers from the streets known affectionately as yanqui. His breakthrough work, Be-Bop High School, sold 70 million units in Japan and spun off a number of TV and film tie-ins. By the nineties, Kiuchi turned his focus on the world of film, where he honed his skills as a mystery film director and screen writer. Now in his 50's, Kikuchi has settled down and gone back to publishing. However instead of toiling over comic art, his works are now hard-boiled crime fiction told from a very modern eye.US