Tokyo Zangyo

Detective Hiroshi Series, Book 4

By: Michael Pronko

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2021 Michael Pronko (P)2021 Michael Pronko

Excellent as always

Tokyo Zangyo is the 4th novel in the award-winning Detective Hiroshi Series of mysteries set in the exotic metropolis of Tokyo, Japan, written by respected Professor of literature at a prestigious Tokyo university and multiple award-winning author Michael Pronko.

If you know me, you are aware of the fact that I absolutely love this series. The characters always feel real to me, normal human beings with flaws and traits, people with everyday jobs living a regular existence.

The writing is beautiful and at times even poetic, filled with lots of vivid details and interesting knowledge about the people, the city, their way of life, and the plot for each book is very well thought out and intriguing.

Tokyo Zangyo opens up with the disjointed actions of a top-tier managing executive looking down over the city from the roof of his organization’s headquarters building. But, when his body is found bloody and broken on the ground, detective Hiroshi and his friends are summoned to investigate.

What follows is a thrilling and entertaining story that will take the listener into the high-stakes and ruthless world of corporate Japan. Once again, this author shines a spotlight on a problematic work culture where all organizations rely on “zangyo”, unpaid overtime that drives employees to quit – or to kill themselves or someone else.

This already excellent novel is elevated and enriched in audiobook format by the spot-on performance delivered by Peter Berkrot. A renowned narrator, talented actor and award-winning voiceover artist, Peter is drawing from his experience of over 40 years in the entertainment industry and creates once again a complete level of immersion for the listener. With this new detective Hiroshi recording, he establishes and consolidates his position as the voice of the endearing financial investigator.

Peter reads with style, changes character voices with ease, and takes the time to get the specific Japanese words just right. I especially like his narration because he almost never raises his voice, but manages to relay the emotion or the urgency of the situation just by modulating his tone and cadence.

Detective Hiroshi has slowly but surely climbed into my preferences over the years and now stays securely at the top near reputable characters like Harry Bosch or Dave Robicheaux. So, if you like well-written murder mysteries, I highly recommend Tokyo Zangyo and the entire detective Hiroshi series. All these already amazing and award-winning novels are even more fantastic courtesy to the exquisite narration delivered by Peter Berkrot.