Bullet Train

A Novel

A dark, satirical thriller by the best-selling Japanese author, following the perilous train ride of five highly motivated assassins - a major film from Sony

Nanao, nicknamed Ladybug - the self-proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world” - boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with one simple task: Grab a suitcase and get off at the next stop. Unbeknownst to him, the deadly duo Tangerine and Lemon are also after the very same suitcase - and they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Satoshi, “the Prince”, with the looks of an innocent schoolboy and the mind of a viciously cunning psychopath, is also in the mix and has history with some of the others. Risk fuels him as does a good philosophical debate - like, is killing really wrong? Chasing the Prince is another assassin with a score to settle for the time the Prince casually pushed a young boy off of a roof, leaving him comatose. When the five assassins discover they are all on the same train, they realize their missions are not as unrelated as they first appear.

A massive best seller in Japan, Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller that fizzes with an incredible energy and surprising humor as its complex net of double-crosses and twists unwind. Award-winning author Kotaro Isaka takes listeners on a tension-packed journey as the bullet train hurtles toward its final destination. Who will make it off the train alive - and what awaits them at the last stop?

©2021 Kotaro Isaka/CTB Inc. English translation rights arranged through CTB Inc. Translation from the Japanese language by Sam Malissa. Published in 2021 by the Overlook Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Love for trains…

This book was very entertaining and also read like a love letter to locomotive. Great pulpy fun. The multiple storylines gave me a little fatigue after a while but fun nonetheless. Don’t be a Diesel.

Page-Turner!

Couldn’t stop listening! So good! Great characters. Awesome parallel plot lines. Now I want to see the movie!

straight out thriller

a complex thriller with twist and turns even at the end. I wish they would have added more of the book to the movie and the narration was good felt like there was some clicking at the end of some words but that might have just bin my headphones

Think Quentin Tarantino at sotto voce

This is something else entirely. Fresh, unusual, addictive, unpredictable, "Reservoir dogs", but with clueless dogs. Splendid!

gripping

love the way the story is presented, classic nobody get what they want to keep you engaged