Kotaro Isaka’s Three Assassins follows hot on the heels of the release of Bullet Train, the Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt, based on the English-language edition of the author’s previous thriller of the same name. The novel alternates between the voices of Suzuki, a former middle school math teacher turned scammer; The Whale, a towering presence who convinces his victims to end their own lives; and Cicada, a notorious killer of entire families.
Seeking to avenge his wife’s death, Suzuki is drawn into the Tokyo underworld. He becomes employed at a company which goes by the name of Fräulien and begins delivering sales pitches to young women for makeup, diet drinks and other dubious products. At the beginning of the novel, he is waiting with his handler for the arrival of Terahara’s son—the man Suzuki believes to be responsible for killing his wife. As the son of the CEO, he is adored by his father and politicians, but referred to as “the idiot son” by others in the company.
Suzuki gets a good look at Terahara’s son … He’s tall, and even handsome, like a Kabuki actor who plays romantic leads … He sees the thick, rich eyebrows, the flat nostrils on the snub nose. The lips that hold his cigarette. Then the cigarette is done, the butt tossed on the ground, bouncing once off the pavement. He sees the left heel that crushes the cigarette butt with a fastidious twist. In Suzuki’s mind the crushed cigarette doubles as his wife.
However, when a speeding minivan suddenly runs over Terahara’s son, Suzuki is assigned a new mission—to follow The Pusher, a shady figure who shoved him into oncoming traffic.
From his vantage point at a nearby hotel, The Whale also witnesses the grisly scene play out in the street below. He is carrying out the assassination of a political secretary whose death will halt the investigation of a bribery scandal. Known for his big, dark pupils that drown victims in darkness and despair, the Whale waits for the secretary to come to terms with his impending death and considers the motivations of politicians who hire hit men like him.
Jobs from politicians are always about money. Money or pride. Just once, it would be nice to get a contract that had to do with ideological differences, or how to steer the country. But so far that’s never happened, not even once.
Elsewhere, Cicada is at work. Named after the noisy insect because of his penchant for chatting, he specializes in killing parents as well as their children. But he feels exploited by his boss who does nothing except give orders.
Throughout the novel, Isaka offsets scenes of tense action with moments of introspection. Suzuki perseveres by thinking about words his wife used to say to him, such as “you just have to do it” as he comes to terms with his new life without her. Cicada draws on a French film he saw on TV, its scenes mirroring his own fears of being a puppet, merely under the control of someone else. The Whale often rereads passages from his favorite book, Crime and Punishment, and the ghosts of his previous victims haunt him at unexpected times, such as while riding the subway.
He reads a passage that he’s read many times before. After a bit the speaker announces the next station stop. In that instant the Whale senses the seats across from him start to shudder. Not again. He clicks his tongue. It’s not just the seats, the whole scene begins to ripple, all the outlines blurring. It’s not an actual physical vibration–it’s his own vertigo … His vision starts to blur, then goes dark. Then when he can see again, one of them has appeared.
Put in motion by the hit on Terahara’s son, the paths of newcomer Suzuki and the experienced killers eventually cross. But in a world of criminals and even ghosts, things aren’t always exactly what they seem. Translated by Sam Malissa, Three Assassins is another unputdownable book in Isaka’s “Hitman” series that will keep readers in suspense until the very end.