I liked the sound of this book, that was what drew me to request it on Netgalley. However 25% into the book I find that I can no longer cope with the vast quantity of Japanese names of both people and places and also the biblical references.
Sorry the book was not for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. However I feel unable to submit a review as, although I started the book twice, I couldn't get into it at all. I wanted to like it and was intrigued by the Sun tattoo and enjoyed the early relationship between Iwata and Dalai and Japanese culture. However, in the end I was put off by so much of the writing being IN CAPITALS or italics that I stopped wanting to find out why and just felt annoyed and couldntfinish the book.

This is the first book I have read that is based in modern day Japan. I found it fast paced, fascinating and atmospheric. The characters were believable and the plot was good. I would definitely recommend this book and would read another book by this author.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for an advance copy of Blue Light Yokohama, a police procedural set mostly in Tokyo and written by a Spaniard.

After a personal tragedy Inspector Kosuke Iwata transfers from the country to Tokyo and is immediately assigned a partner, Noriko Sakai, and a second hand case, the ritualistic murder of a Korean family which was investigated by Inspector Akashi before his suicide five days previously. When another body turns up Iwata is convinced they have a serial killer on their hands but the brass disagree. Never a particularly warm character Iwata soon finds himself an outcast in the department and even his partner won't work with him so he trusts his gut and does his own investigation.

Blue Light Yokohama is undoubtedly a lyrical novel with the tragic Iwata, some lovely descriptions of places and some acute character observations. It also has a fairly solid plot which is intriguing in parts, fairly standard in others. The problem for me, who reads crime fiction to get immersed in the plot and the reading experience, is that it is not gripping nor immersive and I think it is due to the style.

Iwata is a troubled individual and all we know initially is that his American wife is in an institution, unable to communicate. The reasons for this are unclear and remain so throughout the novel, although hints are given and the reader is left to draw their own inferences. The recurrence of the phrase "I'm happy with you, please let me hear" reinforces the mystery but as it is never explained it just gets annoying. There are also flashbacks to Iwata's childhood in an orphanage which add nothing to the plot and little to his characterisation. They seem fairly pointless.

I found this a difficult book to grab hold of. The plot is extremely slow to start and is interrupted by the flashbacks and unnecessary mystery surrounding his wife's condition. It is an easy book to put down and ignore in favour of doing something else.

In all fairness Blue Light Yokohama is a more literary novel than my usual fare and it's emphasis on the damaged character of Iwata is not to my taste (I prefer the straightforward hunt for a killer) so while I can appreciate its merits it's not a novel I particularly enjoyed.

Just completely excellent. I loved this elegiac thriller set in Tokyo, a city I loved visiting and which acts as a central character in this tense, moody novel about the hunt for an elusive killer. The real life murder of a Japanese family which inspired the author is in itself a fascinating mystery and the novel pays tribute to the tenacity of the kind of police inspector who takes their job very much to heart. The protagonists's stories unfold slowly but the pace of the manhunt is compelling and I read this in a matter of hours.