I loved this. The Bullet Train author is still writing about assassins in his quirky way.
Kabuto is a reluctant assassin trying to quit the business. His handler "The Doctor" informs him, every time he states that he wants out, that he has to earn more money to repay the investment in him. All Kabuto wants is to be at home with his beloved wife and son.
Written between ten years before and the now from his son's point of view, it's an interesting view on how long things remain dangerous.
A good read and I loved the references to characters in Bullet Train.

The book tells the story of an assassin who struggles balancing his personal and "professional" lives, culminating in struggles with retirement and the threats to his family associated with it. If it sounds like 100 movies you watched or heard about dealing with this topic - that's because this is exactly it.

There are some parts to the story that try to be refreshing - the contrast between the protagonist's professional persona and his private one, the complex relationships between our protagonist and his ageing peers, etc. The pacing of the book is quite good - while nothing surprising happens, the flow of events is tight and it's difficult to get bored. At a stretch, one could also argue that the description of the protagonist and the sacrifices he was willing to make quite moving.

That being said, there is much more to dislike about this book than to like. First of all, the extreme chauvinism and mysoginy embedded in the description of the progagonist's relationship with his wife is so galling that I genuinely considered stopping reading after 50 pages. While I wondered at first whether this was made for some unexplained purpose, it quickly became obvious, after reading about a few more relationships mirroring this one, that the author seems to have an axe grind to women (even of not some - most).

Secondly, the banality and predictability of the story are shameful. I felt this was literally like so many books and movies I remember. There was nothing new, innovative, interesting, ground-breaking or memorable here (other the misoginy perhaps).

Finally, the writing itself was just uneventful - the language was pedestrian (and of course it's hard to say if it's the original or the translation), the setting (in Japan) had to meaningful impact on the events, and the dialogues felt stale.

I struggle to recommend it to anyone. Maybe if you've never read or seen anything about serial killers and their struggles to retire. A strong pass.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The book has an intriguing premise: a man who is both a devoted husband/father and an accomplished assassin. How long can this tension be maintained?

The story is in 2 parts. The first part provides several ‘mini stories’ setting up our assassin’s relationship with his handler (the black humour medical speech here is fabulous) and successful work. The second part takes place 10 years later when his son is grown up and stumbles across an appointment card for the doctor-handler. What will happen here?

A good read although the 2 part structure may not be to everyone’s taste as the first part seems to meander without having a clear aim/goal/plot. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I adored Bullet Train and Three Assassin’s by Isaka and was excited when I learnt that his third novel, The Mantis, was due to be translated. I have to say it did not disappoint at all. Filled with Isaka’s usual style it does not loose much in translation. I found the idea of the main protagonist Kabuto being an assassin but more so him being a father and how one half of his life was so different from the other. Once again Isaka masterfully brings his characters to life and makes them relatable – a task that is perhaps not easy given they are trained killers for hire.

As I already said a lot of the tone, dry humour and characterisation is not lost by the wonderful translation. I adored seeing Kabuto struggle to keep his wife happy and have a peaceful home life juxtaposed to his work. The main thing that drew me initially to the Bullet Train novel and kept me hooked was this concept. The characters, while killers, are very human. I don’t mean they are well written (but they are!) but Isaka shows that these skilled killers have their own foibles and strengths. It makes you more sympathetic to a character that perhaps should be considered purely the villain.

The other thing that was enjoyable was the references to the other novels or rather events of them. It makes everything a bit more realistic and reminds you of the dangerous world these people live in. I also liked that towards the end we got a shift in perspective to Kabuto’s son and he found out more about his father.

I personally have no complaints for this one but I do think that some people may not like the changing of timeline but I personally enjoyed this with Kabuto reminiscing and the like. If you enjoy Japanese fiction or a good crime thriller this is one I think will appeal to you. A good dose of action and family life as well as endearing characters you are sure to remember.

I have reviewed The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk. I have chosen the book as a Liz pick of the month and LoveReading Star Book. Please see website for the full review.

The Mantis
Katubo is a hit man who wants to retire after 20 years as an efficient assassin but the ‘doctor’ who gives him his prescriptions or ‘contracts’, has other plans. He makes dark hints about investments that have been made in Kabuto and gives him another prescription. There is also the insinuation that if he stops ‘the treatment’ then his family could be at risk.
To the outside world, Kabuto is a respectable salesman in an office supply company. A family man with a wife who frightens him and his adolescent son, Katsumi. ‘Wives are terrifying’ Kabuto thinks to himself. He tries to be as adept as reading her as he was at reading his parents. Katsumi notices that he is always trying to please his mother but accepts it as part of their normal everyday lives. Katsubo wants his son to have a brighter future than he had as his own upbringing was very difficult. It was one of the reasons that he ended up living a double life.
He is a man at the end of his career and aware that one day he will have to pay for what he’s done. When he kills the occupants of a hornet’s nest in the garden, he apologises to them but not to the people that he has killed. Katsubo’s career will end very soon but not in the way that he hoped.
10 years later Katsumi, now married and with a three year old son is given an appointment card by a complete stranger and then finds a key in his father’s study when clearing it out. He becomes determined to find out more. The action builds to a unpredictable climax and then a poignant ending.
This is a slow burner of a book as the protagonists are introduced. It is the third and final part of the author’s Tokyo trilogy which is set in the city’s criminal underworld. In The Mantis there are also other themes such as family and honour, aging, and life choices. As Katsubo goes about his daily life, danger seems to be everywhere as assassins appear in the most unlikely places such as at a parent teacher evening or a darkened department store at night. He is always on his guard.
There are namechecks of characters from the previous two books; Lemon, Tangerine, The Pusher and the Hornet. There are also moment of very black comedy as when Katsubo faces an old friend at night in a department store as they are both there to kill the other as it will mean that they retire. You also need to keep your wits about you when reading an Isaka novel as nothing is ever there by random chance especially towards the end. The Mantis poses the question of what happens when a hitman wants to retire and more importantly will he be allowed to? Once the book really got going, I was completely gripped as I was by the previous novels by the author that I have read, Bullet Train and Three Assassins.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

I had mixed feelings regarding Bullet train but really enjoyed the film based on it and didn’t know there where a 2nd one (Three Assassins), But I thought I give the Mantis ago and I am glad I did. I enjoyed this one as it had a more personal feel to it.
Kabuto wants to retire as an assassin but his handler The doctor, will probably not allow it and his family would be put in danger. All they know that he works in Office sales and not his real job. He is also scared of his wife and what she will say, and his son is just about to go to college, they need all the money they can get. So, the doctor gives him tasks to do and say that it is his last ones, but it is not as simple as that as it makes his own life is in danger.
The Mantis has all the similarities to the other books and at first it is quite a slow story but as you continue the story gets better. It is intriguing and the story also has a sense of humour as the author is not taking things to seriously. I was engrossed in this story and I couldn’t put this down and I read it in 2 sittings.

I haven’t read anything by this author before and there are obviously things I should know about the main character but it is a rollicking good read. Will look up the other book the author has written

Isaka, in his lead character Kabuto, gives us a wonderfully sensitive take on someone who is so much more than simply an assassin for hire. Thanks to how Isaka leads us through Kabuto's life I suspect there will be very few readers who don't end up recognising it was nurture ,not nature, that made him such a schizophrenic character. I am still slightly bemused that I ended up really liking a killer.
Kabuto's wife and son are totally unaware of his double life . His wife sees him as an assiduous, somewhat boring, stationery salesman whereas Kitsumi [his teenage son sees him as a somewhat overly cautious dad always bending over backwards to appease his wife.
Kabuto, through a series of vignettes involving other professional killers, gradually comes to the conclusion he wants to end his role as a contract killer. But whenever he raises this with his "handler" he is told that this is not an option as, by doing so, his family shall be at risk. There is no way Kabuto, who only really exists to protect his family, can call this bluff so he decides to try and get in first by killing his "handler". A dangerous game of cat and mouse ensues with numerous unexpected twists and turns for the reader to enjoy. No spoilers here but be prepared for a surprise.
So much more than just a story about professional assassins, The Mantis is a fascinating mix of humour, friendship, deviousness and morality that leaves the reader feeling happy with appropriateness of the conclusion.

This is the third of Isaka's books I've read. I thought it wasn't as good as Bullet Train (it does include some of the same characters), but better than Three Assassins. We are back in Isaka's shady world, where anyone could be contracted to take you out, maybe even hired by your own handler.

The book is about Kabuto, who wants to retire from being an assassin. His family have no idea about this secret part of his life. He is preoccupied with how he can be a better father and husband, while feeling guilt at his past. Unfortunately his doctor, whose medical terminology is code for the assassin business, does not want to let him go. I found the book rather a slow burn until the halfway point. There was a long stretch where Kabuto was researching how to deal with a hornets' nest and then a description of how he carried this out, which felt like padding. Then it started to pick up and there was some huge, improbable twists. Generally I thought it was a good read, if uninteresting at times. The representation of women seemed old-fashioned but perhaps this was an attempt to engage with traditional views in Japanese society.

4.5

This book really grew on me. Bullet Train is a film I keep meaning to watch and I bright Three Assassins but still haven't read it so when I saw this I didn't put it together that it was the same author.

Anyway, Kabuto is the main character. He's an assassin who is getting tired of doing the job. He works in office supplies during the day and so far as his wife and son are concerned that's all he does. When he's at home Kabuto is always trying to please his wife and look after his son. The two sides of his life don't sit well together and Kabuto wants out. However his handler has no desire to agree to this.

The first half of the book gives us a pretty accurate picture of Kabuto who, apart from all the killing, is the perfect family man. The second half of the book deals with Kitsumi (Kabuto's son) and his efforts to be as good a father as Kabuto to his own son.

What starts out as a book about an assassin somewhere along the line turns into a touching look at family life and the lengths some people will go to to protect their loved ones.

I don't quite know where in the book but at some point I fell in love with it. It's genuinely different to anything I've read before and completely unlike any Japanese fiction I've read either. Of course now I've got to read Bullet Train and Three Assassins because I'm intrigued. (The Mantis is the third in a loose trilogy).

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance review copy.

Intruiging concept - it was a slow
Burn for me but once I got into it, I raced through at a rate of knotd!

Kabuto lives two lives. Firstly he is a hitman who is given his targets by The Doctor, and secondly he is a married man with a son. Daily he works to keep his wife happy and tries to read her moods to ensure a peaceful home life. Can these two lives work together or will the balance fall when he tries to retire from his life as a hitman?

Kabuto has a conscience and no longer wishes to be a killer so tries to tell the Doctor no more jobs. But the Doctor will resist as Kabuto is valuable to him. So lives will become complicated.

Well written novel with good characters. There is action, twists in the plot and many gentle comedy moments at home. Won’t ruin the outcome so just recommend you read for yourself.

To begin with, this is a bit ploddy. Isaka’s voice is idiosyncratic enough that it isn’t boring, but it didn’t feel particularly fresh or exciting. And then, just past the halfway mark, the whole book gets upended, everything changes, and it becomes a propulsive race to the end. It’s cleverly constructed and very readable. My only caveat is that the relationship between the main character and his wife feels like something out of a terrible 80s sitcom. It’s not entirely surprising, as Japanese views of gender roles are a lot more conservative than they are in the modern West, but it did stand out to me. If you can put those qualms aside, you’ll enjoy a zippy and arch crime thriller.

Kabuto is a skilled assassin who's tire of the job, but his boss won't let him retire. In addition he is steered to the best paid, but highest risk jobs - taking out other assassins. At home he is henpecked by his wife and constantly worries about whether he is a good father to his son. Kotare Isaka transports us to a different world, ,not just the foreignness of Japan but a world where murder is normal everyday work. Its a terrific plot with plenty of action interspersed by small domestic crises and moral doubts. Isaka is a great find.

As good as Bullet Train, if not better. This story of an assassin and his wish to retire was imaginative and very funny. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it for readers of Elmore Leonard.

Very reflective of the style I am now getting used to for Isaka’s work, I found this to be a fun, fast propelling mystery that I sped through with such joy! Always an easy, enjoyable read as they takes us through Tokyo with these terrifically clever and intriguing storylines. Very VERY well done. Fast becoming a must read author for me, as I’m yet to be disappointed!
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Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the early read!!!

I wanted to read this because of The BulletTrain and although I didn't expect it to be like that I hoped it was going to be as good. This wasn't for me sadly. DNF

As a reader of both Bullet Train and Three Assassins (both of which I gave 4-stars) I was looking forward to this one too.
It didn't disappoint and is again 4-stars from me for this one.
It, again, had a welcoming, quirky nature to it with dark humour despite the assassin/murder context. The author very cleverly intersperses the humour alongside the action, which is sometimes slow with filling in the character detail and is also worthwhile. By the end you really get a feel for the main character Kabuto and his double-sided life.

My only gripe in this book- and it's one which would hopefully be sorted out come official release - was that in the latter part of the book it flicks between times approx. 10 years apart and, perhaps due to the Kindle formatting , it wasn't clear when a shift had taken place so I was often playing catch up trying to place when a transition had occurred. One to sort for the release version with Kindle readers in mind maybe.

Apart from that it's another recommended read from me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks again for the ARC.

I really enjoyed Bullet Train, but this one was far more thoughtful and even better. A series of vignettes about a hired assassin who's a bit of a henpecked husband, it has some farcical moments (the wasp nest removal kit, for example), but is also imbued with melancholy, loneliness, as well as subtle comments on friendship, loyalty and familial love.