I found this to be quite entertaining as well as informative. An unscrupulous gang of Japanese rascals practice land swindles, employing some extremely complicated methods, but the rewards are great. What I found informative was the mathematics involved in determining the value of a piece of real estate in Tokyo currently being used as, say, a parking lot. I must admit to ignorance of the Network series, which I shall look up, and that this is based on fact. But I was entertained throughout.

Coming into this reading experience with the premise on my mind, I was excited for what was in store for me: The male MC is bound by his past and in an attempt to free himself from its clutches, he joins a team of people who commit acts of real estate fraud, bringing in large sums of money. However, something is amiss because no matter how successful these operations are, Takumi still feels an emptiness that threatens to conquer him. On the other hand, we have a retiring detective who's put on a case that he's compelled to solve - even if it means spending less time with his wife - because it'll absolve him of his past. Takumi and the retiring detective share that connection and it's all because of one person.

Now, with that in mind, I am happy to say that this book is fairly decent given its length because a lot happens. I found the storytelling to be quite interesting as it was heavily detailed in terms of setting up how these real estate fraud operations commence. Though confused at times, I also enjoyed the switches in character POVs (it made me feel like I did when I read Murakami's Kafka on the Shore - anticipating the two MCs' meeting). Additionally, despite the typos - which I get are inevitable in works of translation - this story was really well written in that it kept me engaged.

On the other hand, I felt that because this story wasn't told in first person POV, but rather third person omniscient, there was a feeling of detachment that I didn't really appreciate. This didn't help with how affected Takumi was by his past - even though I did feel for him when what happened was revealed. Even so, besides Tatsu (the aforementioned retiring detective), none of the characters were even remotely likable to me. These two things are really my only plights with the story, but overall, I had a fairly good time reading this and I'm excited to watch the Netflix adaptation!

I was really looking forward to this book. I previously watched the Netflix series and was familiar with the original Sekisui Home swindle on which the book was based. I'd read parts of the book in Japanese, and was planning to review the English version for Japonica, the journal of Japanese culture.

Unfortunately, something went wrong with the translation. It is not very good. In fact, it was impossible to finish.

I went back and looked at the Japanese original, and it's decent. The translation, though, suffers from 2 problems. First, the dialogue in the original is written in heavy Osaka dialect. Imagine a mafia novel set in NYC. It's tough to translate. Unfortunately, it gets translated into some kind of weird English slang that doesn't work. Second, it looks like the translation was done quickly. It's correct. Each sentence in the English matches the Japanese sentence. But the nuance isn't there. And the flow is missing. It feels like a first draft. It needed a second draft and a third draft to smooth it out and convert it from a literal line-by-line textbook translation of the Japanese to a readable English novel.

So sadly I have to say, this is not worth picking up.

This is the kind of book that I really do want to love, but I admit to having a lot of trouble getting into it. I see from other reviews that it is a drama and I'm thinking that this may be that rare exception when a story is better on screen than it is on page. However, I appreciate having it and am glad that it is in book form. Enthusiasts will want to immerse in both.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope it does well.

I decided to pause watching the drama in order to finish the book first and I found that the show really fleshed a lot of things out more. I'm not sure if this is merely a lack of context that the text itself doesn't provide because a large chunk of the Japanese population would already be familiar with certain ideas or if it's an artistic choice, but I did find myself lost at certain points.

Unfortunately I also found it difficult to keep track of most of the characters as they didn't really have unique voices and there were multiple abrupt cuts as if I was reading the drama in novel form instead of a novel that was adapted into a drama. There's definitely a good story in here, but I'm not sure if this is the format for me in regards to this particular story.

At its best, crime fiction books around Japanese culture are a real treat. Sadly, Tokyo Swindlers felt more like a punishment. There is no tension, the characters cannot be differentiated and any plot is indistinguishable amid such an anaemic narrative. I learnt a little about Tokyo real estate but was hoping for so much more from this offering.