Hotel Lucky Seven is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. It is sleek, stylish and sensational.

I came into this as a standalone, having not read the previous books but I have seen the film adaptation of Bullet Train. That world of espionage and assassins is incredibly rich ground for fiction so I was excited to see this take on it. It really reminded me of the Inside No. 9 episode A Quiet Night In with that balance of darkness and comedy. The locked room style setting of the hotel also adds an extra element, seeing how characters interpret this familiar space in an entirely new way. Of course there are plenty of surprises and different layers to unfurl. I really enjoyed the central mystery and the plotting was stellar. The tension ramped up with every page and the writing was just so slick and precise.

However, my standout was the characterisation. You have these various zany figures caught up in this criminal world, all with their own quirks and personalities. It was an interesting twist on the typical presentation of an assassin, allowing for some humour to enter proceedings. For me, it was a brilliant cast of characters, though some definitely were easier to connect with than others. There is such a normalisation of death with them all that is at once both saddening and scary.

I loved seeing how all these seemingly disparate threads come together and gradually reveal the bigger picture behind it all. This is a world that turns on lies and duplicity, meaning that plot twists often come thick and fast. They can be unexpected connections or other narrative sleights of hand that just alter your perception a little. It is a really fun read where the pages seem to fly by.

Hotel Lucky Seven was a fantastic slice of action and character work that I thoroughly recommend.

Nanao has been asked to deliver a birthday gift to hotel room in Tokyo, Japan. Now the thing you need to know is he is the unluckiest assassin known in that world. This book is fast paced, with a dark humour running the story and told in multiple points of views. Nanao is not the only assassin in the hotel this particular day, which leads to series of events that I never saw coming. The characters, in particular their names were so funny and memorable! All the sub plots tie up to an unexpected ending!

Hotel lucky seven is book 4 in the Assassins series and the continuation of the story of Bullet Train.
Ladybug the unluckiest assassin has been tasked to deliver a portrait painting to a hotel guest. The Painting was a done but the guest’s daughter but when he tries to deliver it. He notices that it’s not the guy in the painting and the hotel guest tries to kill him.
Like the previous novels from this author, this is another action-packed quirky thriller novel. With a hotel full of assassins and everyone trying to kill each other and cleaner trying to clear the bodies up and the mess. This is a great thrilling ending to fab series. 4 stars from me.

A fast paced thriller with wit and humour that makes it an interesting read. It is quite different from what I have read so far in this genre. Also loved the way the characters are written. Definitely recommend this one!

Thank you Random House UK, Vintage and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

Get ready for another wild ride with Kotaro Isaka's Hotel Lucky Seven! This time, our favorite unlucky hitman, Ladybird, stumbles into a chaotic free-for-all at a Tokyo hotel. What starts as a simple delivery turns into a hilarious and thrilling bloodbath when Ladybird finds himself trapped in a building full of assassins with their own agendas. If you loved the over-the-top action and quirky humor of Isaka's other books, you won't want to miss this one.

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and publisher.

This is my fourth book from this author and this one was particularly excellent (although I have enjoyed them all).

This follows on from Bullet Train and we see some returning characters. This replicates the same carnage in a confined space that we saw in Bullet Train but this time in a hotel. The hotel was used so well in this book with things taking place on different floors, confusion over room numbers and staff playing an unwitting role in the action.

We see a convoluted convergence of different assassins coming to the hotel in pursuit of their targets. Hunters becoming hunted and confusion over identities. It is completely action packed and you never know what will happen next! Really enjoyable blend of action, thriller and comedy.

Although I didn't remember all the characters from the Bullet train, this sequel was spectacular, in my opinion even better than the first book. Lady Bug returns and with him a couple of old acquaintances who turn out to be quite different from how I remembered them. I had a great time and the pace is very high, even though in some ways some of the situations are quite similar to what happens in the first novel.

Anche se non mi ricordavo tutti i personaggi del Bullet train, questo seguito é stato spettacolare, secondo me persino meglio del primo libro. Torna Lady Bug e con lui un paio di vecchie conoscenze che si rivelano essere ben diverse da come me le ricordavo. Mi sono divertita tantissimo ed il ritmo é altissimo, anche se per certi versi ci sono situazioni piuttosto simili ad alcune nel primo romanzo.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

Hotel Lucky Seven is the latest book in Kotaro Isaka's "Assassins" series. These books are smart,clever and quirky and have become firm favourites of mine, it has to be said though that the movie rendition of "Bullet Train" is truly awful and best avoided.

Series favourite Nanao, a man who if he didn't have bad luck would have no luck at all,is once again given a simple errand to do,what could possibly go wrong? This is Nanao we're talking about so what should be a simple parcel drop at a swanky Tokyo Hotel turns into a life or death situation for him and others,with teams of assassins with different agendas roaming the rooms and corridors with a mounting body-count while other guests obliviously go about their business.

This is great fun,all of the assassins are very unique characters and fans of Tarantino's classic Kill Bill movies will love this whole series, if he'd made the movie version of Bullet Train he would have done a much better job.

Great characters,a clever and involving plot and some very unique weaponry ,a very entertaining read.

Hotel Lucky Seven is another assassin thriller from Kotaro Isaka featuring a web of assassins in Tokyo whose intersections cause a mess of violence, death, and ridiculousness. Nanao, the unlucky assassin known as Ladybird from Bullet Train, has a job to deliver a birthday present to a room in a hotel, an apparently easy job until a man ends up dead and Nanao discovers he isn't the only professional in the hotel that day. When he meets Kamino, a woman with a perfect memory who seems to be the focus of these professionals, Nanao is drawn into far more than he expected.

Given that Nanao is one of the main characters, you can guess that this book is very much a follow-up to Bullet Train, even though there are other Isaka books in the same world featuring some of the same characters. Hotel Lucky Seven takes the Bullet Train mould of a single location and far too many assassins, rather than the more wide-ranging (and less comic) The Mantis, and this works very effectively as a fun journey around scheming and mishaps, with plenty of ridiculous deaths. There's some fascinating character relationships in this one, and some further models for crime duos along similar lines to the citrus-themed pair from Bullet Train.

If you liked Bullet Train, Hotel Lucky Seven is another book in the same vein, with plenty of mishaps, gruesome deaths, and weirdly specifically skilled assassins. It's ideal for people, like me, who love dark comedy crime films. The translation has a good balance of making sure Japanese-culture-specific elements are clear, whilst not spelling everything out or removing things that give the book its setting and context (and the author's note at the end about yuzu pepper cheesecake is a funny touch).

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the ARC

Crazy fun! A hotel full of assassins all trying to murder each other, what could possibly go wrong? The book had a great, subtle humor which I loved. I mean an assassin named Blanket? It was fast-paced and kept me guessing all the time. It was refreshingly unpredictable and unique. I'll definitely read more from the author

What a fab book. This is the first novel by this author that I have read but will not be the last

I was hooked and was kept guessing righ to the end

Thank you for the opportunity to review

I love this author's crazy books about Japanese assassins. This one has Ladybug again, the unlucky guy from Bullet Train. He has a simple task again, just to deliver something to someone. What could go wrong? It's Ladybug, so pretty much everything can go wrong. One of my favorite things about these stories is the unpredictability, and I love the fun nicknames he gives the assassins. Blanket and Pillow hilariously work at the hotel and use sheets to capture their victims. We also get to see Maria again. Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me read this.

Nanao only has to deliver a package to a hotel room at an exclusive Tokyo hotel. No problem, obviously. Except this is the same Nanao who only had to handle a briefcase for a stop on a certain bullet train that ended up in death, mayhem and destruction in the book of the same title (and later turned into the far inferior Hollywood movie of the same name). Yes, its a sequel of sort - but don't worry about it if you haven't read Bullet Train. All you need to know is we're back in the company of the self described 'unluckiest assassin in the world’ and things will get messy.
I'm a big fan of Kotaro Isaka's work. This one is a full tilt ride with assassins on every floor tripping over each other on purpose or by accident - if the author's last book The Mantis had some poignancy and social commentary to it this one's more 'fun' (if you like your fun black humoured and occasionally violent). The plot may at first appear to be video game levels of simplicity with wave after wave of attack but it's deceptive - there are a couple of narratives unfolding and they come together in unforeseen ways which are satisfying by the end of the book.
The translations for Isaka's work are always well done, and this is no exception. Just the right side of getting the cultural elements inherent in his work right, but not too alienating for those not familiar with Japanese literature or society.
Great fun.

I really enjoyed this book! It was so much fun having multiple different assassins in the same hotel that are trying to kill each other, all with completely different assassination techniques. The only issue I had was keeping track of all the characters with there being so many. However, this is without a doubt my favourite book that I've read by this author!

I really enjoyed this book, it had some Amazing humour involved and following the unlucky assassin was just heavily enjoyable this is the first I've read of the bullet train series but I found it so easy to follow and will be going to read the rest of this authors work

In a large hotel in Tokyo various nefarious deeds are being undertaken. A politician is having dinner with a jounalist, a team of assassins are looking for a particular young woman and Ladybird just happens to be delivering a parcel as a favour to Maria. Unlucky Ladybird makes a mistake and starts a chain of events that cause murder and mayhem in various parts of the hotel.
fun and lively to read with references back to Bullet train all over the place

I loved Bullet Train so I had high expectations for this one and it did not disappoint. I loved the pace of the book, it kept interested and engaged all way through.

This is the 4th book in this series and you really should start from book one and read in order. If nothing else, please do try and read Bullet Train as it will give you an introduction to Nanao/Ladybug and Maria, and it is referenced a few times herein... But they are all great books so...
Anyway... in this book we start with two "hotel maids" - Blanket and Pillow - who "accost" a guest in a hotel room, with a sheet. We also have The Six and their blow darts. But this is just the start of things though as you will soon discover. And, as you have already read the previous books, will expect. We then reconnect with the hapless Ladybug as a the delivery of a birthday present portrait doesn't go according to plan when it obviously doesn't resemble the recipient... although it could be due to a legibility error, fun and frolics (death) ensue there too! Could he be even more unlucky?
Oh but there is so much more going on in this book that you really do have to have your wits about you. It's deliciously interconnected and convoluted and I would recommend you dedicate chunks of time to read, rather than dip in a few pages at a time, to really give it justice.
It's bonkers and violent, and occasionally very funny too. And with a cracking variety of "assassination techniques" described, it kinda blew my mind on occasion! All the way to the very unique ending!
Set in a hotel and with multiple assassins and assignments, some of which intersect and overlap, it's a very busy book and one that I might even have to revisit to sweep up some things I might have missed first time round. Something I am more than happy to do...
All in all a cracking addition to a brilliantly bonkers and satisfying series... I do hope it continues. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

4.25 stars

Nanao - code name Ladybird - continues to be the unluckiest assassin in existence. Maria has an 'easy, no problems' job for him: deliver a birthday gift to a wealthy hotel guest. But the usual comedy of errors occurs and soon the hotel is so full of corpses, people start to wonder if a plague god has come to stay.

This references Bullet Train several times, so it's probably best to read that book first.

I enjoyed this more than Bullet Train! It was slightly less chaotic and slapstick, while having even more hilarious characters. I liked the set up of all the action being contained to the hotel, with the assassins using the elevators, different floors, security cameras etc to strategize. The overall plot kept me guessing, and I enjoyed the overarching theme of appreciating what you have. This series is great for people who enjoy action sequences and silly Matrix-style dodging!

This was a fast-paced, fun read, filled with dark comedy and a lot of interesting and very quirky characters.