Review: Tokyo Traffic by Michael Pronko, performed by Peter Berkrot
Tokyo Traffic is the third novel in the award-winning Detective Hiroshi Series of mysteries set in the exotic metropolis of Tokyo, Japan. Although he is a relatively new author, Michael Pronko continues to captivate and delight his readers with a superb writing style, characters that feel real and alive and with descriptions that are so vivid that we are instantly transported in the world that he created.
The series features a forensic accountant, detective Hiroshi Shimizu, whom I find to be a very original and fresh sort of character. An inspired combination between the decency of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and the doggedness of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux, Hiroshi Shimizu will be appreciated by all fans of police procedurals and mysteries.
This third entry in the series is darker and more dramatic than The Last Train and The Moving Blade. In my mind, the tagline sound something like “Tokyo Noire”.
When a few bodies are found at a secluded movie studio that caters to the adult entertainment industry, detective Hiroshi is called to investigate the shady company involved. But when he starts to follow the money trail, Shimizu is pulled deeper and deeper into the dark world of porn movies where victims are made of the mostly innocent young girls kidnapped and forced into this trade. One such girl is our secondary character of the story and all I will tell you is that I found myself caring for her a lot throughout the ordeal that she has to endure.
The new voice for the Detective Hiroshi Series is renowned narrator, talented actor and award-winning voiceover artist Peter Berkrot. Drawing from his experience of over 40 years in the entertainment industry, Peter brings all the characters, locations and events to life in a perfect performance.
He reads in a calm, soothing voice, infuses the events with just the right level of emotion and switches with ease between voices and accents. This way, Tokyo Traffic springs to life in a million colors in the listener’s mind and this way the flowing writing style and flawless narration creates a complete immersion. The narrator involved with the first two audiobooks in the series, Robbie Belgrade, did a great job, but definitely Peter manages to add something magical to the audio production. I think that he is the better suited voice for this extremely promising series and I hope to see him return for even more great mysteries set in Tokyo.
As I said before, Michael Pronko climbed to the top spots of my favorite authors out there and thanks to his lifelike characters and credible scenarios, his books are unputdownable.
If you are in the mood for a captivating, thrilling, gripping and immersive mystery set in the exotic city of Tokyo, Japan, you can’t go wrong with Tokyo Traffic. The change of narrator is welcomed and appreciated and I don’t say that lightly, as I always hate when this thing happens. But, this time, the change is for the better.
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Victor Dima
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