Book Review: Azabu Getaway

Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

High stakes. Big Money. Non-stop mystery.

It’s not every day I encounter a thriller with as many mysteries as this one. Azabu Getaway keeps readers constantly asking questions, zipping around from perspective to perspective to complicate the situation, to develop the chase-down, and to make sure readers never skip a beat.

With a big cast made up of detectives, high rollers, and family members, you know this thriller is going to be a handful. Hiroshi, a forensic accountant turned detective, is leading the way in a case about a high-powered investment company CEO who was killed in his office. But his murder isn’t the only mystery being passed around. In fact, this book is filled with them. Who’s sending pictures of infidelity to Patrick, an investment whiz for the investment company, and his wife? Who’s chasing down those closest to Patrick, and what do they want with him? Should Patrick really have taken his daughters?

While Patrick and nearly everyone else at Nine Dragons has enough money to fund their own happiness, do they really have the security to enjoy it? Not with what the CEO has been doing behind their backs. In Azabu Getaway, there’s danger lurking around every corner because of what the CEO got himself (and others) into.

To protect his family from the high-powered danger tracking him down, Patrick removes his daughters from his wife’s home. His narrative revolves around getting them out of Japan safe and sound. But as people close to him start falling, it’s clear that he’s not going to get his daughters out of here without damage, if he gets them out at all.

There is so much to love about Azabu Getaway. This big-money thriller really follows through on the promise of a good mystery. I had no idea where we were going whenever we jumped into a new chapter or how things would change for Hiroshi and the other detectives in their pursuit of the killer. 

In addition to genuinely mysterious mysteries, the prose is always sharp and crisp, never diverting unnecessarily from what’s at hand while simultaneously providing enough specific details to immerse readers deeper in this story set on Japanese soil. There are so many good sentences in here that I can rest easy knowing Pronko is exactly the writer for the job. 

And I’d be remiss if I got of here without mentioning just how lovingly these characters talk about smoking cigarettes! It takes a deft writer to pull off prose like this, to develop so many mysteries, and to do it with such precision in detail. The dynamics of the group remain quiet even while we’re in conversation with them, making the dialogue always feel authentic and like we’re listening in. I even love the few scenes we’re given with Hiroshi and his girlfriend Ayana. In such short spaces, we’re really let in to their rapid-fire relationship and I want the best for both of them almost immediately. There are times when I wonder if all the women are treated with quite as much attention and characterization as the men, but I still leave the novel accepting it for the world it’s in.

If you’re in the mood for a thriller with big money and dangerous secrets, Azabu Getaway is an easy choice. It hits all of the right beats and impresses with exquisite prose along the way.

Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Print Length: 330 pages

ISBN: 978-1942410287

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