Bullet Train (Maria Beetle) - Hitman (#2)

Discover the original & propulsive thriller from the massive Japanese bestselling author.

Satoshi looks like an innocent schoolboy but he is really a viciously cunning psychopath. Kimura's young son is in a coma thanks to him, & Kimura has tracked him onto the bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge. But Kimura soon discovers that they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard.

Nanao, the self-proclaimed 'unluckiest assassin in the world', & the deadly partnership of Tangerine & Lemon are also travelling to Morioka. A suitcase full of money leads others to show their hands. Why are they all on the same train, & who will get off alive at the last station?

In 2010, Bullet Train was originally published in Japan with the title Maria Beetle. It is the second novel in Isaka's Hitman trilogy, after 3 Assassins (original Japanese title: Grasshopper), published in 2004, & before AX in 2017, with characters from the novel also being incorporated into the spin-off manga series Waltz, serialized in Shogakukan's Monthly Shōnen Sunday from October 10, 2009, to February 10, 2012.

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A highly original take on the locked-room mystery: twisty, funny & horrifying in its examination of organised crime, bullying, bad luck & psychopathy — Natasha Cooper, Literary Review, *Books of the Year*

Breakneck pacing, masterful character development, & well-timed comic relief set Isaka's pitch-perfect (and seamlessly translated) thriller up for blockbuster status...a twisty, darkly hilarious game of musical chairs — Booklist

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Kotaro Isaka is a bestselling & multi-award-winning writer who is published around the world. He has won the Shincho Mystery Club Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan Booksellers' Award & the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize & fourteen of his books have been adapted for film or TV.