Tokyo Traffic
A Tokyo Mystery
In Tokyo, being street-wise isn’t always enough.
Running from a life she didn’t choose, in a city she doesn’t know, Sukanya, a young Thai girl, escapes into Tokyo. With her Bangkok street smarts, she stays ahead of traffickers willing to do anything to recover the computer she took when she fled a murder scene. After befriending Chiho, a Japanese girl living in an internet café, Sukanya tries to rid herself of her pursuers, and her past, forever.
Meanwhile, Detective Hiroshi Shimizu leaves the safe confines of his office to investigate a triple murder at a porn studio. The studio’s accounts point him in multiple directions at once. Together with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi and old-school Takamatsu, Hiroshi tracks the killers through Tokyo’s teen hangouts, bayside docks, and crowded squares, straight into the underbelly of the global economy.
As bodies wash up from Tokyo Bay, Hiroshi tries to find the Thai girl whose name he doesn’t even know. He uncovers trafficking rings and cryptocurrency scammers whose connections extend to the highest levels of Tokyo’s power elite.
TOKYO TRAFFIC is the third in the Tokyo-based Detective Hiroshi series by award-winning author Michael Pronko.
“A first-rate hardboiled crime novel set at the nexus between porn, human trafficking, crypto-currency fraud and murder.”
— Best Thrillers
“Crime and mystery fans should definitely get to know Detective Hiroshi and the town he calls home.”
— Pacific Book Review
“A dark and striking thriller with an indelible cast and setting.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“A gripping thriller set in the criminal underbelly of Tokyo. Highly recommended!”
— The Wishing Shelf
“The characters are superb. The city of Tokyo is very much a character in its own right. It’s glorious.”
— The Bookbag
“Taut and terse, this noir novel is executed to perfection.”
— Foreword Clarion Reviews
“A high-energy thriller set in the gruesome world of human trafficking and child pornography, keeps the adrenaline pumping until the very end.”
— IndieReader
Awards
Gold Award Literary Titan (2020)
Gold Medallian Book Readers Appreciation Group (B.R.A.G.) (2020)
Long-listed Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book (2020)
Reviewer’s Choice Feathered Quill Book Awards (2020)
Winner Thriller Independent Press Award (2021)
Winner Thriller National Indie Excellence Awards (2021)
Other Novels by Michael Pronko
