December 6

    ‘Amid the imperialist fervor of late 1941 Tokyo, Harry Niles is a man with a mission -- self-preservation. But Niles was raised by missionary parents and educated in the shadows of Tokyo's underworld -- making his loyalties as dubious as his business dealings. Now, on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Niles must decide where his true allegiances lie, as he tries to juggle his Japanese mistress and an adulterous affair with the wife of a British diplomat; avoid a modern-day samurai who is honor-bound to kill him; and survive the machinations of the Japanese high command, whose plans for conquest may just dictate his survival.’

    People ask why I took on the subject of an enemy like Japan on the brink of the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

    I was interested in knowing what was going through the minds of the Japanese at this turning point in our history. I wondered why on earth the Japanese started a war they had so little chance of winning. To me it was an act of desperation. As a writer, I'm drawn to imagining the other side. In 'Gorky Park', it was figuring out where Russians were coming from; in 'Havana Bay', it was telling a Cuban story from the perspective of Cubans. You don't sympathize, you empathize, which is a harder task.

    "Spellbinding. A crackling, riveting adventure, deserving a place among the best of the best."

- Houston Chronicle