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S D Price
Author
The Tides of March
S D Price, author
In the haunting depths of Japanese waters and the scarred landscapes of Manchuria, where ancient curses intertwine with the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, a cascade of incidents unfold, proving to be of ominous significance. . Amidst the backdrop of a catastrophic tsunami and nuclear disaster, a saga of espionage, ancient curses and forbidden powers emerges. The story follows the lives of two high-profile Japanese detectives, each with a turbulent past. One, a former sumo wrestler towering at two metres, the other has a keen intellect which he utilises to unravel the web of mysteries in which they become entangled. Their investigation into a series of chilling disappearances and murders leads them to confront a world where reality blurs with the mystical. Central to the narrative is a bewitched Samurai family, whose current descendants, a brother and sister duo, now serve the Japanese intelligence agency with lethal grace. Their lineage, cursed yet powerful, grants the brother an uncanny ability to perceive the auras of those around him. Together the siblings navigate a perilous path, from the tumultuous waters where a tuna fishing boat faces the wrath of a giant tsunami wave, to the silent threats lurking in the heart of their nation. A rogue element enters the fray in the guise of a chef by day, who moonlights as a freelance, sword-wielding assassin. His path crosses with that of a Korean spy ring determined to seize weapons-grade plutonium from the wreckage of the Fukushima disaster, plotting to smuggle it out of the country through covert means. Interwoven into this plot is the tale of a corrupt businessman, the architect behind the doomed nuclear plant, whose greed and ambition spell disaster for anyone in his circle. As the ancient and modern collide, a sinister force is awakened by the fury of the tsunami, threatening to unleash chaos. The Atrocitor, a monstrous creature of nightmares, with flowing silk-like hair and a ferocious appetite, becomes a pivotal adversary as the story reaches its climax.
Reviews
This genre-busting epic, Price’s debut, blends a natural tragedy—the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and triggered a nuclear disaster—with an odd-couple police procedural, a secret-society thriller with historical roots, spirited sword fighting, and a dash of the supernatural. In the days before the disaster, Kurosawa Hikaru, a sword-master with the gift of reading auras, comes to the Coast of Fukushima, looking into a conspiracy that his sister, Azumi, has been investigating back in Tokyo, driven by the siblings’ Samurai heritage and sense of responsibility for their family’s history. The mission: something stinks at the nuclear power plant. At the same time, Tokyo’s best detectives, a comically foul-mouthed, high-tech duo that includes a Sumo wrestler/martial arts master, has also been dispatched to the Fukushima Prefecture on a case that will prove to be related: the governor’s disappearance.

A quick summary can’t do justice to the scope of The Tides of March, a novel fascinated by the history and culture of Japan, by the processes of detectives, fishermen, samurai, serial killers, and more, and by the ways that each major character’s convictions on law, justice, and other heady topics reflect Japan itself. That richness of ambition, combined with Price’s wordiness and eagerness to examine every moment in the detail, means the text is often dense, especially in opening chapters, which tend toward the discursive—especially for a novel with pulpy beheadings, corruption, and a serial killer to come. Readers who persevere will find excitement and many surprises, spanning history and worlds, plus international intrigue, wild murders, and an overall spirit of gusto that’s rare in such a thoughtful novel.

Scenes of confrontation, disaster, and otherworldly presences are vivid and unpredictable, while the pained camaraderie between the Kurosawa siblings, cursed by their grandfather’s actions, is affecting. The detectives’ pointedly tasteless banter, meanwhile, can prove exhausting, but readers on Price’s wavelength may relish it.

Takeaway: Genre-bending but wordy epic of cops, contemporary Samurai, and corruption in Japan.

Comparable Titles: Steve Bein, Peter Tieryas’s United States of Japan series.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: C+
Marketing copy: B-

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