I received a copy of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy this series mainly because I adore Charlie’s character so much. He always unwittingly and with good intentions, lands himself straight in the middle of something huge and illegal, Tokyo is no exception. Yet again, in an effort to help a Canadian who ends up in the hospital after a car accident and now has amnesia, garlic has to piece try to piece together this mans past which may involve the notorious yakuza. There’s murder, mayhem, conspiracy, romance, and a really really annoying supervisor.

I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to more of Charlie’s adventures. The poor guy needs to be happy and land on his feet at some point.

A travelogue and thriller in one go

I loved this book. Japanese culture has always held a fascination for me and is on my bucket list of places to visit, so to review a book that combined a thrilling, fast-paced story with beautiful insights into Japanese culture was a joy.

Charlie Hillier is posted to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo and his very first assignment leads to a web of deceit. Not only does he find himself in a foreign land, but he is also facing a culture that he does not fully understand. This juxtaposition of cultures complicates the way in which Charlie investigates the incident which has left a Canadian citizen in a coma. This seemingly innocuous event leads to a web of deception involving the highest levels of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza.

The ruthless world of the Yakuza has infiltrated all levels of society, even the police are not exempt from corruption and Charlie has to navigate his way to the truth, not knowing who to trust.

Nick Wilkshire describes Tokyo so well that I felt as though I were navigating the metro with the characters and the cityscape depictions made me more determined to visit the city.

A great read.

Reviewed by Gillian

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Thanks for letting me read REMEMBER TOKYO. I enjoyed the mystery in this book right up to the point where I felt like the writer said, "Okay, where can I put the obligatory sex scene?" It was such a distraction that I never could quite get back into the book. Since I don't post negative reviews, I will not be blogging about this book.

I really enjoyed this book. Nice and engaging plot, well developed characters. I particularly enjoyed the cultural aspect of the story.

After the debacle in Russia, Charlie Hillier is looking forward to his new posting in Tokyo. He is soon busy with his first consular case dealing with a successful young investment banker who is in a coma following a car accident. After a man claiming to be a friend of the banker’s turns up dead, Charlie and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police inspector assigned to investigate the murder (Kobayashi) have to deal with the banker's amnesia. Someone breaks into the banker's apartment but what were they looking for? Charlie soon figures out that the banker has been involved in some illegal and unsavoury dealings involving money laundering and the Yakuza.

This was another entertaining read and a strong entry in the Foreign Affairs mystery series.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and Dundurn with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

Charlie is in his 40s, divorced and working with Foreign Affairs, reporting to headquarters in Ottawa. He recently transferred from a posting in Moscow to Tokyo, with a brief stop in Ottawa. He suffering from jet lag and a bit of culture shock.

His first case is a Canadian named Rob who was hurt in a car accident and in a coma. Charlie does all he can to find family and/or friends back home in Canada but comes up empty. When Rob comes out of his coma, he has amnesia and doesn't remember Aiko, his girlfriend, or Steve, his good friend who is visiting him from Canada. When Steve turns up dead of an apparent mugging, Inspector Kobayashi becomes involved and together she and Charlie try to figure out what's going on.

This is the third and latest in the A Foreign Affairs Mystery series (I read the first two) and I liked it. I find Charlie to be a likable guy. All poor Charlie wants is a little bit of calmness and he's always being pulled into something. It is written in third person perspective, mostly from Charlie's point of view. The author makes Tokyo come alive in his descriptions. As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

Book #3, in A Foreign Affairs Mystery

“A Foreign Affairs Mystery” is quite a different type of mystery; it gives us a very Canadian twist to immerse ourselves into and one charismatic main player, Charlie Hillier, to follow. I love to see how he manages to jump the multiple hurdles he has to face in order to do his diplomatic job.

After leaving Russia on his last posting as consular Charlie is sent to immerse himself in a truly foreign culture….Tokyo …watch out ….Charlie is not your ordinary consular.

After his misadventures both in Havana (book#1) and Moscow (book#2) Charlie wants to play low key but he is soon drawn into a case of a young man who winds up in a coma after a car accident….or maybe it wasn’t an accident after all?...Charlie is definitely a magnet for trouble and in “Remember Tokyo” he finds more than can be imagined. Along the way in this fast-paced mystery we have colourful details of life in the city: crowded metro system, food and the polite culture and custom…. including the corruption that is lurking at every corner.

This series is one of my favourite. Charlie may be a consular but he has great investigative skills and a strong and loveable personality. The protagonist not only faces ruthless criminals in his day to day job he also goes beyond all means helping expatriates in distress. Trying to shift truth from deceit and get to the bottom of what happened without causing an international incident is a feat in itself for Charlie…..but of course things rarely turns out the way he plans….what a thrill we have following him through another wonderful journey. And as in the previous novels, to help with his case is a beautiful woman to be smitten of and… to eventually leave behind once he is reassigned to another post….or recalled home…sometime in disgrace.

I agree with those saying this is a well-plotted travel-crime novel with great characterization and I love how diplomatic rules are not one he complies with rigidly….well-done.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn publishing for an advance copy of Remember Tokyo. Having enjoyed Charlie Hillier’s previous adventures and misadventures in the previous books I was delighted to receive this book. This is a descriptive visual treat with well developed and believable characters, and with a complicated but well written mystery.

His new supervisor seems hostile to Charlie and gives him a file involving real estate file as priority although Charlie expressed his preference to work as a consul for Canadians in trouble. A sympathetic staff member passes on to him the case of a young Canadian investment broker in hospital in a coma following an automobile accident. When the man finally wakes up he has amnesia. He is visited in hospital by a young man who claims to be a longtime friend from Canada and a beautiful but hard, cold woman who claims to be his girlfriend. The patient is stressed as he cannot remember them.

Charlie has empathy for the young Canadian who is recovering but with gaps in his memory. After the male friend who visited the patient is found murdered Charlie teams up with a beautiful Japanese policewoman to find out what is going on. Is there any connection between the car accident the the male visitor’s death? Their investigation not only puts their careers in jeopardy but also their lives in danger from some very ruthless criminals. Of course a romance develops for Charlie and the policewoman. In each book there is a new beautiful woman helping in his investigation who becomes his love interest.

The mystery is concluded in a satisfactory manner and Charlie says farewell to the new woman in his life. I can’t wait to see where he will be posted next and what difficulties will be in store for him in his career as a diplomat and in his independent pursuit as detective. Charlie is a great and likeable character, and his investigative skills surpass those of most fictional police detectives and private eyes. Following diplomatic restrictions are not one of his strengths.

When I saw at NetGalley that Dundurn was publishing a new Charlie Hillier mystery, I glommed onto it. I enjoyed the first one, and was utterly engrossed by the second one, which took place in Russia. It was high tension pretty much from start to finish with a lot of interesting women.

In this third installment, Charlie has been posted to Tokyo, where he has a really annoying supervisor who basically gives him make-work. But he’s also asked to check on a Canadian citizen, a successful young investment banker, who is in a coma following a
car accident.

While Charlie is trying to help this guy, a friend turns up, claiming to be a childhood buddy who happened to be stopping over in Tokyo, and a very hard, polished woman turns up claiming to be the man’s girlfriend, though there is zero chemistry there.

There is, as always, an interesting set of characters. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police inspector assigned to investigate the murder, Chikako Kobayashi, turns out to be both helpful and friendly to Charlie, who is lonely and feeling his mid-forties age. I really liked that relationship.

Charlie has to do a crash course in Japanese culture, from the proper way to offer a business card to the yakusha substrate of society, as increasingly dangerous incidents occur.

As before, there is a high-intensity finish.

I enjoyed this book, though felt the ending was a tad rushed. [ I would have liked to see some kind of closure with the annoying supervisor, whose behavior escalated through the book, but most of all I really hoped that one of Charlie’s romances would actually give him a partner to solve mysteries with. This “one girlfriend a book” pattern reminds me of sixties and seventies TV, when the male hero couldn’t ever get a real relationship. Argh.

Altogether enjoyable, and I look forward to Charlie’s next posting.