Tokyo Girl: A Frank Ryan Mystery

By Brian Harvey

Piano tuner and jazz musician Frank Ryan is in Japan teaching bored housewives how to play piano. Then he gets a gig in a trendy underground bar and ends up ensnared with a young woman with a grudge and the crime boss who owns the bar. Drawn into Tokyo Girl’s vendetta, Frank stumbles into an underworld where transgressions are paid for by the flash of a razor-sharp cleaver. And for a pianist, that’s not a good thing.
   Tokyo Girl is the follow-up to Beethoven’s Tenth, featuring reluctant sleuth Frank Ryan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raven Books
• Release date: Aug 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781459810778

Brian Harvey

Brian Harvey is a scientist and writer. He holds a PhD in marine biology and specializes in conservation of aquatic biodiversity. Brian’s first nonfiction book for a general audience, The End of the River, was published in 2008. He is currently finishing a second nonfiction book about sailing around Vancouver Island and is working on several fiction projects. Brian lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.brianharvey.org.

Reviews for Tokyo Girl

[yamamura_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Finally got around to reading Tokyo Girl by Brian Harvey and it is indeed a fast read. It tells the story of a Canadian Jazz musician Frank Ryan, who gets caught up with the Yakuza through a young woman who he is teaching piano to. While there is hinting at a mystery, it is more about a westerner lost in traditions and manners of Japan and how that impacts him. The good is that Brian Harvey did an excellent job at researching the setting. Often while I was reading the book, I was reminded of Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein and how being indebted to the Yakuza is always a bad idea. I also got a strong sense of Noir in this book, so a plus there as well. The bad is Frank comes across as a leaf on the wind that mainly allows the manipulations of others to carry him through the events of the story. While there are examples of him being proactive, most of the time it is just reactive. In summary if you want a quick Noir story set in Japan, you will probably enjoy Tokyo Girl.

[bbofje · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received Tokyo Girl by Brian Harvey through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program courtesy of Orca Books. I'd never read anything by Brian Harvey. However, I'm going to find a copy of his first fiction book, Beethoven's Tenth, about the same main character. It was a light mystery, quick read and the descriptions made you feel like you were in Japan.

[vangogan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tokyo Girl is the second in a series about Frank Ryan, the so-called "unlikely sleuth." Incidents and characters from the first book, Beethoven's Tenth, are referenced, so it seems that we are missing the beginning of the story, because Ryan is in Japan directly because of events that happened in that first book.The back cover of the book says that this book is "Adult Fiction * Ages 16+", so it seems, because of that, and because of the length of the book--only 138 pages, that the book is for young adults. However, there are at least two chapters about love hotels and sex, which make this more for older readers.The back cover also states that this book is part of the "Rapid Reads" series, and, indeed, it is a rapid read and can easily be read at one sitting. The book does pull you along to find out what will happen next.Being set in Japan, too, the book is quite informative about Japanese culture. I even learned something about the Fukushima nuclear reactor that I hadn't known before: namely, that homeless people were sent into the area to clean up for a pittance.So, the story was intriguing, and informative, but because of the short length, many details were unexplained and left me wondering, how did Ryan figure that out with such scant information? Furthermore, the ending was similar to the beginning--just as it felt that I had missed the beginning of the story, I felt that something was missing at the ending, too. Too many loose, unexplained ends. If I had read the first book, I probably would have felt this book was more complete than it is to me now. I also don't know if there will be a sequel, which might help with the completion aspect. As it is, the book seems too thin on story detail (although quite good on Japanese culture detail).[For the publisher: on page 27, "you" is mistakenly repeated in a sentenceand on page 38, tepco is spelt lowercase, when it should be TEPCO.]

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This Rapid Reads book is a really rapid read but it was just what I needed to while away an hour or two of train travel. This is the second in a series starring jazz pianist Frank Ryan. When last we saw him he was on Vancouver Island but due to events in that first book he thought it was a good idea to vacate his home for a while. He decided to go to Japan where he knew his talents as a pianist would be appreciated. He got some jobs teaching Japanese housewives to play a few classical pieces. Through one of them he met a bar owner who hired him to play piano at night in his bar. Frank soon found out was that his boss was a member of the yakuza, the Japanese equivalent of the Mafia. He decided not to worry about that as long as the tips kept rolling in but then he met Momo, a gorgeous woman who had some issues with his boss and wanted Frank to help. You just know that isn’t going to end well.

[19anne44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Tokyo Girl” by Brian HarveyI received this book as an Early Reviewer copy.Frank Ryan is living in Japan having decided to leave his hometown of Nanaimo after finding himself in danger. Frank has a number of piano students including Akiko who introduces Frank to her “father’ who hires Frank to play jazz in his bar. This is not a good idea because unfortunately he is now involved with another lot of crooks and in addition his new found girl friend is not what she seems. Frank is the narrator in this book and recounts his experience in Japan with wry humour. I enjoyed the first book about Frank in the series and hope there will be more. This is another plot driven addition to a Rapid Reads series. I hope there will be more tales about Frank in the future.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After his unwelcome adventure of Beethoven's Tenth, piano tuner/jazz pianist decided to get as far away from Nanaimo as possible. He has ended up in Tokyo shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Frank found a small apartment to sublet, and he gets by teaching piano lessons. One of his students turns out to be the mistress of a mob boss, and this connection eventually leads to trouble for Frank.This short novel is Harvey's second for the publisher's Rapid Reads series of high interest, low reading level books for adult readers, including ESL students. Harvey writes well, and he weaves in interesting facts from his “day job” as a marine biologist. Both the time setting shortly after the tsunami that caused the nuclear disaster and a scene set in Tokyo's Tsukiji seafood market allow the author to write what he knows. My main disappointment stems from the fact that this book isn't much of a mystery, despite its billing as a “Frank Ryan mystery”. Its more of an adventure. It is indeed a rapid read that will likely be enjoyed by readers who find the setting appealing and who are comfortable with a level of sexual content just short of graphic and explicit. (It would probably earn a PG-13 rating if it were a movie.)This review is based on an advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.