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Sins As Scarlet (Inspector Iwata) Hardcover – January 1, 2018

by Nicolás Obregón (Author)

4.2 83 ratings

Book 2 of 2: Inspector Iwata

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Former homicide detective Kosuke Iwata is on the run from his past . . .

Five years ago, he lost his family. Now he may have found his redemption.

Living in LA and working as a private detective, he spends his days spying on unfaithful spouses and his nights with an unavailable woman.

Still he cannot forget the family he lost in Tokyo.

But that all changes when a figure from his old life appears at his door demanding his help.

Meredith Nichol, a transgender woman and his wife's sister, has been found strangled on the lonely train tracks behind Skid Row.

Soon he discovers that the devil is at play in the City of Angels and Meredith's death wasn't the hate crime the police believe it to be. Iwata knows that risking his life and future is the only way to silence the demons of his past.

Reluctantly throwing himself back in to the dangerous existence he only just escaped, Iwata discovers a seedy world of corruption, exploitation and murder - and a river of sin flowing through LA's underbelly, Mexico's dusty borderlands and deep within his own past.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Michael Jospeh; First Edition (January 1, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 374 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 071818405X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0718184056
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.43 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.38 x 9.45 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.2 83 ratings

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Nicolas Obregon

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Nicolás Obregón was born in London to a French mother and a Spanish father. He has worked as a steward at sports stadiums, a travel writer, and an editor in legal publishing. He fell in love with Japan while on assignment for a travel magazine and decided to write a novel set there while on a bullet train, two days shy of his 30th birthday. Blue Light Yokohama is his first novel and he is currently working on its follow-up.

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4.2 out of 5

83 global ratings

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Fred H. Dimond

Japanese detective spans two cultures and two countries

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019

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Kosuke Iwata is a Japanese detective. But he straddles two cultures; two countries. He grew up in a Japanese orphanage after his mother abandoned him. Eventually his mother reconnected with him and took him to America with her new American husband.
In the US, Kosuke dreamed of Japan and whether he could make it there. He became
an investigator with the Tokyo Metro Police and solved a highly publicized murder case there - the Black Sun Killer.
Worn out with Japan he returned to America, worked briefly with the police in LA
and then became a private investigator. This story is about immigrants who take
huge risks to cross the border into America, and are then killed for their body
parts. Awful, gruesome and probably true to real life. Kosuke is a man with little hope or
happiness. But he is a seeker of truth. For him, “the case” is a life preserver. All that he has to keep him going.
This case of the exploited immigrants became his cause.
A great though sordid story. Obregon is excellent. A true wordsmith and storyteller.

Fred Dimond

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Rich P

Classical Noir But With Some Loose Ends

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2018

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(No spoiler).

This book avoids the usual mystery marketing trick of making the novel completely standalone. While there is a standalone plot for this book, the real appreciation sets in with some foreknowledge of Blue Light Yokohama's events and actions. Iwata solves the case in his usual way, with a attributable body count and suicidal guilt for murder by indirection.

One of the problems going into this book from Blue Light Yokohama is that Iwata is an inconsistent character as he is at the start of the book. In the first book, you get the impression that Iwata truly screwed up both his professional and personal lives, and that his assignment was a last chance. This book clears up many of the inconsistencies by background explanations. However, present day Iwata is too much a self-sacrificing saint to be reconciled with past Iwata's thinking or lack thereof. This comes up as a character problem multiple times in the book, where Iwata acts inconsistently from chapter to chapter in ways that you wonder if there are still two characters inhabiting his body as his actions are not consistent.

I doubt this is going to be the last book, which is great because I want to see more character development in Iwata. One obvious loose end is mentioned at the end by a new character, and Iwata's missed opportunity to hear a confession probably is going to tie into that as as regret. The other loose end (which is possibly unintentional) is from the fact that while the case is solved, the real antagonist is still at large with access to enough resources to take action on Iwata's turf. Either or both of these would make for great future stories.

As for this book, Obregon weaved in several current social issues into the case, and the book is far better for it. Whether this will stand the test of time or not in a decade, we'll see, but as it stands, Iwata's difficulties in coming to terms with those social issues and how they interacted with the case is a good metastory in and of itself.

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Janice Longridge

Great!

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2019

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Love Inspector Iwata. Good read. Very descriptive writing.

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2019

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Enjoyable read, Fast Pace, I wasn't able to decided the outcome until the end of the book.

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2019

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I set this book aside after reading the first chapter because I feared it was going to be a lecture about immigration. However when I ran out of anything else to read I picked it up again, and then I was captivated by the story. It's interesting and it's gritty. You will enjoy it if you're prepared for those two things. Let's say it won't give you an uplifting view of the world.

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2021

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The book is in excellent condition and shipped very fast!

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019

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Well written and well reasoned. No gimmicks.

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019

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I ordered two books from this bookseller and both arrived in great condition

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

Mesmerizing - finished reading in one day

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2018

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Loved everything about this book. Intruiging storyline with heartbreaking past events. Couldn't put the book down until I finished reading it in a day. A lot of questions answered that I had from Blue Light Yokohama. Will be counting days until the release of next book.

CAH46

Gripping to the last !..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2019

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I enjoyed Sins as Scarlet every bit as much as Obregon’s first novel Blue Light Yokohama. Eagerly awaiting more from this writer.

Dee

Sins of Scarlet

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2018

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Excellent!! no need for any more words. Except, bring on the next one!!

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