Shibumi

I picked this up after catching a glimpse of it in the trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Bullet Train. It's clearly a fave of the film's director David Leitch, the book also having made brief appearances in both John Wick and Atomic Blonde.

Not sure what I expected - what I got was a throwback airport thriller with a long middle section entirely devoted to the intricacies of caving.

Written under the pseudonym Trevanian (last names are for barbarian Americans) this feels like such a product of its time, perfectly suited for 12 year old me that was currently riding the era's obsession with ninjas. Our protagonist is born in Shanghai, raised by a Japanese general and infused with the mystic sensibilities of the East. Of course Nicholai Hel is white, with piercing bottle green eyes and is a superior Asian to all the Asians he's surrounding by. Capable of mystic transport and incredibly strategic Go play, Nicholai has dedicated his life to the pursuit of Shibumi or elegant simplicity. At the same time he's a master assassin who can never be photographed due to his “proximity sense”, is a master of Naked/Kill - capable of turning everyday objects into deadly weapons, and is a Stage IV lover capable of ruining women for all future partners who would inevitably fail to come close to the ecstatic orgasms he could inflict.

Trevanian is a man before his time! If this was released today you know the author would be a 350lb ginger neckbeard who writes haiku and unironically owns several katanas and a Sailor Moon dakimakura.

I'm not immune to the guilty read, but this felt plodding and anti-climactic. I was hoping for more outlandish daring-do and outrageous exploits, instead I got inscrutable musings about Americans, Arabs, Brits and Australians with some global oil conspiracy theories thrown in for good measure. It just doesn't lean far enough either way to work as thriller or satire and ends up as a mediocre romp.