Hiroshi 'H' Suzuki

Shady Tree

I've just been skimming through the pages of a newly published paperback novel, 'A Strange Way To Die', by R. Pearl and G. Bamford (Arlingham Press). Its protagonist, Hiroshi Suzuki, is Agent H, an Anglo-Japanese working directly to his 'uncle', Colonel Sadeo Tanaka, Head of the Japanese Secret Service. 

The context of the novel implies that H is the offspring of the literary James Bond and Kissy Suzuki, since so much of the formula and characterisation borrows from Fleming and the Bond films. Suffice to say that H 'moves like a panther' and drives a Bentley. Yet this isn't a book licensed by Ian Fleming Publications, and the Bond connection isn't made explicit. The packaging of the book works hard to invite a link, all the same: from the Bondian phrasing of the title, to the cover image of a man walking forward, silhouetted by a red sun - or is it a red gunbarrel? - to a quote from 'The Mail On Sunday', which asserts, "...a thriller for 007 fans".  

Pearl and Bamford aren't the first to line up a Suzuki 'son of Bond': Raymond Benson did so in 1997, in a fully 'licensed' way, for his short story, 'Blast From The Past', published in 'Playboy'. The key thing about 'A Strange Way To Die' is that it seems like an easy page-turner, and I look forward to reading it later in the week.

 

Sir Miles

That book is over 10 years old 😮 it’s probably got a rerelease because they’ve finally gotten around to publishing the second novel…Dying For Power…

Shady Tree

Haha, I hadn't heard of it before! And I'd overlooked the original date of 2015 on the copyright page. I suspect there's a thread on it already? Anyway, it's good to know there'll be another one...