Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Tokyo ; New York : Kodansha International, 2005.
Description
A harrowing tale of murder and retribution. Young, pretty Junko Aoki has an extraordinary ability-she can start fires through sheer force of will. When she begins using her gift of pyrokinesis to take the law into her own hands and punish violent criminals, her executions attract the attention of two very different groups: the Guardians, a secretive vigilante organization that tries to recruit her, and the arson squad of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Soon the police are on Junko's trail, most notably Detective Chikako Ishizu, a rationalist who must come to terms with the existence of paranormal forces. As Junko's crusade against evil escalates and she finds it harder to control her power, we are taken on a breathtaking and brutal journey through the urban landscape of Tokyo on a journey that challenges us, along with Chikako, to think about what's right and what's wrong in the name of justice. Atmospheric, suspenseful, provocative, and even romantic, Crossfire is a tour de force sure to secure Miyuki Miyabe's place in the pantheon of today's top mystery writers.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member JackFrost
Part "Death Wish" and part police procedural, Miyabe's novel is a long, intense read with deep emotional impact. Junko Aoki is alone, both physically and emotionally, spending her days and nights tracking criminals who've escaped the Japanese legal system and disposing of them. The ties she makes
Chikako Ishizu is a detective with the Arson Squad, a middle of the road cop promoted due to the police force's affirmative action policies. Middle-aged and motherly, she is efficient and takes her job seriously but will never be one of the "good old boys." A strange series of murders involving intense heat without the use of accelerants catches her eye and she and Makihara, another detective with a reputation for supernatural conspiracy theories, set out to find out the truth.
Underneath what appears to be a routine "cop versus criminal" novel lies a tale of loneliness, isolation, revenge and hope, with a little bit of violent vigilante action thrown into the mix for good measure. As with Miyabe's novel Shadow Family, a bit of time may be needed to memorize a list of Japanese names and police rankings, but it's very much worth it.
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with other people are tenuous and short-lived, and she doesn't hesitate to take out people who've committed minor offenses who stand in the way of her targets. Possessing the supernatural ability to manifest and control fire, Junko keeps her abilities hidden from coworkers and neighbors while also seeking a secure method of releasing the pressure that builds up inside her body.Chikako Ishizu is a detective with the Arson Squad, a middle of the road cop promoted due to the police force's affirmative action policies. Middle-aged and motherly, she is efficient and takes her job seriously but will never be one of the "good old boys." A strange series of murders involving intense heat without the use of accelerants catches her eye and she and Makihara, another detective with a reputation for supernatural conspiracy theories, set out to find out the truth.
Underneath what appears to be a routine "cop versus criminal" novel lies a tale of loneliness, isolation, revenge and hope, with a little bit of violent vigilante action thrown into the mix for good measure. As with Miyabe's novel Shadow Family, a bit of time may be needed to memorize a list of Japanese names and police rankings, but it's very much worth it.
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LibraryThing member sensitivemuse
This book was all right. I liked how they showed both sides of the story and both point of views. It was a nice even exchange between chapters and it went smooth for the most part. I have to admit though, although the beginning of the book really got me it just started to fall short and falls flat
I really did try to like Chikako but just couldn't do it. I was really trying to warm up to her but she was just flat. It just sort of seemed although she put the pieces together and helped solved the crime she really was just there for the ride. There wasn't much personality to her I thought. Unlike Junko. I think she was the main focus in the book hence why she seemed to be the only real character in the book that developed well throughout the book. Junko went from someone who was angry and out for justice to someone who finally found closure and absolute closure.
The plot moved fairly smoothly although there were a bit of bumps and blips here with background information which was useful in some parts but in some other areas of the book it wasn't really necessary. Then sometimes I felt the plot was just going in circles and very redundant. It was really starting to get old. At that point, I wished the plot would have moved more quickly instead of lingering and remaining stagnant. It also felt as if these moments were needed as a space filler. It nearly took the heart and the momentum of the plot because of these bumps.
Overall, it wasn't so bad but it wasn't so great either. It could have been better but the climactic ending did make up for it and as the story came to a close, it had a nice sense of completion. Would I recommend this? Well, that depends. Stick with Junko. She's the more exciting arc in the plot than Chikako. Try and read through the unnecessary stuff but the underlying layers of the plot actually also make up for its shortfalls.
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midway and I found myself wondering what's going to happen next and how soon because to be honest, I was starting to get a little bored of the book. Not to mention besides the main characters, there were so many other secondary characters mentioned I was left wondering who this person was again and I had to either read back a few pages or commit to memory who they were. It got a little frustrating as they appeared for one chapter and wouldn't come back until much much later. However, I found myself a little more intrigued bit by bit on how all these characters had to be connected somehow to each other and I was left guessing until the last moment. It was actually pretty well done despite these little flaws.I really did try to like Chikako but just couldn't do it. I was really trying to warm up to her but she was just flat. It just sort of seemed although she put the pieces together and helped solved the crime she really was just there for the ride. There wasn't much personality to her I thought. Unlike Junko. I think she was the main focus in the book hence why she seemed to be the only real character in the book that developed well throughout the book. Junko went from someone who was angry and out for justice to someone who finally found closure and absolute closure.
The plot moved fairly smoothly although there were a bit of bumps and blips here with background information which was useful in some parts but in some other areas of the book it wasn't really necessary. Then sometimes I felt the plot was just going in circles and very redundant. It was really starting to get old. At that point, I wished the plot would have moved more quickly instead of lingering and remaining stagnant. It also felt as if these moments were needed as a space filler. It nearly took the heart and the momentum of the plot because of these bumps.
Overall, it wasn't so bad but it wasn't so great either. It could have been better but the climactic ending did make up for it and as the story came to a close, it had a nice sense of completion. Would I recommend this? Well, that depends. Stick with Junko. She's the more exciting arc in the plot than Chikako. Try and read through the unnecessary stuff but the underlying layers of the plot actually also make up for its shortfalls.
Show Less
LibraryThing member smik
The setting is urban Tokyo. Junko Aiko is an avenger, a pyrokinetist who metes out ultimate justice to those whose crimes have gone unpunished by the law. She works alone, tracking down scum whom the police have not successfully prosecuted.
The police case file about her is growing, her handiwork
Detective Chikako Ishuzu of the arson squad of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department does not believe what the mounting evidence is telling her. A human flame-thrower? Someone who can cause instant combustion? Ishuzu is a sceptic, not a believer in paranormal powers, and it takes another detective and a 13 year old girl to convince her.
But what if Junko is merely one of a number with similar powers handed down from generation to generation? What if there was a group who wanted to control and exploit these powers for their own ends? What if some of the police upper echelons were part of this group, meting out their own justice where they thought the courts had failed?
Told from two points of view CROSSFIRE asks the reader to believe in such paranormal powers. A cinematic quality to the narration helps you visualize Junko's targets as they burst into flames. And then Junko the stalker becomes the stalked....
CROSSFIRE is a thriller, sitting at the horror end of crime fiction.
The police case file about her is growing, her handiwork
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becoming readily identifiable but her methods are none-the-less puzzling. What sort of weapon does she carry? Why don't her victims run away? She has already been responsible for a number of deaths - mysterious fires have almost totally consumed their victims, giving the police just enough evidence to identify them, but nothing to explain how she does it.Detective Chikako Ishuzu of the arson squad of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department does not believe what the mounting evidence is telling her. A human flame-thrower? Someone who can cause instant combustion? Ishuzu is a sceptic, not a believer in paranormal powers, and it takes another detective and a 13 year old girl to convince her.
But what if Junko is merely one of a number with similar powers handed down from generation to generation? What if there was a group who wanted to control and exploit these powers for their own ends? What if some of the police upper echelons were part of this group, meting out their own justice where they thought the courts had failed?
Told from two points of view CROSSFIRE asks the reader to believe in such paranormal powers. A cinematic quality to the narration helps you visualize Junko's targets as they burst into flames. And then Junko the stalker becomes the stalked....
CROSSFIRE is a thriller, sitting at the horror end of crime fiction.
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LibraryThing member Tom_D
I enjoyed the story more than the writing, or maybe the translation. While I don't read a huge number of translations this is the first one that I was conscious of the translation. There are many places where the dialog or wording seemed contrived to me and I would wonder if it was that way in the
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native Japanese or a result of the translation. Show Less
LibraryThing member ursula
Crossfire is a Japanese novel that I read because it is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. I was a bit skeptical about why it would be on the list, since it looked like just a run-of-the-mill mystery novel. Usually the mysteries that make it onto the list, though, are there
Junko is our main character, and we find out early on that she has a supernatural power: pyrokinesis. Once that fact is established, the novel concerns itself with the role or responsibilities of a person with powers like that, Junko's self-image as a result of her power, and the experience of being "other" in society. It also covers the major bases of a suspense novel. The Tokyo of this book isn't really the one I tend to visualize, full of modern skyscrapers, clean but crowded streets, bright neon signs. The parts of Tokyo Miyabe presents us with are remote, sparsely inhabited at night, decidedly middle-to-lower class.
I think that this view of Tokyo is part of the reason the book is on the list. Other than providing a look at the underside of Japan's public face, I'm not sure what new ground is really covered here. The writing is serviceable, but not striking (though I'm reading in translation, of course). The emotional part of the story doesn't have many twists and turns, and the mysteries that are not revealed to the reader right away comprise a pretty small piece of the overall puzzle. It was a decent read, but not a page-turner.
Recommended for: believers in vigilante justice, people interested in seeing another view of Japanese society
Quote: They were all raised to think of themselves as special, as better than others, and they needed to find something to prove it to themselves, to justify their sense of entitlement. But what if they never found that "something"? All they were left with was their enormous conceit. They were like flower bulbs raised in water, floating in a transparent, colorless pool of nihilism. Surrounding the bulb was nothing - nothing that could give them a true sense of themselves.
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because they provide a certain kind of insight into a culture or a time period, so I had that in mind while I read.Junko is our main character, and we find out early on that she has a supernatural power: pyrokinesis. Once that fact is established, the novel concerns itself with the role or responsibilities of a person with powers like that, Junko's self-image as a result of her power, and the experience of being "other" in society. It also covers the major bases of a suspense novel. The Tokyo of this book isn't really the one I tend to visualize, full of modern skyscrapers, clean but crowded streets, bright neon signs. The parts of Tokyo Miyabe presents us with are remote, sparsely inhabited at night, decidedly middle-to-lower class.
I think that this view of Tokyo is part of the reason the book is on the list. Other than providing a look at the underside of Japan's public face, I'm not sure what new ground is really covered here. The writing is serviceable, but not striking (though I'm reading in translation, of course). The emotional part of the story doesn't have many twists and turns, and the mysteries that are not revealed to the reader right away comprise a pretty small piece of the overall puzzle. It was a decent read, but not a page-turner.
Recommended for: believers in vigilante justice, people interested in seeing another view of Japanese society
Quote: They were all raised to think of themselves as special, as better than others, and they needed to find something to prove it to themselves, to justify their sense of entitlement. But what if they never found that "something"? All they were left with was their enormous conceit. They were like flower bulbs raised in water, floating in a transparent, colorless pool of nihilism. Surrounding the bulb was nothing - nothing that could give them a true sense of themselves.
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LibraryThing member LisaMorr
A different sort of 1001 book - this novel focuses on Junko, a young woman with the power to start fires with her mind, and the arson detective investigating a series of what look like vengeance killings involving fire. The novel contrasts the isolation of Junko with a different kind of isolation
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for the detective, a middle-aged woman on the arson squad who was seemingly put in the role to meet a diversity goal. I raced through the book as it followed both Junko and the detective. I did find a few things to be a bit odd, including Junko's developing relationship with a young man she meets later in the novel, but overall I liked the book. Show Less
Language
Original language
Japanese
Original publication date
1998 (original Japanese)
2005 (English translation)
Physical description
404 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
4770029934 / 9784770029935
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