Tokyo

The main narrative of this novel follows an English girl who arrives in Tokyo to visit an old Chinese academic about his time in Nanking, when the Japanese devastated the city. Having studied the atrocities for years, she is aware of rumours of worse, and wants to prove she didn't make it up.
Initially she is put off by him, and takes up work in a hostess bar to cover he costs in Tokyo. When he learns of this, the professor offers her a deal - his story for something he wants - from a Yakuza boss who she has met at her bar.

The second narrative of this book is the 1937 diary of the old man - Shi Chongming, which he is reading now for the first time in 53 years. It tells of his city of Nanking just before the arrival of the Japanese, then during the massacre.
It basically reads a chapter of each narrative, combining at the end as the protagonist learns the secrets. Along the way we also learn her history, and how she finds herself linked with the story.

This is a fast moving, easy to read suspense novel, with the basics of Nanking all based in researched scenarios. Even the basis for the ‘situation' in the novel has some basis in fact, which the author describes in the Authors Note at the end of the book. Explaining that more would be a definite spoiler!

Solid 3/3 stars.