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About this listen

Brought to you be Penguin.

'Masterpiece' - Jeffery Deaver

He is a completely unremarkable man.

Who wears the same black suit every day.

Boards the same train to work each morning.

And arrives home to his wife and son each night.

But he has a secret.

He likes to kill people.

With just weeks to go before the Olympics and the world's eyes firmly fixed on Tokyo the body of young British student, Skye Mackintosh, is discovered in a love hotel.

Tokyo's Homicide Department are desperate for a lead. As a last resort they enlist the help of a brilliant former detective whose haunted personal life has forced him into exile thousands of miles away.

But it isn't long before Kosuke Iwata discovers the darkness in the neon drenched streets as Skye, like so many others, had her own secrets.

Lies and murder haunt a city where old ghosts and new whisper from its darkest of corners and the truth is always just out of sight

Praise for Nicolás Obregón:

'I'm awestruck' - A. J. Finn

'A dark, brutal ride' - Anthony Horowitz

 Crime Fiction Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Genre Fiction International Mystery & Crime Literary Fiction Modern Detectives Mystery Police Procedural Thriller & Suspense Thriller Crime Haunted

Critic reviews

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this
The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy
Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless efficiency and won't allow the reader a moment's respite. A stunning achievement that should raise the author's profile to crime's Premier league or there is no justice in this world
An outstanding novel from start to finish, possibly the best book I've read this year. An entrancing thriller that lures you into the dark secrets of the neon streets of Tokyo. Riveting
Praise for Nicolás Obregón

Harrowing and gripping. An astute police procedural . . . Switching between LA, Mexico and Tokyo both Iwata's present and past are cleverly interwoven in a truly heart-rending climax
Fresh and convincing . . . the dialogue is worthy of the great chronicler of LA's dark side, Raymond Chandler. But really, Obregon's writing has a unique flavour all of its own, wherever his books are set (Jake Kerridge)

Sins as Scarlet is a searing LA crime story, as poetic as it is brutal, as tender as it is disturbing

Thanks to the excellent Iwata, you get a gripping mystery with a real conscience

In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly, Sins as Scarlet lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary stuff: a diabolically clever police procedural, a wrenching character study, and a merciless chronicle of a city in decay. I'm awestruck.

(A. J. Finn, author of international bestseller)
All stars
Most relevant
I started reading out of curiosity, & found it to be one of those books where you keep going thinking it must get better, more interesting, but it only seemed to ‘develop’ the main character’s dark, warped mind, & draw the reader into his murderous/evil world. I found his actions, reasonings, & apparent ‘glee’ at his cruel abilities to subject another to pain & destruction on every level, ...... absolutely sickening!!!
To the author - I did try to continue reading your ‘creation’ .. but..
have to ask .. “ where on earth did such depravity come from”?? I didn’t finish the book, but as an avid reader all my 70+yrs life - I ALWAYS finish a book regardless of its effects, but this was too much!
We have a responsibility to ourselves to screen what we put into our minds, & I chose to stop listening. As Anthony Horowitz described it - it is a dark brutal ride.... too brutal for me. ... & The Times said .. “Not for the faint hearted” ..... beyond evil.

As an avid reader, an awful experience .....

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