The Moving Blade

Peace is a performance. Murder is the encore.

When American diplomat Bernard Mattson is found dead in his Tokyo home-his stomach opened by a Japanese sword-Detective Hiroshi Shimizu is called to the scene. The diplomat’s estranged daughter, Jamie Mattson, half-Japanese and half-American, arrives to collect her father’s research manuscript-a document powerful enough to reshape U.S.-Japan, and indeed pan-Asian, relations. But the paper has vanished, the house is ransacked, and the killers are still in motion.

Teaming up with his old-school mentor Takamatsu and ex-sumo enforcer Sakaguchi, Hiroshi dives into Tokyo’s hidden layers: smoky back alleys, silent temples, diplomatic compounds, and small, hidden bars where loyalty is currency and truth is a luxury. The deeper he goes, the clearer it becomes-this case isn’t just about one murder. It’s about the invisible blade slicing through Tokyo’s corridors of power.

As Hiroshi untangles lies and half-truths stretching from Washington to Shinjuku, he finds himself caught between duty and survival in a city where honor still kills. To bring justice to a man who may not deserve it, Hiroshi must face what justice really means when the system runs on silence.

For fans of Michael Connelly, Tana French, and Tokyo Vice, The Moving Blade delivers a tense, atmospheric crime thriller steeped in Japanese culture, international intrigue, and noir suspense.

In Tokyo, the past is present. And deadly.

Winner of multiple international book awards

Best Indie Mysteries and Thrillers Kirkus Reviews (2018)

Grand Prize Winner Chanticleer International Book Awards Global Thrillers (2018)

Winner Independent Press Award for Crime Fiction (2019)

Gold Award Literary Titan Book Award (2018)

Five Star Honoree B.R.A.G. Medallion (2018)

Gold Award Independent Publisher Awards for Mystery (2019)

Silver Medal Readers’ Favorite for Thriller (2019)

In Tokyo, the past is present. And deadly.

Author Biography

Michael Pronko is a Tokyo-based writer of murder, memoir and music. His writing about Tokyo life and his character-driven mysteries have won awards and five-star reviews. Kirkus Reviews selected his second novel, The Moving Blade for their Best Books of 2018. The Last Train won the Shelf Unbound Competition for Best Independently Published Book.

Michael also runs the website, Jazz in Japan, which covers the vibrant jazz scene in Tokyo and Yokohama. During his 20 years in Japan, he has written about Japanese culture, art, society and politics for Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, and Artscape Japan. He has read his essays on NHK TV and done programs for Nippon Television based on his writings.

A philosophy major, Michael traveled for years, ducking in and out of graduate schools, before finishing his PhD on Charles Dickens and film. He finally settled in Tokyo as a professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuin University. His seminars focus on contemporary novels, short stories and film adaptations.

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