Detective Hiroshi is a forensic accountant, finding the solution to crimes in columns of numbers. He’s in over his head on this case, tasked with investigating the suspicious suicide of a bully Japanese executive named Onizuka. The case takes “Hiroshi and his chain-smoking partner Takamatsu from quaint restaurants to thriving BDSM clubs as they discover the hidden truth behind Onizuka’s death.

Author Michael Pronko dives deep into Japan’s toxic corporate culture in TOKYO ZANGYO (“Zangyo” means overtime in Japan) as his overworked detectives struggle to solve the mysterious “suicide” of an overworked employee and her overbearing boss. “Karoshi” or “death by overwork” is very real in TOKYO ZANGYO, with one character noting, “the Japanese system crushes people’s souls.” Employees in Tokyo don’t have an easy time. Prior to WWII, the corporate structure or “zaibatsu” kept Japanese workers focused and hopeful. Employees bonded and pledged loyalty to the companies they worked for. Pronko looks at Tokyo’s lingering legacy of corporate loyalty and how it continues to shape Japan’s modern workforce. The characters in TOKYO ZANGYO embrace the latest business technology — swapping digital information on smartphones — yet their business ethics seem rooted in a structure as old as the feudal system.

Women have it the hardest in Pronko’s corporate jungle. They’re overworked, underpaid, and subjected to systemic harassment by their male counterparts. In some cases, secretary pools are no more than “bride farms” for rising males execs. Even our heroes, Hiroshi and Takamatsu, bear a degree of guilt. Takamatsu is an old bear who can’t help but chat up the new young female officer, while Hiroshi ultimately ignores the advice of his faithful secretary, Aikiko, even though she’s smarter and works harder than most of his “drinking buddy” detectives.

TOKYO ZANGYO is a fascinating cultural study wrapped in the structure of an old-fashioned crime thriller. With the dank, narrow streets and thick cigarette smoke, the story has the feel of classic noir imbued with Far East culture–a strange and engaging concoction that goes down smooth yet packs a punch.

~Rob Errera for IndieReader