In Orcho-Kabu, a card game as old as Japan’s underworld, 19 is the winning hand, and everything above it is a loser.
The word Yakuza literally translates to 8-9-3, which add up to 20.
To be Yakuza means to be…worthless.
In the midst of carrying out an assignment in Brazil with his partner, Sakurayama assassin Shin Takashima finds himself serving someone other than his own master. His past deeds have returned to haunt him and are now setting off a chain of explosive events that will soon unravel his world.
One of the reasons I like reading international crime fiction is that I like seeing crime fiction that is distinctly of that area. Not filtered through American sensibilities but wholly of that culture. While 8-9-3 doesn’t dig very deep into this subject, it’s not really that type of story. So while I would have liked to see some more of the inner workings of the Yakuza, that’s on me a reader not on Hsu as a creator.
8-9-3 is a slickly told rising-through-the-ranks action thriller. From the moment it starts with a guns-a-blazing assassination on top of a skyscraper to the end on a commercial business park on the water, it’s like an amped up summer blockbuster action movie. The furious pace is filled out with good characters who all have their own motivations that cause the various clashes.
One of the things that I liked was the way that the international organized crime empires all had dealings with each other. It’s easy to imagine them having treaties and agreements and deals with one another. This type of global crime environment is something that more crime stories in the future could really explore to great effect.
Like other thriller protags, Shin is capable, willing, damn near unstoppable, and a force to be reckoned with. He quickly becomes a character that the reader sides with and then roots for.
Bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with 8-9-3 if you want a quick and entertaining read.
