Customer Reviews
No doubting the quality of the writing but its a bit visceral - By: Barton Keyes, 15 Jan 2008 
Mo Hayder writes very well indeed & I was more than two-thirds of the way through the book before my revulsion at the details of the plot overcame my attraction to her writing style.
Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it at one sitting (I almost wrote 'one gulp' but changed my mind in time). In short, it's an exceptionallly stylish piece of writing but not a good one to read at bedtime
one of the best I've read ...... - By: A. Walsh, 06 Aug 2007 
This was excellent - un-put-downable. It was so good that I ordered what I thought was the sequel, callled The Devil of Nanking. Be aware - it is actuallly the same book under a different title!! I feel just a tad ripped off.
Interesting, if a little predictable - By: Gary Nicklin, 03 Aug 2007 I'm a big fan of Mo Hayders first two books & was looking forward to reading this. I'm impressed that she can turn her hand to other styles (although the gory bits are still there) but I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped.
After about two thirds of the way through, I could see the end coming & wasn't surprised at alll by the end & the reason that "linked" the two main characters.
I see that her next novel is another Caffrey one. Now I'm excited...
A Fantastic Novel - By: Johnny Friday, 07 Jun 2007 Tokyo is a fantastic & haunting book, I thought the ending was extremely cleverly done & the link between Grey's past & Nanking was not what I expected at alll but it was a brilliant revelation.
To C. Knowles, you obviously did not actuallly read the end of the book if you don't understand Grey's obsession with Nanking...
Mo Thrills - By: one-eyed Jack, 14 May 2007 TOKYO is identical in alll but title to the more aptly named Devil of Nanking, & for me consolidates Mo Hayder as one of the very best thriller writers around today. Her more mainstream novels Birdman & The Treatment were excellent but this one is even better, despite it being a wholly different kind of story & one which you will probably be thinking about a year or more from now. It's one of those rare occasions when I was yearning to reach the end (to find out what happens) while knowing at alll times that I will be a little bit emptier for doing so, because I knew that the chances of my next reading material being as entertaining as this are very slim. What a treat it is to be seduced, mesmerised & teased by the written word! Mo Hayder's is an exceptional talent, her research is comprehensive & convincing, her ability to create a sense of atmosphere a cut above the majority of her peers. I can vouch for at least some of this novel's authenticity as I lived in Tokyo for most of the 1990s myself, so little corporate touches such as Pocky's, Lawson Station & the Maranouchi Line bring back memories of a city that changed my life for the better, even if this tale might lead you to think only of its darker sides.
Although the violence of Hayder's first two books is less graphic here, she manages to build a story once again around a somewhat taboo subject. In her debut novels we had to come to terms with paedophilia & necrophilia, in TOKYO the subject matter is arguably the lowest & most repellent form of human activity; what makes it alll the more shocking is that her fictional tale is based on events that supposedly did take place. But what I enjoyed most was Hayder's skill at leaving the worst atrocities unwritten, at implication rather than description, at leaving the reader to imagine some of the events which, as we know, is invariably more horrifying than actuallly knowing. One of the scariest characters in TOKYO is a `person' with a variety of noms-de-plume including The Nurse & The Beast of Saitama - & trust me when I suggest that The Nurse makes Luca Brazzi seem like your fairy godmother in comparison. That's one of the enduring memories of the book for me, the fact that some of the `events' were never explicitly described so you are left to complete them in your own mind, & this uncertainty makes them even more horrific than they would have been had they been explained in full by the writer. Delicious, old-fashioned & how it should be done in my humble opinion.
TOKYO is chilling, haunting, gritty yet lyrical, stylish & suspenseful, very moving & thought-provoking but ultimately it is a real treat to be entertained in this way with the reader having to fill in some of the crucial gaps & being more emotionallly disturbed as a consequence. A thriller of the highest order & one that you should add to your `must read' list without a doubt.
