Three Assassins

A Novel

By: Kotaro Isaka

Narrated by: Adam Sims

From the internationally bestselling author of Bullet Train comes the high-octane new thriller, set in Tokyo’s criminal underworld, that pits an ordinary man against a group of talented and very unusual assassins.

Suzuki is an ordinary man until his wife is murdered. To get answers and his revenge, Suzuki abandons his law-abiding lifestyle and takes a low-level job with a front company operated by the crime gang Maiden, who are responsible for his wife’s death. Before long, Suzuki finds himself caught up in a network of quirky and highly effective assassins.

The Cicada is a knife expert. The Pusher nudges people into oncoming traffic. The Whale whispers bleak aphorisms to his victims until they take their own lives.

Intense and electrifying, Three Assassins delivers a wild ride through the criminal underworld of Tokyo, populated by contract killers who are almost superhumanly good at their jobs.

©2022 Kotaro Isaka / CTB Inc. English translation rights arranged through CTB Inc. English translation by Sam Malissa © CTB Inc. 2022. Published in 2022 by The Overlook Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved (P)2022 by Penguin Audio

A bit underwhelming

I recently watched bullet train, so I was excited to explore more of the world from that movie, and decided to look into three assassins. While it is foolish to expect any sort of action at all similar to the movie, I felt myself somewhat underwhelmed by the end of three assassins. I saw another review that mentioned the three main characters of the book are pretty unlikable and I’m sad to admit I felt similar by the end. I will say that the best parts of the book involve the whale. On a happier note, I will say that I was quite satisfied with the readers use of slightly different voices to differentiate characters. His vocal range was quite good.

A must listen if you liked bullet train!

Like bullet train, this one has many assassins with fun names and signature techniques. It was fast paced and kept me guessing. Would recommend!

Great, gripping, and fun

This is a fast-paced story with excellent characters, fun backstory, and wonderful narration - definitely recommend!

Throughly impressed

🤯🔥🤯🔥🤯🔥🤯🔥 I’m not even sure there are words to express how much I enjoyed this book. Midway through, I had to restart it as puzzle pieces were connecting. I was on my toes for the entire ride and did not see the plot twists coming. Amazing book and now on to the next in the series. Enjoy!!

The narration and the voice acting are amazing.

Like the title says, great work all around on the narration and voice acting. I especially like the voice of character called The Whale. Besides the audiobook technical stuff, the story is really good too. This is actually the prequel to Bullet Train. It’s the first part of a trilogy.
I listen to audiobooks while I follow along with the text. It’s something I do in order to finish more books because my eyes get tired. I know what you’re thinking, “Aww your eyes get tired poor baby?” Fine I’m a baby, I don’t care, I enjoy it. You probably smoke cigarettes and drink whisky and gamble. Man, listen to me be so judgy. What’s become of me? I’d kill for a smoke right now and a glass of whisky and some cards. But my account is low on funds and I cannot afford to lose money playing poker. But what if I win? I’m off to the casino. To heck with it.
Back to my review real quick before I go. Like I said, the narration and the voice acting is very nice. I enjoyed the voice acting which is usually not the case when it comes to audiobooks.
My only qualm is Suzuki’s storyline. I have to admit I don’t understand what pop fiction writers are thinking or smoking sometimes. But there’s an entire chapter where Suzuki plays soccer. And this is ridiculous as it is but it becomes even more absurd because he plays soccer with a kid, whose parents he just met, because he spontaneously showed up at that door, pretending to be a tutor. This whole part of the book is like a knot in a little girls otherwise straight brushed hair. It needs to be cut out cause there isn’t any brushing it out, that’s for sure. Mr Isaka shows plenty of promise as a writer but man he apparently doesn’t have a lot of common sense. I’m flabbergasted at how ridiculous Suzuki’s storyline is. This is especially problematic because Suzuki is the main character of the book. I just don’t understand. When you state your complaint about the unrealistic storyline for Suzuki, and you give up all notions of realism, and just decide to go along with it anyway, well, like Maximus, Isaka asks: Are you not entertained?
This whole thing ultimately is a brilliant imagining.