Billy takes some mandatory R+R in a remote cat hotel in Hokkaido after slapping the director who is filming a movie loosely based on Billy's life. When the ancient bellhop dies in his doorway at the exact time a rockstar ODs halfway across Japan Billy is embroiled in yet another mystery in which he is now a target.

-After an altercation with the director of "Wildman for Geisha!" -- a movie based on ace reporter Billy Chaka's life -- Chaka finds himself in Hokkaido on mandatory vacation. Trouble starts when the elderly porter of the Hotel Kitty stumbles into Billy's room and dies. That same night, the lead singer of Japan's most popular rock band turns up dead in a sleazy love hotel in Tokyo. Billy Chaka goes to Tokyo to cover the story for "Youth in Asia" magazine and soon finds out there's more to the rocker's apparent drug overdose than meets the eye. A Beatles-obsessed record executive, a mute DJ, two giant kickboxing twins with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music, a Swedish stripper working at the Purloined Kitten Club -- each play a part in the hard-boiled hilarity that ensues as Billy Chaka discovers that the rock star and the elderly hotel porter just might share a very strange link. Meanwhile, on the cover of an unpublished rock magazine, a photograph of Yoshi reveals a curious bird tattoo on his shoulder, matching a symbol found on the night porter's ID card, which is then tied to a mysterious organization called the Phoenix Society, which dabbles in "cryonic suspension." The second book from Adamson is interesting only for its shift in tone. The over the top zaniness and self-satisfaction of the first book is giving way to the jaded, disillusioned Asia-hand of the third. While it is interesting, it makes for a very unorganized read. The hero is still incredibly unlikable and the smug references and one-upmanship of the Asia-centric references annoying to those who can relate to them. The mixed tone makes the book more grating than the first installment just because it is completely lost as to what it wants to say and be. ( )

review at angharad_reads ( )

Second novel in the series. Unlike the first one, the (only five seconds of) paranormality is separate from the main plot. Also, I'm ambivalent about Billy's introspection in this one. (It depends how things go in Dreaming Pachinko, which I still haven't read. I remember the fourth book (Kinki Lullaby) as being more like the first.) ( )