When violent intruders interrupt a film shoot in a Tokyo pornography studio, they brutally murder three people but overlook a young actress hiding in the cavernous building.

Sukanya is an illegal Thai immigrant who was smuggled into Japan and lured into the business with the promise of big money and transit to the United States. She makes her escape with cash from the dead director’s wallet and a leather bag containing a computer and iPad. Penniless and friendless, she wanders aimlessly through the streets of the megalopolis; though she’s lost, she’s not undetected. Unknown to her, the digital devices she’s taken contain sensitive information as well as trackers that reveal her location.

Kenta, a shady businessman and loan shark wants those devices back. The information they hold could compromise him and his relationship with Yoshitaka Kirino, the ruthless mastermind of the criminal enterprise he’s involved in. Kenta assigns three street punks the task of recovering the priceless data as well as the only person who witnessed the crime.

Detective Hiroshi Shimizu was trained as an accountant in America. Now he’s a Tokyo detective specializing in deciphering the finances of criminal activities by examining bank records, statements, spreadsheets, and cryptocurrency. Money trails extend “like spokes from every murder,” and Shimizu has the expertise to grasp their implications.

As Sukanya tries to elude the men sent by Kenta, she’s assisted by Chiho, a young Japanese woman who empathizes with her predicament. Together they manage to stay one step ahead of their pursuers. But for how long? It’s a race to see if Hiroshi and his colleagues can unravel the motive and identify the murderer(s) before they catch up with Sukanya and the evidence in her possession.

While being a tightly plotted, well-structured murder mystery, Tokyo Traffic, provides insights into criminal activity surrounding pornography, the sex trade, human trafficking, and to some extent how organized crime uses cryptocurrencies to transfer and conceal profits from illegal activities.

Equally engaging is author Michael Pronko’s knowledge of contemporary Japanese culture including food, fashion, entertainment, and the environs of the world’s largest city.

Pronko’s characters are fully developed, his dialogue is authentic, and his writing is clear and concise. An ambitious novel, Tokyo Traffic at times feels bogged down with the excessive Tokyo travelogue, a confusion of characters, and plot minutiae; however, realistic detective work, action, romance, and even humor make for an overall entertaining and enlightening story.

Ms. Kris does it yet again and what a captivating story this was as it drew you right in from the very beginning and just a few pages in and I was totally enthralled to the very end.

I have to say that I was a little apprehensive going into this story whether I was going to love this story or not as this is not the norm for Ms. Kris because she is really known well for her amazing mafia romance reads but, I can say after reading this story that was filled with secrets,lies,deceit,and a bit of mystery I don't know why I even thought that in the first place because everything this author writes is just simply amazing and I have to say that I loved it so much that I didn't want it to end and had there been a book two I would have dived right into that one too!

I have to say I loved the character's Erxy and Arelle. Arelle was just the sweet and kind a caring type with just a big heart who could be smart ,sassy , sexy and flirty.

Erxy was just one of those characters you felt sorry for as even being a prince he never felt he belonged or was loved by no other than by his mother alone and he also carried around a bit of darkness within him but, once the mother he loved so desperately was taken from him that darkness magnified and he became more intense and bruiting and down right dangerous and full of vengeance.

What I think we loved most about this story was the battle of wills between these two main characters. Erxy and Arelle she was the light and he full of darkness and that fine line of love and hate but , not matter what the draw the mystery the sexual desire and tension always remained there between them and that was hotter than hell and their chemistry off the charts.

I loved that this re-telling was a bit dark as in made the story more interesting and even more intense and even believable that a story like this could actually be true.I have to say Poe was also one of those characters that was not easily forgotten.

We loved the story from beginning to end and everything in between as the story was quite enthralling and it had a great cast of characters whether you loved them or hated them it was the perfect mix of both and no matter what you do you can not out run your fate.I also loved how Eryx also called Arelle his little mermaid all the time because even when he hated her his calling her this was always infused with affection ,lust and even perhaps even love and that always put a smile on our face.

"Just mesmerizing !"

Let's start off by saying this is a first time author for us an we really enjoyed our first read by them.The story was pretty much action packed from beginning to end.

The story had a great cast of MC character's that were loving,kind,protective,loved ribbing and teasing each other but, no doubt we saw the love they had between them as it was all there for those to see.These men were down right dangerous too "so", the perfect mix.

We loved Angel the man went from nailing everything he could to pretty much love at first sight but, he set his sights on one women riddled with a ton of complications.We loved how protective,kind,loving and caring he was toward Mercy from the moment he met her.

Mercy was a women who lived a life of slavery and pain and brutality and yet remained a women who was caring and loving and one who had a sense of humor and one who would give her life just to protective the ones she loved a cared about.Mercy was special because not only did she have Angel wrapped around her little finger she had a entire MC club that came to love her in no time at all.

"Our relationship had been built on danger, survival,death, and . . . limitless hope."

Overall the story had action and suspense from onset to the very end but, it was also one filled with emotion.I enjoyed the story and we are looking forward to the next in this series.