If you like dark Japanese thrillers, this is one to pick. A journalist picks up a teenage hitchhiker in the pouring rain and drives over a manhole cover that's been removed. Upon stopping, he gets out, finds a little yellow umbrella and then comes upon an elderly gentleman looking for his young grandson who had run out to look for a pet. After the teenager claims to have ESP and to know not only that the man's grandson is dead but also the identity of the people are who removed the manhole cover, the journalist meets another young man who claims to have stronger powers than the teenager and warns him against him.

In the meantime, the journalist has also been the recipient of strange anonymous letters at the office.

Is there a link to all this? Is he being played by the two young men? What do they want with him? Do they have anything to do with the strange letters and why was there a reference to his ex-girlfriend?

The thriller does not appear to have suffered from being a translation and the reader is taken on a rollercoaster ride of unexpected twists and turns throughout the book. ( )

On the cover of THE SLEEPING DRAGON, Miyuki Miyabe is noted as Japan's Number 1 bestselling Mystery Writer, known for her ability to write strong suspense novels. Which made this particular book an interesting prospect, even allowing for the inclusion of an ESP sub-thread which isn't often something I'm particularly comfortable with.

But I am very comfortable with something that has a strong sense of place, and a strong sense of the culture that it comes from. Even allowing for the novel being translated, there remained something quintessentially Japanese about this book. Considered, subdued even, the story of THE SLEEPING DRAGON is told in a sparse, careful and thoughtful manner, particularly given the central premise of the book - whether or not a careless or even reckless act is murder, whether or not you know who did it.

The book is telling a complicated story. The disappearance of a little boy, the identification of who moved the manhole cover, their reactions and everyone's belief about culpability. The pairing of an older, life-worn journalist Kosaka, and the young psychic teenager Shinji. The relationship between Shinji and Naoya, and Naoya's struggle with his own psychic ability. Intertwined friendships, the past returning to affect the present, love lost, good and bad new relationships, and the whole catastrophe.

Despite the complications of the various sub-threads throughout the book, there is a stately progression, more than a thriller style ride. The whole book does not, however, concentrate on the "mystery" or the loss of the little boy. There are other aspects to the people within the story that frequently take centre stage. Because of that, this is not a "traditional" mystery in which a crime is committed, an investigation undertaken, and a resolution arrived at. This is a book which resolves a mystery, and looks deep into the consequences of that mystery, and to the fall out in the lives of the people involved. Within this context, the ESP sub-thread is really more about the battle that somebody with a different "gift" in life has in dealing with the consequences of that gift.

I doubt very strongly that this would be a book that dedicated fast paced thriller fans are going to find exactly their cup of tea. I suspect that fans of the crime straight through to resolution style of mystery fiction may also find it a little disappointing, but I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed THE SLEEPING DRAGON. I found the style of storytelling very engaging, the intricacies of the lives that the book looked at absorbing, the moral dilemmas raised, addressed or never resolved realistic and quite challenging. The style of the book felt Japanese to me, but the characters within the story, and the battles that they fought, essentially very human and realistic.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/sleeping-dragon-miyuki-miyabe ( )

enjoyable but halfway through the book, the main focus of the story cahnges to a completely different subject and I wanted rather to have it more focus on the first part. ( )

While not the most ingenious mystery, I found The Sleeping Dragon still an enjoyable book. The characters are likable and it's a quick read. The paranormal plot adds a little something to keep readers hooked when the story gets slow in the middle of the book (but it picks up nicely at the end.) ( )