The Big Drop — Ryan Gattis

After killing a yakuza in self-defense, an ex-military translator owes a debt that is payable only one way: take the dead man's place searching for a missing woman in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

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After killing a yakuza in self-defense, an ex-military translator owes a debt that is payable only one way: take the dead man's place searching for a missing woman in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Fusing gritty yakuza action with elements of classic noir in the city that started it all, the novel smashes Johnny Ban into a rarely explored corner of Los Angeles, sending him in search of two distinct parts of his past: his long-buried Americanness, and his first love -- a Japanese woman up to her neck in trouble.