In this episode of the Japan Station podcast I sit down for a thrilling chat with author Barry Lancet.

Barry Lancet is the award-winning author of the Jim Brodie series of books. After a long career as an editor at the international arm of one of Japan's most prestigious publishers—Kodansha—Lancet made his debut as an author in 2013 with Japantown. Lancet's ability to seamlessly weave Japanese culture and history into his exciting, suspense-filled plots quickly caught the attention of many and won him numerous Best First Novel awards. Since Japantown Lancet has published three more books in the Jim Brodie series: Tokyo Kill, Pacific Burn, and The Spy Across the Table. Aside from working on the next Jim Brodie book, Lancet is currently working on an unrelated thriller set in Hawaii. Japantown has been optioned to be developed into a pilot for a possible show.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Barry Lancet ended up going to Japan for the first time
• How getting interrogated by Japanese police eventually served as inspiration for the Jim Brodie books
• How Japantown evolved from a noir book to a mystery-thriller
• The writing and research process that goes into writing a Jim Brodie book
• Barry's inability to scale down his stories
• Restaurants in Tokyo
• How the Jim Brodie books have been received
• The time Barry ended up drinking with a Soviet spy at a Japanese wedding party
• Visiting the Demilitarized zone on the border of North and South Korea The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
• Barry's work on a new book set in Hawaii
• And much more!

NOTE: After the outro music there is a bonus segment in which Barry talks about the last third of his fourth book, The Spy Across the Table. This part contains major spoilers for The Spy Across the Table so if you have not read it yet, it would be best not to listen to it.