FICTION A FASCINATION WITH DEATH.

To better understand Japan and its ethos, one needs to comprehend two of the most famous embodiments of that country's popular culture: the Samurai and the Ninja. Both belong to a bygone era of feudal Japan and exemplify an almost fanatical devotion towards an ideal, or a job that must be seen through, come what may.

The Samurai were a warrior caste who served the nobility, local lords and chiefs and, despite their ruthlessness and brutality, always adhered to a moral code called Bushido, or the 'way of the warrior'. In fact, the word 'Samurai' itself comes from the Japanese verb saburau, literally 'to serve', which is exactly what they did till the end of their lives.

Almost like sculptors, they worked for years on self-improvement as warriors and philosophers, and their only purpose was to serve their lords and die a glorious death in battle in service of their masters.

The Ninja, on the other hand, were a mirror opposite of the Samurai. They were spies, mercenaries and assassins, who adhered to no moral code whatsoever. They served rival clans and chiefs and the only code they believed in was getting the job done, using whatever means at their disposal. For the Ninja, money was the primary motivator and morality could never be a barrier to the job at hand.

A reissue of the first novel in a Japanese hitmen trilogy is almost film noir in word form: complicated at the beginning, puzzling in its progress, but making perfect sense as it concludes

Ninjas could lie and cheat whereas the Samurai, who lived by a code of honour, would never do that. Yet, despite their differences, these two types of warriors had some common ground. Both were utterly ruthless and fanatical in completing their objectives. They could put aside any human emotion in the process and their propensity for violence could turn most stomachs upside down.

Keeping this in mind lets readers more easily understand the labyrinthine narrative of Japanese mystery writer Kotaro Isaka's latest fast-paced thriller Three Assassins, and the motivations driving the various characters within the novel.

The central character in the story is Suzuki, an ordinary man who teaches mathematics and gets sucked into a shadowy world of assassins and bloodthirsty sociopaths after his wife is brutally killed by a sinister organisation called Fraulein.

The head of Fraulein is corporate bigwig Terahara. Like a Yakuza clan chief, he sends hired thugs to do his dirty work, his targets ranging from...