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'In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly' A. J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

Sins As Scarlet

'In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly' A. J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window 
_____________ 
 
Former homicide detective Kosuke Iwata is on the run from his past . . . 
 
Five years ago, he lost his family. Now he may have found his redemption. 
 
Living in LA and working as a private detective, he spends his days spying on unfaithful spouses and his nights with an unavailable woman. 
 
Still he cannot forget the family he lost in Tokyo. 
 
But that all changes when a figure from his old life appears at his door demanding his help. 
 
Meredith Nichol, a transgender woman and his wife's sister, has been found strangled on the lonely train tracks behind Skid Row. 
 
Soon he discovers that the devil is at play in the City of Angels and Meredith's death wasn't the hate crime the police believe it to be. Iwata knows that risking his life and future is the only way to silence the demons of his past. 
 
Reluctantly throwing himself back in to the dangerous existence he only just escaped, Iwata discovers a seedy world of corruption, exploitation and murder - and a river of sin flowing through LA's underbelly, Mexico's dusty borderlands and deep within his own past. 
_____________ 
 
 
'A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA' Anthony Horowitz 
 
Lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary . . . I'm awestruck' A. J. Finn, author of international bestseller, The Woman in the Window 
 
'Masterpiece . . . you will love every minute' Jeffery Deaver 
 
'A pacey, page-turning thriller' Financial Times 
 
'Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability' Mail Online

Harrowing and gripping. An astute police procedural . . . Switching between LA, Mexico and Tokyo both Iwata's present and past are cleverly interwoven in a truly heart-rending climax

Fresh and convincing . . . the dialogue is worthy of the great chronicler of LA's dark side, Raymond Chandler. But really, Obregon's writing has a unique flavour all of its own, wherever his books are set

Sins as Scarlet is a searing LA crime story, as poetic as it is brutal, as tender as it is disturbing

Thanks to the excellent Iwata, you get a gripping mystery with a real conscience

In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly, Sins as Scarlet lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary stuff: a diabolically clever police procedural, a wrenching character study, and a merciless chronicle of a city in decay. I'm awestruck.

A. J. Finn, author of international bestseller

A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA

Masterpiece - that's the only way to describe Sins as Scarlet. Obregón's brilliant novel is, at once, a classic noir, a psychological thriller and a riveting examination-sometimes dark, sometime moving to the point of tears--of life in a less-than-angelic Los Angeles

This bleak, richly descriptive and haunting thriller walks of the wild side of Los Angeles

A brace of cutting-edge themes are threaded into the abrasive narrative . . . It is a combustible mix, but as in the earlier Blue Light Yokohama, the author has the full measure of his difficult material. With his vividly evoked Mexican and LA settings [he] delivers a pacey, page-turning thriller, but the underlying seriousness gives real texture. Iwata is a richly drawn, conflicted hero, and this is another savage journey into the dark heart of America

Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability

Praise for Blue Light Yokohama

A twisty, highly entertaining thriller that pulls us into the heart of an unconventional hero as he fights corruption in the gritty, glittering world of Tokyo

Sunday Times bestseller, Black-Eyed Susans

Former homicide detective Kosuke Iwata is on the run from his past . . . 
 
Five years ago, he lost his family. Now he may have found his redemption. 
 
Living in LA and working as a private detective, he spends his days spying on unfaithful spouses and his nights with an unavailable woman. 
 
Still he cannot forget the family he lost in Tokyo. 
 
But that all changes when a figure from his old life appears at his door demanding his help. 
 
Meredith Nichol, a transgender woman and his wife's sister, has been found strangled on the lonely train tracks behind Skid Row. 
 
Soon he discovers that the devil is at play in the City of Angels and Meredith's death wasn't the hate crime the police believe it to be. Iwata knows that risking his life and future is the only way to silence the demons of his past. 
 
Reluctantly throwing himself back in to the dangerous existence he only just escaped, Iwata discovers a seedy world of corruption, exploitation and murder - and a river of sin flowing through LA's underbelly, Mexico's dusty borderlands and deep within his own past.

Blue Light Yokohama

Inspired by a blistering real-life murder, Blue Light Yokohama's INSPECTOR IWATA is perfect for FANS OF JO NESBO'S HARRY HOLE. 
 
THE MURDERER'S IN YOUR HOUSE . . . 
A family of four are found murdered in their own home. A painted black sun is left dripping, as the killer walks away in broad daylight. 
 
THE FIRST DETECTIVE DIED TRYING TO SOLVE IT . . . 
He was said to have committed suicide by throwing himself off Tokyo's famous Rainbow Bridge. 
 
THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING . . . 
Inspector Iwata and his partner must find a murderer who is only just beginning. He knows time is running out and the menacing black sun means one thing, the killer will never stop. 
 
'Outstanding' SUNDAY EXPRESS, THE MOST AWAITED BOOK OF 2017 
 
'Strong . . . promises to be an excellent series' Guardian

'An outstanding debut' The most awaited books of 2017, Sunday Express 
 
Based on a real-life murder Blue Light Yokohama is set among Tokyo's glitteringly busy streets, where a family of four were killed in their own home. The first detective died trying to solve it. Now it is up to Inspector Iwata to unravel the truth . . .

Taut and atmospheric with twists galore

Julia Heaberlin, author of Sunday Times bestseller

Poetic, chilling and mesmerizing storytelling

Ragnar Jónasson, internationally bestselling author of

This beautifully written debut takes readers on a captivating and atmospheric journey around Tokyo with plenty of twists to keep them gripped until the epic conclusion

With its Japanese setting and characters, Blue Light Yokohama offers up a bold and refreshingly different take on the serial killer tale

Obregón is a bright, sophisticated new voice in crime fiction: his writing sings at you, reverberates, makes you consider more than just the urgent clamour of his novel's well-hewn murder plot. In Inspector Iwata, he has created a quiet, troubled hero whom readers will be sure to follow from one disturbing, atmospheric story to the next

Obregon's full-bodied prose is by turns gritty and poetic, and it's consistently energetic. Given the terrific chemistry between the two lead detectives, here's hoping this debut novel kicks off a new series

Obregon balances the key components of modern detective fiction seamlessly... Blue Light Yokohama is nicely done for a first book; it's nicely done, period

With a labyrinthine plot and a likable protagonist, Blue Light Yokohama is a strong beginning to what promises to be an excellent series

Inspector Kosuke Iwata, newly transferred to Tokyo's homicide department, is assigned a new partner and a secondhand case. It's complicated and grisly - a family of four murdered in their own home by a killer who painted a hideous black sun on the ceiling before he left in broad daylight - and Iwata's progress is thwarted in the unlikeliest of places. 
 
 Fearing corruption among his fellow officers, tracking a killer he's sure is only just beginning his career and trying to put his own life back together, Iwata knows time is running out before either he's taken off the case or there are more killings . . .

The Sugar Man

A serial killer in a small religious cult. A detective who has waited decades for justice. The gripping and heart-breaking new mystery from an exciting breakthrough crime talent - available for pre-order now... 
 Dakota Finch never really recovered from the day her best friend was murdered. Dakota and Flora were best friends – and Dakota has never confessed her own dark secret about what she did that day. 
 
 Years later, Dakota has become a detective, hiding her broken heart behind a rock-hard shell. When her latest misdemeanour sees her re-assigned back to her small home town, she can’t help but think it could be her chance to finally catch Flora’s killer – a man who’s only ever be known as “the Sugar Man”. 
 
 When another body is found, stirring up memories of her last summer with Flora, Dakota realises the truth may be hiding in the secretive Amish-like cult based in the nearby woodland. 
 
 But this is a killer who has stayed hidden for decades, and they won’t hesitate to kill again to protect their darkest secret… 
Praise for Nicolás Obregón 
'A masterpiece' Jeffery Deaver 
'I'm awestruck' A. J. Finn 
'A dark, brutal ride' Anthony Horowitz 
'Truly heart-rending' Daily Express

Praise for Nicolás Obregón

Dakota Finch never really recovered from the day her best friend was murdered. But she has also never confessed her own dark secret about what she did that day. 
 
 Years later, Dakota has become a detective, hiding her broken heart behind a rock-hard shell. When her latest misdemeanour sees her re-assigned back to her small home town, Nectar, she can’t help but think it could be her chance to finally catch Flora’s killer – a man who’s only ever been known as “the Sugar Man”. 
 
 When another body is found, stirring up memories of her last summer with Flora, Dakota realises the truth may be hiding in the secretive religious cult based in the nearby woodland. 
 
 But this is a killer who has stayed hidden for decades, and they won’t hesitate to kill again …

Nicolás Obregón grew up between London and Madrid. While in Japan for his job, he learned of the unsolved Miyazawa Family Murders, which informed his first novel, Blue Light Yokohama. It is also the focus of his Universal Audio true crime podcast, FACELESS. His short story, Colibrí, features in the anthology, Both Sides: Stories From the Border, nominated for an Anthony Award, while Blue Light Yokohama was nominated for the T. Jefferson Parker Award.

Dakota’s world broke in two the day her best friend Flora was murdered – and Dakota has never been able to confess her own dark secret about that day. 
 
Years later, and now a detective, Dakota is struggling to hide her trauma. At a crossroads, she is taken aback to be assigned a case back in her home town. A case that has uncanny echoes of Flora – and a connection to the same nearby Amish-like community, whose faithful flock might just be hiding a murderer. 
 
Dakota’s job needs her to unmask a serial killer. But her heart just needs to finally find out what happened to her best friend…

Nicolás Obregón

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this

The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy

Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless efficiency and won't allow the reader a moment's respite. A stunning achievement that should raise the author's profile to crime's Premier league or there is no justice in this world

An outstanding novel from start to finish, possibly the best book I've read this year. An entrancing thriller that lures you into the dark secrets of the neon streets of Tokyo. Riveting

Harrowing and gripping. An astute police procedural . . . Switching between LA, Mexico and Tokyo both Iwata's present and past are cleverly interwoven in a truly heart-rending climax

Sins as Scarlet is a searing LA crime story, as poetic as it is brutal, as tender as it is disturbing

Thanks to the excellent Iwata, you get a gripping mystery with a real conscience

In the heady tradition of Raymond Chandler and Michael Connelly, Sins as Scarlet lays bare the bruised heart and broken soul of Los Angeles. Extraordinary stuff: a diabolically clever police procedural, a wrenching character study, and a merciless chronicle of a city in decay. I'm awestruck.

A dark, brutal ride through the underbelly of LA

Masterpiece - that's the only way to describe Sins as Scarlet. Obregón's brilliant novel is, at once, a classic noir, a psychological thriller and a riveting examination-sometimes dark, sometime moving to the point of tears--of life in a less-than-angelic Los Angeles

Evocative, perceptive writing

This bleak, richly descriptive and haunting thriller walks of the wild side of Los Angeles

Obregón keeps the unpredictable plot of Sins As Scarlet churning with myriad surprises that are grounded in believability

'Doesn’t get any darker or more twisted than this’ Sunday Times Crime Club

With just weeks to go before the Olympics and the world's eyes firmly fixed on Tokyo the body of young British student, Skye Mackintosh, is discovered in a love hotel. 
 
 Tokyo's Homicide Department enlists the help of Kosuke Iwata. But it isn't long before he discovers the darkness in the neon drenched streets as Skye, like so many others, had her own secrets. 
 
 Lies and murder haunt a city where old ghosts and new whisper from its darkest of corners and the truth is always just out of sight. . .

Nicolás Obregón

Praise for Unknown Male

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this

The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy

Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless ef ...

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this

The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy

Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless ef ...

Japan-set noir doesn't get any darker or more twisted than this

The plotting is impressively done. It's a brilliant novel and a fitting end to a brilliant trilogy

Obregón is the most atmospheric of writers and evokes local landscapes and moods with diamond-like as well as dreamy precision and the three simultaneous plots advance with clockwork-like and relentless ef ...

Books by Nicolás Obregón

Series by Nicolás Obregón

Inspector Iwata

Articles featuring Nicolás Obregón

Watch the trailer for Blue Light Yokohama

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