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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 Praise for Nicolás Obregón

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 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

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

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