Margins
Assassins book cover 1
Assassins book cover 2
Assassins book cover 3
Assassins
Series · 4 books · 2004-2023

Books in series

Three Assassins book cover
#1

Three Assassins

2004

By the internationally bestselling author of Bullet Train, the high-octane new thriller, set in Tokyo’s criminal underworld, pits an ordinary man against a group of talented and very unusual assassins. Three Assassins is the high-stakes, high-style, and utterly propulsive follow-up to Kotaro Isaka’s international bestseller, Bullet Train, a Crime Reads "Most Anticipated Book of 2021." Suzuki is an ordinary man until his wife is murdered. To get answers and his revenge, Suzuki abandons his law-abiding lifestyle and takes a low-level job with a front company operated by the crime gang Maiden, who are responsible for his wife’s death. Before long, Suzuki finds himself caught up in a network of quirky and highly effective assassins: The Cicada is a knife expert. The Pusher nudges people into oncoming traffic. The Whale whispers bleak aphorisms to his victims until they take their own lives. Intense and electrifying, Three Assassins delivers a wild ride through the criminal underworld of Tokyo, populated by contract killers who are almost superhumanly good at their jobs.
Bullet Train book cover
#2

Bullet Train

2010

A dark, satirical thriller by the bestselling Japanese author, following the perilous train ride of five highly motivated assassins—soon to be a major film from Sony Nanao, nicknamed Lady Bird—the self-proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world”—boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with one simple task: grab a suitcase and get off at the next stop. Unbeknownst to him, the deadly duo Tangerine and Lemon are also after the very same suitcase—and they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Satoshi, “the Prince,” with the looks of an innocent schoolboy and the mind of a viciously cunning psychopath, is also in the mix and has history with some of the others. Risk fuels him as does a good philosophical debate . . . like, is killing really wrong? Chasing the Prince is another assassin with a score to settle for the time the Prince casually pushed a young boy off of a roof, leaving him comatose. When the five assassins discover they are all on the same train, they realize their missions are not as unrelated as they first appear. A massive bestseller in Japan, Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller that fizzes with an incredible energy and surprising humor as its complex net of double-crosses and twists unwind. Award-winning author Kotaro Isaka takes readers on a tension packed journey as the bullet train hurtles toward its final destination. Who will make it off the train alive—and what awaits them at the last stop?
The Mantis book cover
#3

The Mantis

2017

From the internationally bestselling author of Bullet Train and Three Assassins, a propulsive new thriller set in Tokyo’s criminal underworld about the intrigue and tensions a family man faces as he tries to hide his secret life as a hitman. Kabuto is a highly skilled assassin eager to escape his dangerous profession and the hold his handler, the sinister Doctor, has over him. The Doctor, a real physician who hands over Kabuto’s targets as “prescriptions” in his regular appointments with him, doesn’t want to lose Kabuto as a profitable asset, but he agrees to let him pay his way out of his employment with a few last jobs. Only the most lucrative jobs involve taking out other professional assassins, and Kabuto’s final assignment puts him and his family—who have no idea about his double life—in danger. The third book in a loose trilogy set in Kotaro Isaka’s imagined Tokyo criminal underworld, The Mantis features all the hallmarks of his work that readers have come to crave—assassins with quirky codenames and modi operandi, page-turning action sequences, madcap energy, and razor-sharp humor—making the novel a frenetic, unputdownable read that hurtles readers toward a thrilling climax.
Hotel Lucky Seven book cover
#4

Hotel Lucky Seven

2023

Bullet Train’s hapless underworld operative and his handler are back in this thrilling new novel from internationally bestselling author Kotaro Isaka. In Bullet Train, underworld operative Ladybird was tasked by his handler Maria Beetle with retrieving a suitcase from a high-speed train in Japan. The job did not go according to plan, to the delight of millions of readers and movie fans around the world. Will the unluckiest assassin in the world will find things easier this time around? All he has to do is deliver a painting to a hotel guest, a portrait made by his daughter. Easy enough, except when Ladybird makes the delivery, he realizes that the guest is clearly not the guy in the painting. Then he attacks Ladybird, they fight, and the guest ends up dead. How can such simple jobs always go wrong? Internationally acclaimed author Kotaro Isaka spins another outrageously entertaining thriller in Hotel Lucky Seven. This is a stylish, masterful book, again featuring outsized characters, gripping action, plot twists, and surprise identities.

Author

Kotaro Isaka
Kotaro Isaka
Author · 40 books

Kōtarō Isaka (伊坂幸太郎, Isaka Koutarou) is a Japanese author of mystery fiction. Isaka was born in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from the law faculty of Tohoku University, he worked as a system engineer. Isaka quit his company job and focused on writing after hearing Kazuyoshi Saito's 1997 song "Kōfuku na Chōshoku Taikutsu na Yūshoku", and the two have collaborated several times. In 2000, Isaka won the Shincho Mystery Club Prize for his debut novel Ōdyubon no Inori, after which he became a full-time writer. In 2002, Isaka's novel Lush Life gained much critical acclaim, but it was his Naoki Prize-nominated work Jūryoku Piero (2003) that brought him popular success. His following work Ahiru to Kamo no Koin Rokkā won the 25th Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers. Jūryoku Piero (2003), Children (2004), Grasshopper (2004), Shinigami no Seido (2005) and Sabaku (2006) were all nominated for the Naoki Prize. Isaka was the only author in Japan to be nominated for the Hon'ya Taishō in each of the award's first four years, finally winning in 2008 with Golden Slumber. The same work also won the 21st Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize.

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2026 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved