Isaka Kôtarô’s new book, 777is the sequel to his previous work, Bullet Train, in French version translated by Céline Cruickshanks. The work was even the subject of a film of the same name with Brad Pitt. Coccinelle, an assassin with eternal bad luck, returns to duty, this time in a hotel, from which he is unable to escape and which is teeming with killers and people with dark pasts.
From a train to a luxury hotel
“Look, this time everything is going to be okay. The job is so simple. » This is what Maria, the manager, said in a reassuring tone to the hired killer Nanao. Maria still has a smile on her face when she entrusts a new mission to “Ladybug”, Nanao’s code name. Only, unsurprisingly, nothing goes as planned for the latter, who really seems to have bad luck in any situation.
In Maria Beetlepublished in 2010 (translated into French by Céline Cruickshanks under the title Bullet Train), writer Isaka Kôtarô placed the plot in the Shinkansen Tôhoku high-speed train. Ladybug must board the train in Tokyo, collect a suitcase and get off a few minutes later at the Ueno stop. Ladybug, against whom everyone seems decidedly angry, discovers that other killers are also on board. He, who was supposed to make a relaxed journey and get off at a station later, finds himself involved in an affair full of twists and turns, where the adventures follow one another until the terminus, Morioka, in the north-east of the country, almost adding his own corpse to the pile that piles up at the end of the journey.
However this time, in the novel published last year and entitled 777 (to be published in English under the title Hotel Lucky Seven in the summer of 2024, in a translation by Brian Bergstrom), the mission couldn’t seem simpler: find a man staying in a luxury hotel in the capital and give him a birthday present from his daughter. Nothing difficult, right? Ladybug arrives at the room, so far so good… But nothing is going to go as planned since Ladybug finds herself at loggerheads with the man and ends up killing him. But twist of theater! Ladybug got into the wrong room and the man he just killed was another assassin. Ladybug panics but manages to give the gift to its recipient. He takes the elevator to go back down, but it stops well before the ground floor and Ladybug finds herself face to face with another killer who also has a number of grievances against the hero.
For the author, the enclosed space as a place of intrigue is not new; In Bullet Trainthe story already took place inside a train and this time, in 777, it is a luxury hotel from which the main character cannot escape. Isaka Kôtarô succeeds brilliantly in filling this space, dramatic confrontations one after the other, skillfully introducing characters with strong characters and creating scenes rich in tension. The dialogues are full of witticisms and humor; imbued with the author’s touch.
An infallible memory and a hotel infested with killers
Kamino Yuka, an unreliable woman who stays at the hotel, appears as the heroine of the book, alongside Ladybug. She has the particularity of having an instantaneous and infallible visual memory, thanks to which remembering useless information such as the conditions of the hotel stay becomes child’s play for her. With such ability, Kamino was a very good student at school but it is also this memory which is at the origin of his loneliness and his miserable life. She works as an office assistant for Inui, a good man in all respects. Well, at first glance, since it is in fact a broker who is involved in a number of not very clear affairs…
Inui uses Kamino’s talents by having him memorize the smallest details of his work, allowing him to make every physical evidence of his crimes disappear. Inui would particularly enjoy dissecting living human beings under anesthesia. Well, that’s what the rumors say. Kamino, fearing she will be next on the list of people “erased” because of what she knows, enlists the help of Koko, a middle-aged computer hacker, to help her escape and hide her secrets. traces. The two women lock themselves in another room of the hotel.
But now, Inui discovers where Kamino is hiding and sends six assassins after her to kidnap her. He needs a password that only she remembers. And that’s where two other killers enter the picture; Makura and Môfu (literally “pillow” and “blanket”, recalling the wacky duo “Lemon” and “Tangerine” from Bullet Train). In the hotel’s posh French restaurant, a former Diet member, now head of a national intelligence agency, argues with a journalist who is trying to extract information about his past from him. There you go, everything is ready. The stage is set. On to the intrigue….
777jackpot for the author?
777, the title of the book, evokes the jackpot of a slot machine. Kamino, cornered, then turns to Ladybug. “For once in my life, I would like to win the jackpot,” she told him, exhausted. But Coccinelle is not sure he is the man for the job. “I’m more of the type to break the arm of the machine. That’s more the type of guy I am,” he replies.
Like Bullet Train, the second opus in Isaka Kôtarô’s “henchmen” series, the author’s fourth work is structured in such a way that each chapter focuses on the action of a different character. The narration barely leaves the reader time to breathe and, above all, to look up from the book before the last page. The author presents different stories that seem to evolve in parallel with each other. Until, in a twist of events, they end up coming together for the ending climax. Will Kamino be able to escape the six killers who are after her? Coccinelle, who is drawn against his will into a desperate flight, will he be able to get out of the mess he got himself into safe and sound? So many questions to which readers will find answers as they discover who is behind all this joyous chaos.
It is advisable to read Bullet Train, but if it is not essential. The story of 777 can understand herself very well on her own. As Bullet Train, 777 will probably be published and translated into English for an upcoming adaptation on the big screen. Besides, perhaps Isaka Kôtarô had Brad Pitt in mind for the role of Ladybug when he wrote 777 ?
(Title photo courtesy of Kadokawa Editions)
