After a LONG DELAY, I finished up Kinki Lullaby during an overnight shift.

It is book 4 of the Billy Chaka series and the most surreal of the group. It does not have the intense action of Tokyo Suckerpunch or the over the top-ness of Hokkaido Popsicle. This book is more in line with Dreaming Pachinko, but I would say darker.

We have a lot of the same themes with the off the wall characters, but this time there is a theme to the characters. They seem to all tie into the Wizard of Oz. Interesting. Here is the clip from a forum discussion where Isaac discribes the use of the Wizard of Oz references.

Without getting too specific or including too many spoilers, the whole Wizard of Oz thing basically just started out with the gangster in the silver suit, who I decided Chaka would refer to him as the Tin Man. But the Wizard of Oz turned out to be a good reference point/mirror narrative for Kinki Lullaby, because of the movie’s (never read the book) exploration of how reality is rendered into fantasy, and the idea of illusion and power (the man behind the curtain, etc.) Plus, the plot of Kinki Lullaby is heavily dependent on various characters’ dreams, and Wizard of Oz is perhaps the best known ‘dream story’ ever made.

(My favorite dumb little Oz reference is one most readers won’t catch — the yakuza gang in the book is called the Komoriuta-kai, which basically translates to the ‘Lullaby League.’)
- Isaac Adamson Forum

This is the first of the Billy Chaka books that had a sorta drawn out ending. The jury is still out on this.

Overall, it fits nicely in the series but it feels like a “middle book” in a series. Hopefully more will be coming down the line from Isaac Adamson.