Burns is back - but things haven't changed a bit. Private eye by accident, he still keeps running into his two favorite pastimes - gorgeous girls and deadly killers.
The girls were all Bannion dreamed they would be, but the killers were bloodier than Bannion could have imagined. So he had to use an equally bloody weapon against them:
The ancient and terrible defensive art of the Japanese - in which the human hand can be as deadly as the sharpest axe.
Set in early 60's Japan, ex-pat karate student and part-time gumshoe Burns Bannion investigates a Japanese model's brother who is mixed up with a criminal gang. Great research, good story, non-PC, of course. Picked up a handful of these novels in 1968 on a stopover at Yokusuka on my way to Korea. Enjoyed the Japanese twist on the hardboiled dick plot. Very readable.