> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 6 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529920666
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $26.00

The Mantis




Good dad or good assassin? Can he be both?: From the internationally bestselling author of BULLET TRAIN.

Good dad or good assassin? Can he be both?

From the internationally bestselling author of BULLET TRAIN: A seemingly ordinary family man tries to juggle his home life with his job as a hitman.

Kabuto is an ordinary guy; stressed with work, hassled by his wife and disrespected by his teenage son. No wonder he visits his doctor so often. Except the ‘Doctor’ is actually his handler, and Kabuto is a hired assassin. Because although he may seem like a small man at home, Kabuto is really good at killing people.

But Kabuto is worn out with the business of murder. So he’s trying to pay his way out with a few last jobs. But when the final assignment puts his unsuspecting family in danger, Kabuto realises he is going to need every deadly skill he knows to keep them alive.

PRAISE FOR KOTARO ISAKA:

‘Showcases Isaka’s Tarantinoesque blend of offbeat wit and stylised violence’ The Times

‘Unusual and thoroughly enjoyable’ Guardian

  • Published: 6 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529920666
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

Kotaro Isaka

Kotaro Isaka is a bestselling and multi-award-winning writer who is published around the world. He has won the Shincho Mystery Club Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan Booksellers' Award and the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize and twelve of his books have been adapted for film or TV. He is the author of the internationall bestseller Bullet Train.

Also by Kotaro Isaka

See all

Praise for The Mantis

Unlike anything you're likely to have read before...white-hot with double-crosses

Financial Times, on Bullet Train

Entertaining...high-speed...with lots of twists and turns...it has a Tarantino-meets-the-Coen-Brothers feel to it.

The Times, on Bullet Train

Thoroughly enjoyable

Guardian, on Bullet Train

Showcases Kotaro Isaka's Tarantinoesque blend of offbeat wit and stylised violence

The Times, on Three Assassins

Highly entertaining... grips with plenty of twists before delivering a stylish and fitting finale

Sunday Express, on Three Assassins

An offbeat but touching thriller, with a wonderful final twist

Mail on Sunday