NIGHT BUTTERFLY

N.Y.: St. Martins, 1992. 1st ed.with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in dust jacket with protective mylar cover. Author's 1st book. Set in Japan. "Danger dogs every step of an ingenuous, uncommonly fortunate American student and her streetwise Japanese soon-to-be lover in McFall's promising mystery debut. Nora James, a tall blonde Californian fluent in Japanese, moonlights as a hostess at Tokyo's Club Chocho while preparing her linguistics dissertation. Scheduled to meet corrupt businessman Akira Takasugi at the club one night and certain he will exhibit formal, chauvinistic speech patterns vital to her studies, Nora stashes a voice-activated tape recorder in her purse and goes to work. Unknowingly, she incriminates herself as a foreign spy, and before long Takasugi's goons whisk her to a Kyoto lab where dissidents are subjected to torture and drug experiments. Nora's only hope of salvation is handsome Kyoto resident Kenzaburo Nishi, who befriended her at the club while he was staking out Takasugi. Nishi's expose of Takasugi's yakuza connnections, his alliance with convicted WW II criminals and his cruel treatment of Takasugi Industries' employees is about to go to press. By the time Nora and Nishi get together, they are both targets of a deadly nationwide dragnet and are able to trust no one. International intrigue, near-escapes and an innocent gaijin' s feelings of exclusion amid exotic surroundings characterize this high-energy suspense tale." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Illus. by Scott, Bob. Book.