Cette série retrace la vie de Nicholai Hel, un Occidental élevé au Japon qui devient l'un des assassins les plus accomplis au monde. Génie, mystique et maître des langues et des cultures, la quête de Hel est l'atteinte d'une rare excellence personnelle connue sous le nom de shibumi. Son parcours est semé d'embûches d'espionnage international, de batailles contre de puissantes organisations et de la recherche de la perfection ultime.
A westerner raised in Japan, he survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world's most artful lover and its most accomplished assassin. His greatest desire is to attain a state of effortless perfection . . . shibumi. But he is about to face his most sinister and corrupt enemy -- a supermonolith of espionage and monopoly bent on destroying him. . . . From the Paperback edition.
A gripping thriller that follows assassin Nicholai Hel across Asia as he fights to regain his freedom. Sugamo Prison, Japan, October 1951. Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement for the murder of his mentor. A formidable assassin as well as a master of hoda korosu or 'naked kill', he has developed a supreme awareness of the presence of danger. Suddenly offered the chance of freedom, he feels it now as never before... Overseen by Haverford, his American spymaster he must go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. In a landscape primed for war this is a suicide mission he has no choice but to accept. Can Hel succeed in winning his freedom and if so, at what cost? And can he ever achieve his ultimate goal of satori - the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world?