Tysi͡acha lit͡s Bėntėn

the long version

Dreaming Pachinko -- the third in the Billy Chaka series -- finds reporter Billy Chaka in Tokyo to write a feature on washed-up talk-show host Gohan Takeshita. While interviewing Takeshita in a noisy pachinko arcade, Chaka witnesses a young woman having a seizure. The following day, the woman's influential father, Mr. Nakodo, summons Chaka to his posh mansion to tell him that his daughter Miyuki has disappeared. When the woman is found dead, Chaka becomes embroiled in a mystery involving a scandalized history professor, a brash 19-year-old girl, a shadowy entity known only as "Mr. Bojangles, " and four silent figures who have a penchant for showing up unannounced in Chaka's room at the bizarre Hotel Cerulean. As the bodies pile up and the mystery deepens, Chaka untangles the lies and obsessions that link Miyuki Nakodo to a forgotten, bloody incident from the end of World War II.