100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

🎉 Meet Toy Hero - our brand-new toy store, built by the team behind Book Hero

The Mantis

3.86 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 2,491 ratings, 352 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Kabuto leads a double life as a seemingly ordinary family man and a skilled hitman. Struggling to balance his home life with his dangerous profession, he seeks to complete a few final contracts to buy his freedom from his handler, known only as the Doctor. As he takes on increasingly perilous assignments, including eliminating rival assassins, Kabuto's world threatens to unravel, putting both his family and himself in grave danger. The story explores whether a man can truly be both a good father and a deadly assassin.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3800
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for fans of gritty crime thrillers and complex characters facing moral dilemmas. Those who appreciate fast-paced narratives with a mix of family drama and high-stakes action will find this novel compelling.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

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.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA STEEL DAGGER FOR BEST THRILLER

Kabuto is an ordinary guy; stressed with work, hassled by his wife, and disrespected by his son. No wonder he visits his doctor so often. Except 'the Doctor' is actually his handler, and Kabuto is a hired assassin. The 'prescriptions' the Doctor hands over are his unlucky targets. Because although Kabuto may seem like a small man at home, he's really good at killing people.

Kabuto is worn out with the business of murder. He's trying to pay his way out of the Doctor's employment with a few last jobs. But the most lucrative contracts involve taking out other professional assassins, and his final assignment puts both him and his family in danger.

Picture a mantis raising up its blades. It looks fearsome, but it's still just a tiny insect. The mantis actually thinks it can win. Even though it's tiny, it's still ready to fight to the death.

'Unlike anything you're likely to have read before...white-hot with double-crosses' - Financial Times, on Bullet Train

Don't miss the next thrilling Kotaro Isaka book, Hotel Lucky Seven, available to pre-order now.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781787303935

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 09 November 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Harvill Secker

Contributors:

  • Translated by Sam Malissa

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 313g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Kotaro Isaka (Author) 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 fourteen of his books have been adapted for film or TV. He is the author of the international bestseller Bullet Train, which was made into a major film starring Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock. Sam Malissa (Translator) Sam Malissa holds a PhD in Japanese Literature from Yale University. He has translated fiction by Toshiki Okada, Shun Medoruma, and Hideo Furukawa, among others.

Also by Kotaro Isaka

View all
  • Seesaw Monster
    Two inventive tales of espionage in one, from the internationally bestselling author of Japanese fiction sensation Bullet Train. In Japan's recent past, Miyako suspects her mother-in-law is a murderer. She uses her secret skills as an ex-spy to investigate her, while trying to maintain a peaceful home life. And in Japan's not-too-distant future, a courier named Mito finds himself embroiled...
    Paperback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Bullet Train
    Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka presents a gripping tale: Five killers. One train journey. But who will survive? It's the original and propulsive thriller from a massive Japanese bestseller. SHORTLISTED FOR A CWA DAGGER AWARD Satoshi appears to be an innocent schoolboy, yet he is, in fact, a viciously cunning psychopath. Kimura’s young son is in a coma because of...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Three Assassins
    Their mission is murder. His is revenge. A propulsive thriller from the prizewinning author of Bullet Train. Suzuki is just an ordinary maths teacher... until his wife is murdered. Seeking justice, he leaves his old life behind to infiltrate the criminal gang responsible. What he doesn't realise is that he's about to get drawn into a web of the most...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Hotel Lucky Seven
    A luxury hotel full of assassins - what could go wrong? The original, twisty and inventive sequel to the international bestseller Bullet Train. 'Fresh and fun and full-throttle' - A.J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Nanao, "the unluckiest assassin in the world," has been hired to deliver a birthday present to a guest at a luxury...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Mantis
    The Mantis 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. Shortlisted for the CWA Dagger Award for Best Thriller Kabuto is an ordinary guy; stressed with work, hassled by his wife, and disrespected...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Hotel Lucky Seven
    Hotel Lucky Seven is a luxury hotel full of assassins—what could possibly go wrong? This thriller comes from the author of the international bestseller Bullet Train. A luxury hotel full of killers. Find the truth. Check out alive. Nanao, known as 'the unluckiest assassin in the world', has been hired to deliver a birthday present to a luxury Tokyo hotel....
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    Dying Days
    Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Country Road Murders
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Nautilus
    New Release
    Nautilus
    The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cold River
    New Release
    Cold River
    The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    It Could Have Been Her
    PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    26 Beauties
    The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Secrets We Hide
    The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Parkwood Murders
    They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Hope Rises
    'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Slash
    A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A River Red With Blood
    The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.