Collector of Secrets (Max Travers)

American twentysomething Max Travers, an English teacher in Japan with a beautiful girlfriend, wants out. His manipulative boss, Yoko, is trying to swindle the unsuspecting parents of his students and is using his golden-boy American face to do it. Desperate to seize his locked up passport, he sneaks into Yoko's office in the middle of the night only to surprise the Japanese mafia's burglary in progress. Escaping with his life, Max is on the run from tattooed Yakuza, the Japanese police, and a mysterious American named Lloyd Elgin who seems to have ties in high places. All are after the leather book Max grabbed instead of his passport a diary Max himself can't read, a diary that Yoko's father has been safeguarding for more than half a century. With his girlfriend's life at risk, Max must decipher the secrets of the diary and put an end to the chase before his newest, gravest troubles catch up to him and stop his running for good. Collector of Secrets marries the historical intrigue, deep research, and wide commercial appeal of the best of Dan Brown or Michael Gruber to the techno-savvy, judo-kicking, stranger-in-a-strange-land atmosphere of Barry Eisler's internationally bestselling John Rain series.