Your Turn, Mr. Moto

An American pilot of dwindling fame slips from grace in Tokyo and lands in the hands of Japan’s most cunning spy…

During World War I, Casey Lee was one of the best pilots around, heralded as a hero. But now the war’s over, the Depression is on, and the time for heroes has passed, leaving Lee washed up and desperate for work. When a tobacco company suggests he fly from Japan to North America, a feat which has never been accomplished, Lee jumps at the opportunity. Unfortunately, the idea is abandoned soon after he arrives in Tokyo, and he receives the news in the midst of one of the daily drinking binges with which he now passes the time.

Stranded in a foreign land with wavering loyalty to his home country, Lee has few friends, but his situation changes suddenly when he meets the intriguing Mr. Moto, a Japanese man who takes a particular interest in the down-and-out pilot. By the time he meets Sonya, Moto’s beautiful Russian colleague, Casey has unknowingly entered into a plot of international espionage at the service of Japan’s imperial interests—but will he realize the severity of his situation before it’s too late?

The first installment in Pulitzer Prize-winner John P. Marquand’s iconic mystery series, Your Turn, Mr. Moto was the novel that introduced Japan’s most skillful spy, famously portrayed by Peter Lorre in a series of films.

John P. Marquand (1893–1960) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, best known for his satirical novels lampooning New England high society. Marquand was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Evening Post, where, in the serialized Your Turn, Mr. Moto (originally titled No Hero) he debuted the wildly successful Moto character. Though the author thought of these popular adventure novels as less serious works than his satirical writing, it was with them that he cemented his position in the history of mystery fiction; to this day they are revered for their portrayal of the political atmosphere between America, Japan, and China in the years before WWII, as well as for their top-notch suspense and intrigue.

Introduction by Lawrence Block. Lawrence Block is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master who has been writing award-winning mystery and suspense fiction for over half a century. In addition to creating several popular and long-running series characters (such as Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, and Keller), Block’s novels include dozens of standalone mysteries, as well as other titles in a range of genres.