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Crossfire is a supernatural mystery novel by prolific author Miyabe Miyuki (1960). The complex story is seen through the eyes of two women. One is Aoki Junko, a “human flame thrower” – she can start fires through willpower, and she uses her “pyrokinetic powers” to avenge unsolved rape cases – a comic book premise if ever there was one, and one for which the author offers no explanation (perhaps wisely so). The other is Sgt. Ishizu Chikako of the Tokyo police department’s arson squad, who with her partner pragmatically tries to make sense of the inexplicable incinerations. At the same time, as a woman, she is largely marginalized within the police system. The picture Miyabe gives of Japanese society and family life is a very bleak one.

The beginning of the novel, with only Aoki Junko, is great, especially when the pyrotechnics explode. It is the artistry of Miyabe which makes us accept the powers of this troubled young girl as real; Miyabe even describes her internal struggles with them in a convincing, psychological way. Hunting after a vicious youth gang, who throw kidnapped girls out of cars and then run them over, Aoki Junko leaves a trail of toasted criminals. But she also starts questioning her acts as she sees that innocent people die in the “crossfire” – by the way, a theme that is not worked out very well, all the more since this became the title of the novel.

Later on the story gets a bit bogged down in police procedural when the focus shifts to Ishizu Chikako. It is also not very interesting to follow the police, as we already know the solution… Of course, Miyabe still has a few tricks up her sleeve, such as the introduction of a second, younger girl with the same powers and, above all, a sinister underground citizen’s organization of justice seekers outside the law, the Guardians. This vigilante group tries to recruit Aoki Junko, or at least, so it seems. In the end, Miyabe even manages to top it off with a breathtaking and fiery climax.

After finishing the book, the characters are too thin to be memorable. The premise, of the human flamethrower and her psychological struggle, is interesting and new, but the focus shifts too soon to rather mundane police work. And while as reader I can with some effort stomach one impossible element, adding a second, that of the Guardians, is just too much – it makes the novel unreal. I also wonder what Miyabe wants to say with this book. That justice in Japan is too lenient and that we need self-justice from either human flamethrowers or the Guardians? That would be dangerous. Or does she disprove of this type of judgment outside the law because innocents could be hurt in the crossfire?

That being said, Crossfire still is a good page turner and not one of the worst time wastes you can lay your hands on. Better to wear oven gloves, though.

Have you read any book by Miyabe?